Brian Ishida and I were out for a dive on the Sonoma coast this past weekend.
We almost
bailed, having heard of high winds Friday afternoon, but then decided
to go anyway. Turned
out to be a good call.
As we were heading out, another diver coming in with his abs commented
on my minimalist
spearing rig, and we struck up a conversation. I mentioned I
was looking for cabezon(most
everything else being out of season), and he allowed as how he had
seen one skulking around a
certain pinnacle in the vicinity of an overturned ab. Well that
was all I needed to hear.
We anchored our floats and commenced diving. Within a few dives
I was feeling warmed up and
saw a decent cabezon swimming through a largish (4'wide), kelp stranded
crack, perhaps 25'
down. I dropped into the crack near him and began to approach.
I got almost to within
range, but then hesitated a moment (this is a little embarrassing)
because I suddenly had
this thought that maybe it was an undersized and out of season lingcod.
(I basically know the
difference but am not always confident about it.) Well that was all
the chance Mr. Cabezon
needed-he turned around and swam down and away, while I headed up to
think and get some air.
I ran into Brian and quizzed him about comparative fish anatomy.
I ended up deciding that if
I saw anything with bushy eyebrows it was dinner.
I made some more dives in the same area, enjoying the visibility (up
to 15'), and dodging the
numerous local scuba?! divers. Before too long I spotted the
cabezon again( I think it was
the same one). Well, he must have identified me as clueless,
inept, and generally inert
based on the last encounter (or maybe it was the abalone chum stuffed
into my wetsuit?),
because this time he basically swam right up to me. (Fatal error, fish-brain).
I had the
loop of the sling already nocked into the end of the shaft, so all
I had to do was draw back,
pause for a moment to line up, and let my MKCK* model stainless shaft
fly to its destiny (all
of 2 feet away) in the fish's brain. Well, he wasn't feeling
very perky after that, so it
was pretty easy business to retrieve fish and shaft, even without any
kind of trailing line.
Brian and I headed further out to another area where he limited on abalone.
I saw a fair
sized (36"?) ling out swimming around (how could I have ever been confused?),
who clearly
knew it was out of season. Anyway, fun dive. Thanks to
Mario for the shaft, Brian for the
biology lesson, and Mother O for a delicious dinner.
-Joe
*Mario Korf Cab Killer. Mario is the designer, builder, and chief
proponent of these
technologically challenged but highly satisfactory instruments.
Mine is a ¼" stainless
shaft with a single flopper, propelled by a 1' length of 3/8" rubber
with a loop of nylon
line at each end. One loop fits into a notch at the back end
of the shaft (like a bow and
arrow). The other loop goes over your left thumb. To shoot,
you draw back the shaft with
the right hand, stretch out the left arm, guiding the shaft with your
fingers, and let it
fly. Then go catch your fish before he swims away!
Editors note: Joe gave me the idea for this contraption; he gives me too much credit. - Mario