Posted by Chris on October 03, 2001 at 16:44:29:
I just came back yesterday from the opening four day trip on the Great Escape (DiveBoat.com).
On the first day we went to San Nicolas Island.
This is where almost everyone caught bugs; it was the overall most productive spot of the trip.
In one spot the bugs were just hunkered down in a some fat bladed sea grass.
The second day we went to Cortes Bank.
The water here had warmed up quite a bit from when I was there on Labor Day, from 53ºF to 61ºF.
Most of the bugs I found were deeper, 50-90 ft.
I went into the wreck, and the same spot that was packed over Labor Day now only had three shorts.
My personal best day was here at Cortes.
Thirty-three of the bugs we brought up at Cortes were females with eggs, as illustrated in the attached picture.
Everyone who brought up an egg-laden bug voluntarily returned it!
The third day we went to the backside of San Clemente Island.
Here we found many shorts, but plenty of legal bugs as well.
The largest bug of the trip came from Clemente, an 8¼ lb. bull.
On the fourth day we went to the backside of Catalina.
Here you could see many nice bugs, but they were back in the rocks were you could not get at them.
The pictures from the trip are on the link below.