Posted by finfan on January 27, 2002 at 08:48:05:
Decided to stay local since the flat water all week resulted in some great visability. Launched from Dana Point and went around to South Laguna where I know of a few caves up tight. Water was absolutely flat (maybe 1 to 2 foot swell, no wind) and clearer than I've seen in a long time. Got in around 7:00 and only needed a single dive to get my limit of seven bugs.
First cave is a pass through that gets plenty of surge. If was a little worse than I thought it would be, but very manageable. I thinking the surge was probably a little stronger than expected because high tide was still building. I got one off a shelf in the cave, even though it was loaded with shorts. The cave is actually a pass through into a channel that lead to another cave. Down the channel off the passthrough, I got one real nice one, but left quickly since I was really getting moved now with the surge. Going out this first cave along a different channel I found two up real high on the channel wall. These guys where almost out of the water. I wasn't sure they would go, but grabbed them anyone and after grabbing several just short inside the cave, I got two legals in consequtive grabs.
Moving to a second cave just around the corner from the first, I entered to find it almost completely calm and loaded with bugs. I ended up with 3 out of here, but I bet I grabbed close to ten. One small crack about mid cave had two really nice ones. I had to work a little for the fist one, but once I got him the other one walked out right to me. Both were better than 2.5 pounds each. My biggest problem was now I had a nice bug in each hand and no way to hold my light and get my goodie bag off my belt and open. It was quite a struggle but a few hundred pounds of air later and a little fancy positioning, they were both in the bag and on their way to dinner.
When I exited the cave, I saw three free divers working the outside in the shallow reefs, but I don't think they did near as good as what I did. It sure seems like bug season has been much better this year as compared to last. By the end of December I usually figure 2-3 legal bugs per dive is fantastic, yet I'm just about averaging close to 4 per dive and I rarely have gotten 7 on a single dive this late in the season. Hope it continues.
The outer reefs near the caves had better than thirty foot visability. I know that because when I got back to the boat I dropped the goodie bag and had to go to the bottom to recover it. At the bottom looking up, I could clearly make out the Parker name on the side of the boat even in the nighttime. It doesn't get any better than this - let's hope this system coming through doesn't srcrew it up too bad.