The 2010 hunt

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From: LABUGMAN@aol.com
Subj: 64 lb White Seabass

As you know, I landed a new personal best white seabass, 64 lbs. Here is a description I sent to a friend who does not freedive. "after a couple of hours in the water without seeing a fish I was cruising slowly at 20 feet through the kelp bed. As I approached a kelp room a long stationary shape materialized out of the green haze...it became a large seabass sitting broadside to me. My gun was already in front of me so in a trance I unconsciously raised it into place pointed it dead center mass and pulled the trigger. The gun seemingly exploded. I knew I had a good shot. There was a few seconds where nothing happened and I thought I might have stoned him...then the shooting line started zipping away. The line was at the end quickly and I had to hold the end as it pulled me under. I had surfaced into a huge kelp stalk and I was all tangled in it. I struggled to get my float with one hand while I held onto the pulling line in the other. I was eventually able to inflate my float and clip it to the float line. When it stopped pulling I made my way to the fish. It had run high in the kelp and then dropped down on the outside of the kelp at 65 ft deep. I pulled on the line but could not get the fish to come up so I clipped the float on to the line with the intent on diving down to see what was going to be required. I decided to put the float under my chest try to pull the fish up.....after a few pulls it released from the bottom and came up. First I saw the silver flashes, then the fish appeared ....and it got bigger and bigger. It's only my second fish this year and it's already been a great season. Here are some pictures... Take care.....Mel "

Letters from the sea...

October 07, 2010

Mikey....I had an unusual dive Friday. Tom and I went out for some lobster diving. The plan was to go for some freediving on Saturday so I brought gear for both. Because it wouldn't all fit in my bag I kept my wetsuit separate and put it on the back seat of my car. When we got to the dive site and I started to suit up I realized that I had left it in the car. For a second I thought my dive trip was over but then my addiction kicked in and I figured I could tough it out without a wetsuit for at least one dive if I had to.Tom had no spare wetsuit but he did have a small vest and a neoprene swimming cap. Neither really fit me well but they did stretch on. I had my own booties and gloves so into the water I went looking like a tropical diver.

When I first hit the water I completely lost my breath for a couple of minutes but then I settled down and off to bug diving I went. Soon I grabbed a nice one and missed several others. I felt fine and began to wonder why we go through all the trouble to dawn the cumbersome wetsuits anyway. I was thinking of doing at least a couple of dives. I grabbed a nice bug and chased a few more that got away. On one rock I tried to reach a bug from both sides of a crack and each time felt a stinging on my arm like fire coral in the tropics. Apparently we have something like fire coral here too but we never notice in our wetsuits. Check out the end results on my arms. My arms are still itching.

The water temperature on the surface was about 65 but on the bottom it was more like 60. After about 25 minutes underwater I started to realize why we bother with those pesky wetsuits....I was freezing. I knew I was done for the day. I headed to the surface with my one bug and quickly took a hot shower and got dressed. But even after that I could not get warm....My body began to shiver. It took awhile before it stopped. Tom went on to do a night dive. We spent the night on the boat and went back home the next day. I felt bad about putting a damper on Tom's dive trip. You can bet I'll make sure I don't forget my wetsuit again. Mel

Mikey....The day after Thanksgiving Tom and I went out to further explore our secret map but first I went to visit "twin 10" rock to see who was home. This is a spot where I've caught and released many bugs over 10 lbs in the last 3 years and on one occasion 2 on the same dive. It seems that the biggest bugs take over this lair and rule over the area from it. At first it seemed empty but I stuck my head deep inside and saw a big one tucked way back in the corner. I had to excavate many rocks to get at him but eventually I was able to take my tank off and reach him. He locked in pretty good so after shaking him for awhile I rested and waited about one full minute...the a sudden "push & pull" and his lock was dislodged. After he was bagged I spent some time putting the excavated rocks back so that the lair remained inviting to Big Bugs. I thought he was at least 10 lbs but he ended up bigger..... a tie for my personal best at 12.5 lbs. I then marked him with an "M" and let him go back to the lair. Then Tom and I went to a new spot from our map ...a cool wreck. Lots of nook and crannies. There we both got 8 lb bugs! Needless to say, we'll be back....Maybe you can join us !!! Take care....Mel

Here are the Bugs Tom and I got on the cool wreck.........