fnfalman
Contributor
After some trials and tribulations (Car broke down while on the way to Mr. C last week, and got a massive headache on Saturday 29 OCT/missing out Spectre), I determined to make it to the Peace boat for the Talcott Shoal trip on Sunday - my official back-to-SoCal outing.
The trip out was pretty decent. No chops, no wind but there were some slow, heavy rolls.
The first dive site was at Egg Rock and it was spectacular: viz around 60-ft if not more, no current, no surge, easy diving. Temp at 80-ft was 53-F, I had a half-hood on and I was fine. Gorgeous topography with lots of fat perches running around. Many nudies: noble dorids, white spot dorids, spanish shawls. Some of the noble dorids were like 3" or 4" big. Lots of sunstars too.
Second dive was at Talcott Shoal. Viz was around 15-ft at best, with some minor surges and temp was about 57-F. Nobody even saw a lobster of any size, much less catching anything. I saw more nudies of the same types and also for my first time, saw a Caldina - several Caldinas in fact and one of them was under a ledge and I swear that it was about close to 5" long. I put my fingers next to it for measurement and it was huge. Saw a lingcod that was about 1.5-ft long. Lots of clouds of baby fishies.
Sat out the third dive because of ripping current.
Fourth dive was at Santa Cruz's Del Mar Cave, Viz was quite good there ranging from 20-ft to 40-ft depending on where we were at. Surges were the same, bad at some spots and non-existent at the other spot. We swam into a large cavern and saw a nice 6" crab (don't know what kind) hiding between the rocks, lots of white anemonies and I saw a big lingcod that was probably game size (I shooed it away, the hunters had enough game harvested for the day). Saw a large octopus (head was about 3") in a crevice too. Once again, the sea lemon nudies were everywhere ranging from 1/4" to 3". Spanish shawls were small though, 1/4" to 1/2" at most. Saw an all white nudie that I need to figure out what it is.
The trip out was pretty decent. No chops, no wind but there were some slow, heavy rolls.
The first dive site was at Egg Rock and it was spectacular: viz around 60-ft if not more, no current, no surge, easy diving. Temp at 80-ft was 53-F, I had a half-hood on and I was fine. Gorgeous topography with lots of fat perches running around. Many nudies: noble dorids, white spot dorids, spanish shawls. Some of the noble dorids were like 3" or 4" big. Lots of sunstars too.
Second dive was at Talcott Shoal. Viz was around 15-ft at best, with some minor surges and temp was about 57-F. Nobody even saw a lobster of any size, much less catching anything. I saw more nudies of the same types and also for my first time, saw a Caldina - several Caldinas in fact and one of them was under a ledge and I swear that it was about close to 5" long. I put my fingers next to it for measurement and it was huge. Saw a lingcod that was about 1.5-ft long. Lots of clouds of baby fishies.
Sat out the third dive because of ripping current.
Fourth dive was at Santa Cruz's Del Mar Cave, Viz was quite good there ranging from 20-ft to 40-ft depending on where we were at. Surges were the same, bad at some spots and non-existent at the other spot. We swam into a large cavern and saw a nice 6" crab (don't know what kind) hiding between the rocks, lots of white anemonies and I saw a big lingcod that was probably game size (I shooed it away, the hunters had enough game harvested for the day). Saw a large octopus (head was about 3") in a crevice too. Once again, the sea lemon nudies were everywhere ranging from 1/4" to 3". Spanish shawls were small though, 1/4" to 1/2" at most. Saw an all white nudie that I need to figure out what it is.
