fnfalman
Contributor
I thought that it was winter time again for the first half of the day. The sky was overcasted, wind was blowing and it was cold as hell. Water temps were 48-F and 51-F, though visibility was good at around 40-ft horizontal. We dived at a couple of walls where there was an abundance of life. The hunters were gathering up an impressive number of Vermillions. One even scored a 3-ft ling cod.
The third and fourth dives were in the kelps closer to the east end. Temp in the mid-50s and viz was zero to 5-ft. The first 20-ft were covered with tiny jelly fish. Then we dropped down into the particulate filled kelp forests. Saw schools upon schools of baby fish that were so thick that they turned viz to zero. Some Horned Aeolids and fat sea lemons. The fourth dive was the same except that we saw a massive gathering of hooded nudiebranchs. The first time I've ever seen these suckers!!! They were swimming around AND hanging onto giant kelp leaves. Wild.
Then I found a ledge that had tons of crabs on it. Everything from purple rock crabs to large sheep crabs to a couple of small decorator crabs. One of the sheep crabs was pinching a diver''s fin. I had to laugh at that.
On the way back, the sun broke out in full force and it was glorious. I pigged out with Joe's grubs (oh yeah, we were on the Peace boat). Slept, pigged out some more, then slept some more.
Coupled with yesterday's dive at Casino Point, this was an awesome weekend.
The third and fourth dives were in the kelps closer to the east end. Temp in the mid-50s and viz was zero to 5-ft. The first 20-ft were covered with tiny jelly fish. Then we dropped down into the particulate filled kelp forests. Saw schools upon schools of baby fish that were so thick that they turned viz to zero. Some Horned Aeolids and fat sea lemons. The fourth dive was the same except that we saw a massive gathering of hooded nudiebranchs. The first time I've ever seen these suckers!!! They were swimming around AND hanging onto giant kelp leaves. Wild.
Then I found a ledge that had tons of crabs on it. Everything from purple rock crabs to large sheep crabs to a couple of small decorator crabs. One of the sheep crabs was pinching a diver''s fin. I had to laugh at that.
On the way back, the sun broke out in full force and it was glorious. I pigged out with Joe's grubs (oh yeah, we were on the Peace boat). Slept, pigged out some more, then slept some more.
Coupled with yesterday's dive at Casino Point, this was an awesome weekend.
