Palos Verdes Spearfishing 6/20/04 - California Fishing

Wahoo! · 06-21-2004, 12:50 PM

Marcus (chuam), Frank (ESC), and I went out spearfishing yesterday. We went down to Malago Cove in Palos Verdes. This was my first time spearfishing and it was a lot of fun. Water was about 68 degrees and visability was around 8ft. The tide was out and that didn't help the visibility at all.

As soon as we got in the water, we started seeing fish. LOTS of leopard sharks. We swam right through a big school of them. Most were shorts, but there were some legals in the mix. I was really surprised how close I could get to them. They didn't seem to be very afraid of us at all. None of us took a shot at the sharks. We were after our main target - Halibut

It only took a few minutes to find the halibut. There were a lot of them shallow in 5 - 10ft of water. Most were shorts though. I don't think I saw a legal all day. Combined, we must have seen 30 halibut or more throughout the 2 dives we did.

I got to see some big garibaldi which were really cool. Those fish didn't move at all when I went up to them. They were cool to look at and I could almost reach out and touch them before they moved slowly away.

The lobsters were on the crawl and they were all over the place. Marcus even saw a 5 pounder! Kinda weird considering they are normally most active at night.

We also saw a bunch of perch. I speared a nice one that went a little less than a pound. We also saw a few corbina. Marcus and Frank both took a shot at them, but missed.

We ended the day with 1 fish (my perch). I had a lot of fun and I'm ready to go again. Hopefully better visability next time. Only problem is this means I need to buy more gear!

DementedFish · 06-21-2004, 12:56 PM

Thats awesome Jon! I've always wanted to try spearfishing.

Sharkbait · 06-21-2004, 01:35 PM

PV is where I do most of my kayak fishing. Did you see all those Calicos with my name on them?

Lots of fish in that area. I'm surprised you didn't do better. Still, I'm sure it was a great experience.
Anthony

Wahoo! · 06-21-2004, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sharkbait

PV is where I do most of my kayak fishing. Did you see all those Calicos with my name on them?

Lots of fish in that area. I'm surprised you didn't do better. Still, I'm sure it was a great experience.
Anthony

We saw a lot of fish, but the visibility made it difficult. I did see some calicos, but I don't think I saw any legals. It was a great time. I'm ready to do it again. I'm shopping for a spear gun on ebay right now!

Sharkbait · 06-21-2004, 03:26 PM

I was very close to buying some spearfishing gear about a year ago. Then i thought that i would feel a little guilty because I talk to some people who said that you can swim right up to the fish and shoot them. If I was hungery I would do it, but it's not to sporty. So I changed my mind and stuck with hook and line. Really all you need is a wet suit, snorkel,fins,speargun, and a weight belt. I already have a wetsuit and fins so the rest would cost about 250 dollars, more or less, but that's not too bad. Plus I also bought my kayak, paddle, and seat for about 180 and do pretty good out there anyways.
When I fish PV and the water is clear fishing is usually slow and fishing with swimbaits sucks. But when it's a little murky it can be pretty good fishing. Let me know what you see out there if you go again.

Anthony

fishinkid · 06-22-2004, 10:09 PM

my moms cousion gave me his old spear gun its a three band he used for long halibut shots and biger fish so i have never used it but i want to get a pole spear for calicos and others like that and use it on my dads boat down by the kelp off of deep hole and the kelp off of the channel islands