Spring of 2019 I had a buddy come visit from Illinois who has been trying to get into freediving and wanted to see the California kelp forests. We took a weekend charter out on the Spectre dive boat. It was my first time on the Spectre, which is mainly a scuba boat but has some spaces for freedivers as well, and it was a pretty fun time. I think the Peace caters better to spearfisherman and has more fish expertise, but the Spectre was a good and cheap option to get out to the islands and they made sure we were at least in spots that had some hunting grounds. It was too early in the year for prime fishing, but I did get my first ocean whitefish.

My first and only verm of the year (I think) from a dive a couple months ago. We got a late start this day waiting on a buddy, paddled a couple miles into a stiff headwind, dove a fairly deep spot, and didn't see many fish. At least I got a red.

Entering some fish from Baja: triggerfish, wahoo, and amberjack (actually almaco jack).

SUBMITTING: Striped Perch, Pile Perch and Opal Eye.

STORY: I have held off and dragged my feet on these last few fish I needed for fishy Triton, just because these 3 fish I don't find particularly tasty and I don't want to kill just to put a number on a spreadsheet. I hadn't gone after them either because I originally wasnt able to make the last meeting of the year in Dec. However, when it got rescheduled, and being able to make it, I got more serious about finding a time to dive. My good buddy Matt Bond had also recently showed me a recipe for perch sashimi that I was interested in trying. I also needed a bigger MFE to jump up a spot in DOTY. With the family travelling to NY then Kona for the holidays starting this coming weekend, and with the ocean much to angry to dive last weekend, I took advantage of the LAST half way decent dive window of my 2019 NorCal dive year. I had 4 fish I was hoping to get, the three listed above, and an MFE. By far the least desirable stringer one could hope to dive for! My dive buddy Huan, who recently won 1st place in the Catch and Cook comp, was requested by his family that he reproduce the winning dish for them so he needed a couple nice RF but was running about an hour behind, so I hopped in and stayed shallow to look for my 4 fish. The water was cold, the wind was up, the long point swell left a great deal of surge in the water, but the vis was a surprisingly pleasant 15'-20' with a lot of particulate from the recent 10'-13' swells that passed through in the preceding days. There is something fun about hunting a specific species and having a decent idea about where to find them, esp MFE. You can almost tell ahead of time which holes/cracks to look in. On my 2nd drop, I saw the striped perch - bam. On my 4th, I saw a big ugly face...MFE. Based on the size of the face, it appeared to be a bigger one (I needed an upgrade on one I got earlier this year) so I pulled the trigger. I ended up getting both perch and my MFE within 20 minutes. So I spent time having fun crawling into caves and looking for scallops and big urchin until Huan got in. When he finally met up with me, we went out to the deeper spot that is almost always fishy over the pinnacles, and man... was it ever fishy. Like... better quality fish that I've ever seen there and in troves. To make sure he got his fish, I shot 2 tanker blues for him but opted to keep only what I needed and would use before travelling. I should have waited to get my perch because I saw some baby boogie board sized perch out there. It was neat to just watch them - besides, smaller fish are usually less at risk for parasites.

On my way back in, I was surprized not to have seen a single opal eye. They are really easy to spot with their 2 dots on the back and usually swimming in a shallow school. While I was searching, I saw a really neat looking cave that was almost U shaped. I was curious so I shined my light in and to the right as far as it could go and just barely visible were a pair of really big grassy lips. Excitement got the best of me and I awkwardly wedged my gun in and took the shot. I love finding big grassys, they are sometimes really good at hiding! Another weird thing on this dive was the 4 dead molas all in a little circle that had hundreds of those hermit looking crabs starting to feast on them. Sealions must have gotten to them as there were no fins. Never seen that before in this area.

This will be my last submission for Fishy Triton and my first year participating. Thank you guys for putting this on and I'm stoked to see you all in the new year.

6 Species. Lingcod, Blue Rockfish. Black and Yellow Rockfish, Greenling. Striped Perch, Pile Perch.

2 dives in monterey scouting new areas. Came up short on fish but conditions were great both dives. Took a trip back up to Fort Ross for the Ling and the Blue. The water was great for up north 15'-20' visibility.

Submitting: Striped Perch & MonkeyFace

Story: Nothing too special as far as a story goes except that Friday night, I saw a Uhaul drive in around 7:30p and out came a dad and 11yo daughter. I have no idea what he was thinking because he needed someone to help carry the heavy stuff so I offered to give him a hand with furniture. 2 hours later, we were unloaded. Fast forward to Saturday early morning... I was sore for diving. haha! It's super fun to know exactly which fish you're targeting and just go after those. I needed a MFE for Diver of the Year (I had hoped it was bigger but it's hard to tell size when all you can see is the head), I needed a perch for Fishy Triton and my new downstairs neighbors said they love fish, so I got them a couple blues for dinner. Vis was garbage and I've never seen the forecast be so inaccurate. 6-8'@10sec? Yah right. It was glassy out there. Also got some funny looks bringing my riffe 120 out there but needed to practice aim with it for Baja and Hawaii. Look at those shot placements :) I was happy to stone all the fish! Anyhow, any day in the water is a good day. Also, any day you get to eat PigWizard with buddies after diving is a good day. Can you say Pulled Pork Naccherones?