Official Waterman Group A tribe for surfers,divers,kiteboarders,windsurfers,wakeboarders,& watersportsmen

How I became a Waterman

I have to admit that I have done quite a bit of research on the subject of good fishing / lobstering locations and the overwhelming recurring theme is time.  It takes time to find, takes time to learn, and it takes persistence to constantly try new locations to see what you will find.  Not only try new locations, but try the same locations in different conditions to see what may develop.

My buddy Chris and I have been diving fairly regularly together since the dive class we took.  It has been mostly a series of learning dives and getting more comfortable with our equipment. For instance, I bought a new game bag to hold lobster and fish because the old one had a metal handle and clasp and opening/closing the bag was quite a chore.  Additionally, the new bag was mostly nylon with little mesh to get snagged on bottom structure.  The first dive out with the new bag I must not have secured it properly because I noticed it missing after 15 minutes!  It was nowhere to be found and a little frustrating to lose something before you even have a chance to use it.

Using a polespear has been an amazing introduction to spearfishing for me.  I have had to learn what fish are legal and in season, how to spot the specific fish, and how to approach the fish.  I remember the first fish I speared in Del Mar.  I was so happy to get anywhere near something larger than bait fish and I shot at some perch.  It wasn’t easy but after about 5 misses, I finally nailed it.  I remember not being exactly sure what it was at the time or how it would taste.  I learned pretty quickly that perch are not the best eating fish out there.  In fact, the only way that they seem to be edible is deep fried!

I continued on like that for about a month before I was able to spear anything of any consequence.  In fact once lobster season started I found myself always leaning on lobster fishing.  It is very tough to drop your spear and lobster search and that is partially why I researched a dive float.  The dive float serves a few purposes:
1. A marker so your dive buddy knows exactly where you are at all times.
2. A marker so that boats can see you in the area.
3. A float to attach a game bag on and a spear to when not in use.
I have about 30 feet of nylon line attached to my weight belt.  At the end of this line are 2 lobster floats attached together.  Attached to the float is a clip that holds both the game bag and spear.  The float is always buoyant enough and follows me around as I swim.

This lobster season has been decent so far.  It is more difficult than last season to find keepers which makes everyone you do find that much more rewarding.  Right now, it is December 9th and I have caught about 10 thus far.  My best was just last week when I found the following lobster poking out of a hole in about 20 feet of water.  He was trying to intimidate a girabaldi that was swimming outside his little cave. ’something I have noticed about lobster behavior: the bigger lobsters don’t like to share holes with anything including other lobsters AND the bigger ones try to intimidate anything that comes near their hole.

I have progressed with the polespear.  In fact, it feels like the only sporting thing to use to fish reef fish.  Using a speargun just seems like it would be far to easy because of the range (15′ or more).  With a polespear one needs to get within 5′ of a fish in order to spear it.  Very difficult!

On a nice day in Cardiff with my buddy Chas, we were surprised with some great visibility… probably 30 feet or so.  This was great because we noticed some great structure that we would otherwise swim right over.  In between 10 and 25 feet of water, we came across a wide variety of fish.  A group of sheephead in particular caught my attention.  I noticed 2 or 3 big sheephead swimming around a rock out crop no more than 10′ in diameter in about 25′ of water.  These fish would not let me within 10′ of them, just far enough so my polespear couldn’t reach them.  I spent about 20 minutes breathing at the surface and diving down trying to get close enough for a shot.  Finally, I figured out the swimming patterns just enough and I hid around the corner of the rock outcropping.  Finally, as one of the fish came around the corner- just before he saw me- I let the spear go and landed a perfect shot.  The spear penetrated the fish and I quickly secured him and took him to the surface.  It turned out to be about an 8 lb fish.

Now that winter is here with the colder weather, I need to consider a new wetsuit.  The best one I have for diving now is a 4/3 surfing suit and it just doesn’t cut it for water below the low 60′s.  I am dying to try out the Matuse 4/5/3 or the Patagonia wool lined. Both are environmentally “friendlier”, But which is the better performance suit?