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Posted by Eagle Eye on 09:02:42 02/09/03
The Commander said I had to be off the water and home by noon, so I launched am 5:45 from the Shores, through absolutely no surf and paddled north over to the Torrey Pines reefs.
In the pre dawn I drifted while casting plastics among the dozen or so lobster trap buoys that mark the spot in 45 feet of water just below the hang glider launch site.
About 8:00 the trapper came to check his cages and I watched as he measured and released six shorts for every legal. He harvested about one lobster per trap. During the season these traps are permanent fixtures here and if today was an average day there sure must be a lot of bugs down there.
A slight breeze picked up and I paddled out into 100’ of water. I needed to start my paddle back at 10:00 and it was now 9:40. I still hadn’t caught a fish and I was trying to think of the last time that I hadn’t caught even one fish when I got a nibble and reeled in a sand dab.
A moment later I heard a splash and saw a whale surface 50 meters in front of me. Having noticed that whales seem to swim in single file. I got my camera out and waited for the next in line to surface and sure enough another whale surfaced in almost the exact same spot as the first. If I had been hunting whales, I would have sprinted over to the spot where I saw the first one surface and then stuck the second one. Sure wish I could have gone out with the Eskimos back in the day when they used to hunt whales as a way of life. I’m afraid that some day (after the whale population have once again grown to a point where the sportsman are allowed to hunt them) we who choose to will have to develop our own hunting techniques from scratch. The one thing that I’m sure of is that it will have to be a team effort.
On the water from 5:45 am to 11:00 am
No clouds or surf
Light breeze
1 Sand Dab
Sighted (2) whales
Saw 12 legal lobsters harvested and 60 shorts measured
John
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