This morning was the exception. I got to Redondo at around 6 AM, parking over in front of the beach just north of Salty's. My destination was the eelgrass beds north of the beach ... in search of lumpsuckers.
It was a perfect morning. The tide was high, and there wasn't a breath of wind or surf. A soft moonlight reflection provided just enough light to make out the shapes of deadheads lying between me and my goal as I suited up and headed down to the water. There was nobody in sight as I put my fins on and slipped below the surface.
Almost immediately I was rewarded for my efforts, as I found a bay pipefish laying in some sea lettuce in less than 10 feet of water ...
Visibility wasn't as good as we've been experiencing lately ... perhaps 25-30 feet ... which is still excellent for lumpie hunting. I hit the eelgrass beds, made my way to the downslope edge, and slowly started kicking into a very mild current. About 5 minutes into the dive I was rewarded with my first sighting ... a fairly good size lumpie (maybe an inch long) sitting on a piece of eelgrass ... just waiting to have his picture taken.
Over the course of the dive I found maybe a dozen or so ... many full-grown and some that were downright tiny. For some reason I was having difficulties with the focus on my camera when attempting to use the macro lens ... but here's a sampling of the best of the many shots I took during the course of a 65-minute dive.
As dawn took over and ambient light got to the point where I could see without use of my light, the sightings decreased dramatically. However, massive schools of shiner perch literally filled the water above me. I ended my dive around 7:45 ... as the classes started gearing up for what promises to be a gorgeous day to be out diving.
It was so nice, I think I'll go back tomorrow morning and do it again ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
