REDONDO, 11-03

[Tom Nic]

Viz is GREAT right now at Redono! Bnboly and I did two 70 minute dives there yesterday at a pretty high tide. Even with water runoff pouring from the pipe causing the typical halo cline conditions were still pretty good. You could see the bottom as you floated at the end of the pier before dropping, and viz was at least 20', sometimes 25 or more. Looks like our Winter viz may be starting to show up.

Some pics from the dive are here .

As we descended down the rope to the deep Carousel Boat we ran into schools of Shiner Perch - hundreds would not be accurate, I'd say there were thousands - I've never seen that many. I wish I had a strobe, it would have made for some great photo opps. They "followed" us or we "pushed" them up and they were just surrounding the pipe in clouds. It was like diving in the tropics as far as fish goes! I saw several aggregations of Pile Perch, and more Striped Perch than I usually see here. Occasionally something would catch my eye and as I'd look I'd see a good sized Striped Perch on it's side doing a kind of "shimmy" that sure looked fishy sexy to me! As I looked closer, sure enough, there would be another Striped Perch with it. Love must be in the air!





The "Rabbit" (at least that's what I think it is) down deep has some new resident Gunnels in an, "ahem", sensitive portion of it's anatomy.



The Gunnels are definitely starting to congregate, and fish life seems to be pretty steady. Not many nudi's, however - just a couple of small Alabasters. We found the GPO's quite happy in their dens, and a Red Octopus out and about. Grunt Sculpin were here and there, of all sizes, including a good sized mature one in a bottle. Poachers, Slender Cockscomb, and of course the usual Rockfish rounded out the dive. Great dives, Great company, lots of life, although if our dives start getting much longer some plumbing is going to have to be installed!

Get out there and dive people! ...and be safe. Here's a few pics for the road...

[bnboly]

Here's a few more pics from the dive.....

[Tom Nic]

Nice shots Bill! I missed the Sailfin! Good find.

[Sounder]

There is something else in the sailfin picture, down and to the left. It appears to be either a founder or octopus... just the eyes are showing, though there is a fin in front of it.

[Tom Nic]

There is something else in the sailfin picture, down and to the left. It appears to be either a founder or octopus... just the eyes are showing, though there is a fin in front of it.

Very Cool! It is actually a sculpin. And if you look in front of those eyes there is another sculpin that you can see from the side view, with the head cut off by the pic.

I tell you, there is more life under the pipe and in various other crevices at Redondo than you can shake a stick at! (As my Daddy used to say...)

[Kalatin]

Redondo on Sunday night was ridiculously good. Casey and I did two dives. The first dive was good, the second was amazing. It was the first dive I really wanted a camera. By the time we hit the 60 minute mark, Sailfins, Red Irish Lords, and BIG grunt sculpins were becoming commonplace ("hmmm, another big sailfin. Yawn. Wonder what else is around here... Oh look, another Red Irish Lord" Gunnels were tucked in every nook and cranny. Octos large and small were out and about. Warbonnets were abundant. Seals came out to play with us as we lit up dinner for him. Great vis and abundant life. As Casey said when we surfaced, this is what recreational diving is all about. What a wonderful world we get to visit!

[Diver_C]

Love the pics gentlemen!

[MrsDiverBob]

We also dove Redondo on Sunday- great dive and awesome visibility!!! We arrived just as it started to pour down rain (which is what I figured would happen) so we waited in the car for about 45 minutes until the rain passed. Boy am I glad we waited it out!! We were working on a few skills (buoyancy!) but we made it to the boat and saw the huge GPO hiding under it! Some day we'll get to actually see one out and about. I was amazed at how many different types of fish we saw. There was a bit of a current for us, but once we dropped, we didn't really notice it much. Redondo is one of my favorite dive sites and DiverBob is my favorite dive buddy!

[Tom Nic]

Love the pics gentlemen!

Thanks Rich!

It was the first dive I really wanted a camera.

Resistance is futile. You too will be assimilated. It's only a matter of time... :rr:

Redondo is one of my favorite dive sites and DiverBob is my favorite dive buddy!

Now THAT's what I'm talking about right there! You are fortunate that your spousal unit is also your favorite dive buddy!

[billandwende]

Too funny. This is the first post with a bank fish I ve seen. There used to be one at FIWW too but alas hes gone missing. Very nice shots thanks for sharing.

[Tom Nic]

Too funny. This is the first post with a bank fish I ve seen.

Rumor has it that several NWDClubbers are moving their savings to a "more secure" location.

http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6038

Do ya think? .....Nah, ....couldn't be, ....could it? ...maybe I should "check" this "bank fish? ....hmmm?? :rr: