The ongoing 'Dond Lumpie and Friends Show ...

[cardiver]

Very nice! That purple one was very tough to get in focus!

[Lonestar]

More from Redondo Saturday afternoon.

[gutholmj]

Ok, one more from today.

[cardiver]

This worked okay.......

[Dusty2]

Hey Brick, That is a silver spotted sculpin. Great find and a damn nice shot too. Really surprised to see one that far south! those wolfie shots are great.

Nice work everyone, If we keep this up people are going to think these little guys are common critters.

[lavachickie]

Any tips on when/where to see these little darlings, if one were to be in the Redondo area late afternoon/early evening on Friday November 11th? I'm going to be at Mike's Beach on the Canal side Saturday and Sunday, but might be able to leave mid day Friday and hit Redondo afternoon/evening. We're coming from Oregon, so what's another 1.5 hours to get from Redondo to the Canal side that night, huh, especially if one can see lumpies!

Please share your lumpy hunter secrets! (Go slow, look carefully, leave no leaf unturned.) What area of the site are you seeing them in?

[WylerBear]

Bric, I didn't see you there yesterday. When were you there? We were there from 9:30am til about 3:30pm. I was tempted to stay and do a lumpie dive but was too cold. That Silver Spotted Sculpin pic is great! Valerie & I saw one there a couple of years ago and I've been looking for another ever since. Where did you see it?

[Dusty2]

Any tips on when/where to see these little darlings, if one were to be in the Redondo area late afternoon/early evening on Friday November 11th? I'm going to be at Mike's Beach on the Canal side Saturday and Sunday, but might be able to leave mid day Friday and hit Redondo afternoon/evening. We're coming from Oregon, so what's another 1.5 hours to get from Redondo to the Canal side that night, huh, especially if one can see lumpies!

Please share your lumpy hunter secrets! (Go slow, look carefully, leave no leaf unturned.) What area of the site are you seeing them in?

First secret is only do night or early morning before the sun comes up. when the sun is up they disappear like little vampires. As far as where... start about 100 feet or so north of Salty's in the eelgrass beds. (shallow) Then just cruse north following the eelgrass. They are usually on the bottom or just a bit up the stalks. You will be going in just after High tide on the outgoing so you should be able to just drift north but you will be against the tide coming back

[Grateful Diver]

Any tips on when/where to see these little darlings, if one were to be in the Redondo area late afternoon/early evening on Friday November 11th? I'm going to be at Mike's Beach on the Canal side Saturday and Sunday, but might be able to leave mid day Friday and hit Redondo afternoon/evening. We're coming from Oregon, so what's another 1.5 hours to get from Redondo to the Canal side that night, huh, especially if one can see lumpies!

Please share your lumpy hunter secrets! (Go slow, look carefully, leave no leaf unturned.) What area of the site are you seeing them in?

Go when it's dark.

Get in on the beach north of Salty's. Swim down to about 10-12 feet and then turn north and follow the contours until you hit the eel grass. Swim slowly, and look into the small patches of eel grass and clumps of kelp laying on the bottom along the way. Once you get to the area of (continuous) eel grass beds, follow north along the downslope edge ... I'm not sure they're any more available along the edge, but it's easier to see them there. Go very slowly and look carefully for tiny (fingernail size) shiny fish. Those will be lumpies.

You won't need to go deeper than about 18-20 feet ... and you'll be on a steep ebb, so pay attention to current as you swim north, because you'll get swept along on the way out and have to kick against it on the way back in.

On the way back, I like to get down just below the eel grass and see who's home in the sand ... there's large quantites of gunnels there right now, and the occasional "treat" ... I've seen snailfish, dogfish, and stubby squid hanging around out in that area.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[LCF]

There is some astonishing photography in this thread! A big "wow" to all of you!

[Scubie Doo]

I agree with Bob, the outside edges are where we found most of ours. You will have to look really close as the first one is always difficult to spot. Once you know what to look for they are a bit easier to find.

[cardiver]

Met up with Mike this morning a for a single dive out to the bottle field. Viz is still holding at a spectacular 40-50'!

[Scubak]

Tim and I went to Redondo tonight for a Lumpie dive!!! Success!!! Plenty of SPL! Cute little buggers. They were larger the farther N. we went.
Hopefully Tim will post his pics here!
Viz was stellar.
K

[Grateful Diver]

Penelope and I decided to try something a little different this evening and hit the south beach ... entering south of the boat ramp and heading down along the beach. Tide was out pretty good, and going out fast, and so we were below the eel grass most of the evening in about 11-12 feet of water. South side has a lot more kelp than the north side, and we found mondo lumpies over there ... as well as a few other interesting critters.

















... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Dusty2]

Wow looks like there might be a whole new side of Redondo that needs exploring! That snailfish is spectacular and so are the Pipefish.

Thanks for finding us a new dive site!

[Penopolypants]

Great photos Bob! Thanks for the dive!

[eliseaboo]

My word...

Redondo on Thursday anyone?

[LCF]

Oh, great find on the snailfish!

The only time I've been down to that south end of Redondo was when Lauri Devore and I got caught in the "Redondo River" and pushed there. It would be better to be there on purpose . . .

[lavachickie]

Thanks for all the tips, and for the amazing shots. Just beautiful. Great job(s)!

[sandman98007]

We followed the grass line last night and came upon no less then 8 lumpies .... my first lumpie hunt ... couldn't get the camera working right, but did come up with a few shots ... but it is amazing how little gas you breath at 20 feet ... and searching for critters ....

[LCF]

Love the second photo -- it looks like Cleopatra's eye makeup!

[ktb]

I do love the lumpies, but don't forget their friends! This guy was out and about this past weekend, which was so fun to see, however . . . I am a little worried that he wasn't as afraid as I think he should be.

[Scubie Doo]

Went out with Penders last night for another PSL search. I wanted to share this photo (not the best) because it shows how little these critters are. My wife sees my macro photos and thinks they are the size of a fist, not so fast :-) I sure wish I didn't get the dungie in the background, this could have turned out nicely. I uploaded a few more to my Smugmug gallery. Take care everyone and safe diving.

http://jessemiller.smugmug.com/Underwat ... 07_N4bJqNW
The first 4 are from last night

http://jessemiller.smugmug.com/Underwat ... 60_8D7QLJk
The first 3 are from last night

http://jessemiller.smugmug.com/Underwat ... 48_WWRLk5H
The first one is from last night. The squids eye was a little out of focus, my focal point was right between its eyes, I loved the pose it was in so I went B&W on this one.

Jesse

[Grateful Diver]

Pretty special day today ... 11-11-11 ... we won't see another one come around for a hundred years, and since none of us will be around to see it ... well ... this is a pretty unique day. Thanks to our veterans I got the day off from work. So I decided to celebrate in my own way, by going diving. Originally, I'd planned to head down to Hood Canal and hit Flagpole ... but looking at the weather forecast I decided to create a Plan B, and stay local. So this morning ... out at 5:15 and in the water by 6 AM. Not surprisingly I had the whole place to myself. Tide was high, surface was glass-flat, and the water was crystal-clear. It just don't get any better.

I put on my fins, dropped down and headed downslope. About 30 seconds later I found my first subject ... Mr. Pipefish ...



The south side seems to attract pipefish more than I've noticed on the north side ... and I quickly found another one ...



The other thing there seems to be a lot of over there are these tiny flabellina nudi's ... mostly in the kelp down below the eelgrass beds ...



... and, of course, the stars of the show ...





... this one's got a dive buddy ...



And I think I got something else figured out this morning. As the daylight arrived, I noticed a lumpie swimming toward a piece of kelp. Upon landing, it wriggled its way underneath the kelp leave. Desiring a picture, I gently turned the kelp leaf over and ... hmmm ... there were two more ... attached and hanging upside down like chubby little aquatic bats. I've long known that lumpies are a lot easier to find when it's dark than when it's daylight ... but I never really knew where they went once the daylight arrived. Now I suspect I do. As it got brighter, I paid attention to the kelp, turning it over from time to time ... and I found perhaps another six lumpies under there. I think that might just be where they sleep.

Couple hours after that dive I met up with Peter Rothschild for a second dive ... this one was going deeper, again entering at the south beach and making our way around the bottle field to the aquarium. It was my hope to see the little wolfie everyone's been taking pictures of. But guess what ... we found another one too. I think the first one we found was the one I took pictures of a couple weeks back ... it's much smaller than the one downslope from the aquarium ... and much more brightly colored. We were making our way across in front of the fishing pier when Peter spotted it's head sticking out from a piece of debris. Lovely little thing, ain't it ...



And ... he had a friend ...



Making our way across and beginning our ascent up the slope, we stopped to say "hi" to my old friend Billy ...



... and no trip report of Redondo would be complete without at least one octo ...



Finally, we reached my original objective for this dive ... the little juvi wolfiie everyone's been telling me about. What a welcoming, friendly little creature ... seems to enjoy the camera ... I took many, and couldn't decide which one I liked best ... so I'll let you decide ...







And finally, checking out the big sewer pipe ... I found another cockerell's dorid. They're so small, and blend in so well ... I really had to look for it.



Anyway ... another incredible day at the 'Dond ... and one helluva Plan B for a once-in-a-lifetime day ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Scubak]

Beautiful...
Next time you wanna do an early morning dive, let me know.
Kirsten