Went Ab diving Saturday. Folks on the net had warned of poor visibility but I just felt like diving so ended up back at Fort Ross. I decided to take the steep trail down to the south cove, the one with the rope your use to back down the trail. Got in the water about 9am. Several harbor seals were sunning themselves on the rocks. As suspected the visibility was pretty poor, maybe 3 feet at best. Appeared to be a plankton bloom. My first dive I find a legal abalone upside down in the sand so picked it up, was over 7 inches, dropped it in my bag. Second dive two more abs upside down, both legal, one about 8 inches. Wow can’t believe my good luck, was thinking it would be hard work to find some legal ones at Fort Ross with poor visibility.
With my limit in the bag I decide to look for fish with my pole spear. Literally every rock hole I peer into; abs upside down on their shells! Starting to get a little concerning. I must have seen over 25 in that state. Was thinking maybe they were feeding on the bloom but probably the bloom is killing them. I hope that’s not the case, reports form Timber Cove north of Fort Ross also said many abs were seen upside down there too.
I searched for any sign of fish for an hour finally with one darting out of the hole. I looked up to see a nice blue leaving and just as I took aim he turned away and I just missed him. After that decided to pack it in. Would have loved to have a nice rock fish filet to go with the abs but had to stop at Robert’s on my way home for some Halibut instead.