Intro to Spear-Fishing! (Part #2: Sandy Bottom)
Contact the Guides:
Charlie Toney: ctoney@usc.edu
Elliott Hoppe: elliott.hoppe@scoutfitters.org
Meet: 11:30 am (in front of EVK)
Return: 6:30 pm (to campus)
Activity: Spear-Fishing/Snorkeling/Cooking on the Beach
(For safety reasons, comfort and experience in the ocean are necessary to participate on this trip. Please contact us if you have any questions)
Pre-Trip Meeting: to be determined
Member: $60 Non Member: $75 Participant Driver (1 needed): $53
Considered one of the most sustainable and environmentally friendly methods of catching fish, spear-fishing is a sport where fisherman catch their dinner with a barbed spear while swimming or wading through the water, generally with the help of snorkel (or free-diving) gear. Spear-fishermen often frequent key locations like kelp forests, rocky outcrops, or sandy bottoms, in search of specific target fish species (like kelp bass, halibut, tuna, etc.), which are always identified before being harpooned. There is no pollution, no by-catch, and spear-fishermen always eat (or share) the fish they bring to shore. While spear-fishing, in one form or another, has been performed by humans for millennia, Southern California is actually one of the founding locations of the modern sport, and a fairly large community of underwater hunters has developed here in our bountiful, and incredibly beautiful, local waters.
This trip is going to be a very basic introduction to spear-fishing as an activity. We’ll teach you what fish to go after, how to spear fish legally, where to look, and how to navigate the underwater realm as comfortably as possible, so that you can hopefully end the day with your own freshly caught, local fish.
We’ll meet as a group in front of EVK at 11:30am on Sunday (March 1st.) and then head off to Manhattan Beach (stopping to pick up fishing licenses and wetsuits on the way). We’ll do an on shore lesson, going over how to properly enter and exit the water, how to handle the spear, and how to snorkel and dive efficiently. Then we’ll head into the water in pairs to catch some fish! We’re going to bring plenty of extra ingredients, so hopefully we’ll be able to make an awesome meal of fresh fish for everybody, and eat together triumphantly at the end of the dive. After our meal, we’ll bring you guys back to campus, probably around 6:30pm.
(Trip includes fishing license, mask, snorkel, food, and wetsuit rental)
What to Bring:
Warm Clothes (for after you get out of the water)
Bathing Suit
Beach Towel
Beach Shoes (water shoes optional, but recommended)
Mess Kit (Bowl/Plate, Spoon/Fork)
Legal US Identification (for getting the day fishing license)
Mask and Snorkel (we will provide you with these for free, if you don’t have them)
Wetsuit (we will provide you with one for free, if you don’t have one)
*** reminder that participant drivers will be charge the member price and then reimbursed the difference at the completion of the trip