lumpie hunt version 01.09.10

[Grateful Diver]

Decided to go for an early morning (6:30 AM) splash to see if lumpies were morning people. And although I found a few, not nearly as many as usual. Some of the ones I've been seeing consistently over the past couple weeks just weren't there. And the ones I did find were, for the most part, unusually skittish. Conditions weren't all that great ... there was a serious halocline making visibility somewhat vertiginous. There was also a considerable current pushing northward, no doubt due to the large overnight exchange. Due to those two conditions, visibility was about as bad as I've seen it over there, making photography more difficult than usual.

It was still a pretty nice dive. I got buzzed by quite a few squid, although none of them stuck around long enough for me to get a picture. And at one point I saw a little puppy fish ... hadn't seen one for a coupla weeks. He was moving around in the eelgrass at a pretty good clip, however, and although I snapped off a few shots, none of them turned out. A couple minutes later I saw him again ... or maybe it wasn't the same one, because a minute or so later I noticed there were two ... no ... three ... all about 8 to 10 inches long. I suddenly got an idea what the lumpies were so skittish about.

Spent the return down below the eelgrass ... looking for snailfish and trying to get out of the halocline. Neither goal was successful. Still a nice 68 minute start to the day.

Coupla lumpie shots I decided were worth keeping ...

This little fellow's showed up on NWDC so much lately we should make him a member. I'm naming him "Rex" ...



I love these little "helicopter" shots ...



This was my 18th dive in the eelgrass since noticing the lumpies over there about a month ago ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Nwbrewer]

Bob, I love that second shot! I need to try and get down there before the eel grass dies.

[dwashbur]

I do wonder where they hide during the day...

[WylerBear]

I do wonder where they hide during the day...

We saw one at about 90' in the bottle field the other day.

[Dusty2]

I nominate Rex for most photographed Lumpie of the year award!

Love the expression on #2. These little guys seem to have a knack for cute facial expressions.

[LCF]

I think it's diagnostic of diving too much when you are on a first-name basis with the fish, Bob.

Love the helicopter shot! Hope these little guys are still around when Kathy's here on Monday -- I wonder what they do when the tide is so low their eelgrass patches are DRY?

[Dusty2]

Don't think I have ever seen them dry but but I have seen them exposed.