A Night Diver Dream

[Chet]

Last weekend Mother Nature eased up her anger. So I made it down to SoCal for the late-season lobsters.
After work, Rudy and I drove down. We got to launch area midnight.
I saw a few people coming back empty handed. Hmmmm....not looking good.
We launched anyway. Made it closer to dive spot and we could not get pass kelp bed. It was toooooo thick. So we swim kayak in. It took about 1 hour. Now we got in the zone but I was huffing and puffing lack of sleep and tiring from swimming kayak in.
Lobsters were not crawling at all this made it very hard to get them.
After a couple hours I got 5. Looking for #6 #7.
While scanning the bottom I saw something resemble a big halibut, I am no halibut expert but I shot a handful of them, I kinda get a feeling what I thought it was. I dove down just 5ft to get a better look. Damn it! It's a "Rock Halibut".
I hurried to get my speargun, loaded, dove down and shot it in the gill plate. It took off like a rocket. The flopper didn't engage because rock on bottom.
I was pissed and kept looking everywhere for the next 2 hours, Lost not found.

About 30 sec after I shot the halibut and searching for it, a big shark swam from behind and 4ft below me. I was shaking, not lying here. Can you imagine a big shark approaching you in the dark? It turned out a Thresher shark. It kelp circling the area. I think it smells halibut I just shot.
Another cool scene but not scary when I saw about 20-30 California Spiny Dogfish Sharks. The baby is the size of a legal lingcod. I was fortunate enough to see a mother popped out their baby.
A seal later also came joining in find that halibut. It was so much live that night. I won't forget it anytime soon.