u/Hideshi_Izu

Would you agree? From the few shots I’ve seen, the dozens of posts I’ve watched, and the number of stories I’ve heard it seems like this is the case. Yellowtail are typically on the surface or on the top of the water column, travel in larger schools, and usually provide a side profile shot as they swim up to you to check you out. Even after taking a shot, the school sticks around for a bit and if the shot was successful, they will swarm the shot fish, providing a potential opportunity for a second shot. The only thing is, finding them is so tough. Paddy hopping takes forever and requires luck to be on your side. Good spots with kelp/drop offs and current can sometimes have fish, and other times not. My biggest question is: when you find a spot (like a great looking paddy) that should hold yellowtail, do you hang around a bit, hoping that some pop up? Or pack it up when no one is home and head to the next spot?

Found this awesome shell at Catalina island at around 55ft during my second trip there recently skunking for yellowtail. It looked like it had just recently been eaten. Not a huge shell but it caught my eye from the surface and I loved that it was in great condition and had such a perfect shape. I decided to prep it for my girlfriend. Here’s what I did. If you have any tips for my next one let me know! This was my first time.

First, I scrapped off any barnacles and excess living growth with a butter knife, careful not to put any gashes into the shell itself. I then scrubbed the shell for around 10 minutes with a metal scrub, aiming to remove any of the smaller growths and debris along the lines of the shell. Note, you can easily do all this with a grinder, but the dust created is highly toxic and it is not recommended to do so without proper evacuation. Any calcium carbonate or scleroprotein dust that gets in your lungs will cause permanent lung damage. Hence, why I chose to go the manual way and ensured the shell was wet at all times. Once that was done, I gave the shell a 1 minute bath in muriatic acid (1:4 ratio with water). This is a stronger acid and any reactions create toxic fumes so I used an acid gas/particle respirator, goggles, nitrile gloves, long sleeves, etc. in a well ventilated area. I then used baking soda to neutralize the acid. After that was finished, I sanded the entire shell with rough 320 grit sandpaper and followed that with a medium grit 180 sandpaper. I dried the shell and finished with two coats of Interior Crystal Clear Satin Water Based Polyurethane.

Overall I liked the result! I thought I would get a bit more red in the mix. Has anyone done anything similar and gotten better results?

Currently have 5 wetsuits. A 7mm SpearPro, my custom 7mm PoloSub, a 5mm commercial Wettie, 3mm Yazbeck, and a 3/4 O Neil surf suit... too many wetsuits… but these hangars are great for keeping them organized. Gonna order a few more of these but before I do, anyone else have any cool solutions to try other than just folding them up or laying them around? I prefer not to compress the suits as much as possible.