Desperate, are we?
Man, there are fish all over the place. Jump in where you feel comfortable. My recommendations: get in the water. learn the regulations and fish identifications. then, in about a month or so, think about spearing something. Ok, places... anywhere from Crystal Cove to main beach laguna is a great place to start looking. You may want to check the swell conditions before you go, as shore diving can get dangerous in big swell. Check here:
http://cdip.ucsd.edu/?nav=recent&sub...item=socal_now Anything over 3 feet makes me pause.
Dont shoot this (it's a Garabaldi, or the california state marine fish:
Do shoot this (they are Opaleye, aka emerald snapper):
This is a sheepshead
But in california we have SHEEPHEAD, and they look like this(size limit 12"):
You can shoot these too, Calico and Sand Bass(MUST be 12" when you measure it out of the water, which means underwater that thing should look 15" easy:
Give these a try too, they are called Sargo, no size limit.
And here are some zebra perch you will likely see:
zebra perch.MP4 - YouTube
Corbina are another fun species, don't look deeper than 10 feet, best place to find them is 6 feet or less of water at any sandy laguna beach.
north laguna 8/10 - YouTube No size limit on either of these species.
Keep reading reports on spearboard and you may get the hang of it. Most any question that you can think to ask has been asked before, and that is what the search is for!