Trip Report Malibu trip report and fish ID help (I don't blast unfamiliar fish :)

[gettin'wet]

I hit an oldie-but-a-goodie spot in Malibu on Saturday and was rewarded with awesome 20ft vis (), no current, and little surge It was a really nice surprise, considering I was expecting to get crap vis but was just dying to get wet after a few weeks out of the water. Lesson learned again: Just get out and dive as often as you can.

As I swam up to the reef I immediately noticed a ton of life and action all around me. There were about 15 Opaleye just chillin and not even phased by me as I swam through, there were a handful of kelpies that were young and super curious... I swear two of them were following me around and swimming up to my mask. There were a bunch of perch that I don't ever take, but then there were also some rubberlips which I've never taken but understand are pretty good eating. Maybe next time. There were even some daytime bugs peaking out the cracks.

Anyway, I spent a lot of time just freediving the reef and the kelp and I was really enjoying myself since this is the most life I've seen in the past four or five dives. People have said it before, but I'll say it again... you'll see more and be more involved if you just chill out and enjoy the ride instead of trying too hard. BUT THEN the Calico started to show . Now since I lost my gun in the rocks at Pt. Dume a while back, I was only armed with a janky old pole spear so I was mostly practicing my super stealthy stalking techniques (ha) and didn't bother trying to take one, but my boy nabbed a nice 16incher for us to grill up later so we didn't come home empty handed

After he got cold and went in, I stayed out to check out another kelp bed and maybe try to pull a big bug out for us. That's when I started to see these fish which I can only describe as looking like small Amberjacks. There were three or four of them of decent size... I'd say about 18" long and about 8" tall and not very thick, silver/grey in color with the profile of the Atlantic Amberjacks I've seen in photos. Can you guys help me figure out what this fish was? I know it wasn't a perch or any kind of rockfish, and probably not yellowtail. I've never seen WSB in the real world, but I'm fairly certain they weren't WSB from the millions of photos I've looked up and seen on the board during my two and a half years of obsession so far . Sorry I don't have a photo to show you guys. Anybody have an idea?

...just wondering if they might be worth taking next time I'm out