  HET optical spectroscopy and unfiltered ROTSE-III photometry spanning the
first 11 months since explosion of the Type II-P SN 2006bp are presented. Flux
limits from the days before discovery combined with the initial rapid
brightening suggest the supernova was first detected just hours after shock
breakout. Optical spectra obtained about 2 days after breakout exhibit narrow
emission lines corresponding to HeII 4200, HeII 4686, and CIV 5805 in the rest
frame, and these features persist in a second observation obtained 5 hours
later; however, these emission lines are not detected the following night nor
in subsequent observations. We suggest that these lines emanate from material
close to the explosion site, possibly in the outer layers of the progenitor
that have been ionized by the high energy photons released at shock breakout. A
P-Cygni profile is observed around 4450 A in the +2 and +3 day spectra.
Previous studies have attributed this feature to high velocity H-beta, but we
discuss the possibility that this profile is instead due to HeII 4687. Further
HET observations (14 nights in total) covering the spectral evolution across
the photometric plateau up to 73 days after breakout and during the nebular
phase around day +340 are presented, and expansion velocities are derived for
key features. The measured decay slope for the unfiltered light curve is 0.0073
+/- 0.0004 mag/day between days +121 and +335, which is significantly slower
than the decay of rate 56Co. We combine our HET measurements with published
X-ray, UV, and optical data to obtain a quasi-bolometric light curve through
day +60. We see a slow cooling over the first 25 days, but no sign of an early
sharp peak; any such feature from the shock breakout must have lasted less than
~1 day.[ABRIDGED]
