Productive day with Dank and DG

Went for a paddle with Dan K and Duane out of Albion. Vis was an incredible 35' and immediately the fish were out and ready to play. Just about every drop there were 1-4 lings out, although I didn't see any big ones.


We all left the first spot with one ling.

We found a pinnacle out in the middle of the open water with the top at 30' and the bottom at 50-60'. On my way up I checked the side of the rock and saw a big wolf eel staring at me. I did another drop and shot him.


I couldn't get the flopped to deploy because of the rock behind him and he pulled out. After another drop I sunk it into him, but again it pulled out. Disappointed we took off to another spot and Duane said I should come back and try on the way in.

The third spot was incredible. Massive clouds of blues and blacks. Shot a 20ish in black and another ling.



Had this guy pop up in front of me and get the heart pounding.


Duane said he saw a huge ling but couldn't find it again. An hour or so later he manages to find it again. He says its nice but not huge.

Found a nice pocket of scallops. Could have pulled a limit there but I didn't feel like spending much more time there so I pulled the biggest one I saw (8 1/4").






On the way back we paddle towards the random pinnacle. Somehow I look down and recognize the rock I was at from the surface. I hop in and dive right down to the little hole the wolf eel was in and he's still there!! I can't believe we even found the pinnacle again, let alone dropped right down to a soccer ball hole. I shoot him a third time and pull him up glad I didn't kill him for nothing.


Duanes "not huge" ling ended up weighing over 30 pounds! I'm not sure if he ever got a more official weight on it besides the 33+ pounds, but if it was he was less than 4 pounds away from Dan Silveiras record.

We all went home with nice stringers and scallops. Not often does a day seem to have everything go right, but this one did.

It was an awesome day out there.  I was happy with the first ling I shot.  Then I started to see a bunch more.  I saw a 30” ling in a hole and lined up my spear but wasn’t ready to limit out.  I shined my light into another part of the hole and a huge ling blew out past me but I couldn’t get the gun turned around before it was gone. I told Gio it was in the area because based on its size I was sure it was over 40”.  I did spend a lot of time looking for it and ended up finding an 8.5” scallop which is the biggest one I have found in NorCal so I was happy.  I gave up on the ling and went back to the kayak and put my scallops on board. I decided to check some boulders under my kayak and saw some more lings.  Then I looked into a little cave and saw a big lings Head.  I stone shot it between the eyes but expected it to go crazy on me. It was surprisingly stunned and was easy to get back to the kayak.  It may have been the same one from earlier but I really believe there was another beast out there that I just could not find. 

I tried to get a better weight on it but my scale doesn’t have a top clip that I can hang on something so I had to struggle to hold it in one hand and take the picture with my other hand.  It was to heavy to hold straight out.  The scale reading was fluctuating between 31-34 lbs but the only visible scale screen shot was at 33.35 lbs.  Either way it was the fattest ling I have seen even though it wasn’t the longest at 37.75”. 

Dayyyuuummmmm!

What was in that thing's gut?

Dayyyuuummmmm!

What was in that thing's gut?

+2 did it eat a lead ball?

Dayyyuuummmmm!

What was in that thing's gut?

whole abs [emoji23]


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Dayyyuuummmmm!

What was in that thing's gut?

It had about 5lbs of roe, and partially digested octopus, fish and what may have been squid.  There was just strips like they detached  from the squid body.  But its stomach was overflowing and stuff was bubbling out the whole ride back to shore.  One hell of a last meal. 

W.O.W. I don't dive but your pics and stories make me wanna.....   
E~

Looks like a great day out there.  Thanks for the reports and fish porns guys.

Sweet thanks for the report and 35 foot visibility is pretty hard to come by at this time of year

Big but not that big????? WTF?? 
GREAT report fellas!

Big but not that big????? WTF?? 
GREAT report fellas!

Right??? Only a few pounds away from the biggest one taken this century and Duane says “ehh not that big...” 

Right??? Only a few pounds away from the biggest one taken this century and Duane says “ehh not that big...” 

I never said I wasn’t happy with it. I believe I have only seen 2 or 3 bigger while underwater and only one of those I got a shot off.   I just really wanted it to be over 40” as a goal.  For Divers on DOTY it is like 30th on size even though she had an eating disorder and a huge belly.  Adam set the bar to high with his 44.25” Lingcod  and I may have to go to Alaska to get one bigger than that. 

Right??? Only a few pounds away from the biggest one taken this century and Duane says “ehh not that big...” 

I never said I wasn’t happy with it. I believe I have only seen 2 or 3 bigger while underwater and only one of those I got a shot off.   I just really wanted it to be over 40” as a goal.  For Divers on DOTY it is like 30th on size even though she had an eating disorder and a huge belly.  Adam set the bar to high with his 44.25” Lingcod  and I may have to go to Alaska to get one bigger than that.

I know you were happy with it. But the “ehh it’s not that big” cracked me up.

WTG guys! super jealeous....Noah was telling me about this post earlier. The boy's itching to go diving.

WTG guys! super jealeous....Noah was telling me about this post earlier. The boy's itching to go diving.

And you are not itching to go?