NorCal Kayak Anglers

Dive Zone => Kayak Diving and Spearfishing => Topic started by: dirkbeachman on December 19, 2017, 03:51:54 PM

Title: Super lucky day!
Post by: dirkbeachman on December 19, 2017, 03:51:54 PM
Had one of those great days that leave you feeling fortunate to be alive and grateful everything came together, including dropping swell, calming wind, and t-shirt weather. Started by meeting a good friend, Ross, from San Diego I hadn't seen in three years in Monterey. I was with my daughter, Kelly, up from Santa Barbara, so that alone was great. In the back of my mind, I was holding out hope we might also connect with my friend, T-Slaya (known mtitch on this board) but that seemed unlikely as he had actual work planned up in Palo Alto.

Scouted a couple spots and went for one that seemed to offer the nicer outing for my daughter, even if might be less fishy. Then the first sign that amazing was on schedule, just as we're unloading our gear, T-Slaya shows up; definitely a good omen. He had already been in and was heading up to Bay Area, but just seeing him and having my daughter meed him was great! We were pumped.

As forecast, by the time we leisurely suited up, the wind and swell dropped to like 2.6 ft I think, vis was a reasonable hazy 20. Kelp was pretty thin, must have been ripped up by the recent stretch of big swells.  Found some of the usual suspects, nothing spectacular. Then by good luck, chanced on a decent ling out cruising her territory. Happy to get a stoning head shot, so she was definitely coming home. 

Super afternoon ended even better with beers and food at sunset! Magic! Thankful for everything. Wishing all of you great experiences with your friends and family over the Christmas holidays plus some good safe dives!

Even got some cooking from that inspiration to us all, Big Jim! Stoke-aciousness!!
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: BigJim on December 19, 2017, 03:59:48 PM
Hell yeah dude!!!!!!!!

What an awesome day and a PIG of a Ling!!

 :smt007 :smt007 :smt007 :smt007 :smt007

Congrats, enjoy the meals, and thanks for sharing!!

 :smt006

Sincerely,

Jim
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: Bulldog---Alex on December 19, 2017, 04:11:00 PM
Wow. What an awesome day all around for you all. GEEZ ! What are the stats on that ling ?
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: Hojoman on December 19, 2017, 04:20:40 PM
It must have been a great day, weather-wise, for your daughter to be wearing a swimsuit. Congrats on the ling.  :smt006
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: Weimarian on December 19, 2017, 04:50:45 PM
Amazing ling!!! More amazing is the weather! Only problem your going to have is all the single guys on the site trying to get invited over to your place :smt044 :smt044 :smt044 .... Have a wonderfilled Christmas! :smt006
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: Azkikr on December 19, 2017, 10:53:51 PM
Those r huge! Good job!
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: MooMoo Outdoors on December 19, 2017, 10:59:53 PM
😱👍💪👏
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: & on December 19, 2017, 11:40:52 PM
that ling lok biggg af!  u musta wayed it no??
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: Sailfish on December 20, 2017, 12:36:07 AM
Congrats on the Lingzilla  :smt007  Thanks for the report and pictures Dirk.
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: Snipeworm on December 20, 2017, 02:16:03 PM
Awesome!
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: dirkbeachman on December 20, 2017, 03:24:18 PM
thanks guys, I can honestly say all luck, zero skill.  also it was a decent sized ling but probably looks bigger because I'm on the tall side myself,about 6'5"

I sometimes feel guilty when I shoot a fish with a lot of roe, so borrowing inspiration from Big Jim, I tried ling roe with scrambled eggs. I'll admit I was expecting it to be fishy and thought my pup might get an early treat. But, DAMN! it was good! Not fishy at all, absolutely zero fish taste. Threw in some avo plus pepper jack and chowed down! None left for my hungry pup - but she gets plenty of other treats!
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: BigJim on December 20, 2017, 03:43:12 PM
Scramble looks great dude!!!

 :smt007 :smt007 :smt007

That Ling is a monster man...congrats again!!

 :smt006

Sincerely,

Jim
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: mtitch12 on December 21, 2017, 07:16:33 AM
Awesome ling! Congrats again! :hello2: Glad I got to stop by and say hello before heading back up to the bay  :occasion14: 
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: dirkbeachman on January 08, 2018, 03:52:45 PM
Thanks again guys and also the youtube tutorials on ling jaws. I tried the baking technique. Worked pretty well, but I realized later that in stripping off the excess skin and fat and flesh around jaws (all done under flickering light out in the garage) that I must have lost some of the teeth. All the scraps went to my dog, so that was the end of that. A few other small teeth came out in the bowl of bleach and I hot melt glued them back.

But overall the jaws came out pretty dope; looking at them might make you glad not to be an anchovy!
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: Chadrock on January 08, 2018, 04:27:22 PM
Damn bro, that came out sweet!
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: dirkbeachman on January 10, 2018, 07:17:02 PM
Thanks Chadrock. I learned a couple things: keep track of how long you bake or boil. I took my dog out in the hills and probably baked too long. Also, and maybe this is different for boiling, but the baked teeth that fell out had become really brittle. Like a few that I was trying to place with needlenose pliers, just crumbled from the pliers.

Amazing that teeth that are so bad ass when the fish is raw become brittle like that. But I did also notice that there were a couple of broken teeth right from the start. Probably some great story of a ling vs crab battle!
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: dirkbeachman on January 16, 2018, 10:20:07 PM
Well clearly a bunch of you got out and enjoyed the some of the awesome late Dec days that came through. With luck plus the help of friends, I found myself with probably 8 lbs of unused fillets even after trying to stuff my daughters and friends. I am not as evolved as many of you (fairly useless once the catch has been filleted) but tried to summon my inner BigJim and have to brag I was pretty stoked to double batch some hot ass curry! Mouth still smokin' !

BTW Happy New Year everybody- hoping you have safe dives and some good stringers too!  (I'll be down in NZ for the next several months. Give me a month to get settled, then ping me if you're coming down. I'll leave contact details with BigJim and T-Slaya)
Title: Re: Super lucky day!
Post by: BigJim on January 18, 2018, 09:14:50 AM
Well clearly a bunch of you got out and enjoyed the some of the awesome late Dec days that came through. With luck plus the help of friends, I found myself with probably 8 lbs of unused fillets even after trying to stuff my daughters and friends. I am not as evolved as many of you (fairly useless once the catch has been filleted) but tried to summon my inner BigJim and have to brag I was pretty stoked to double batch some hot ass curry! Mouth still smokin' !

BTW Happy New Year everybody- hoping you have safe dives and some good stringers too!  (I'll be down in NZ for the next several months. Give me a month to get settled, then ping me if you're coming down. I'll leave contact details with BigJim and T-Slaya)

Looks awesome!!

NZ?!?!

One day....def on my bucket list!!

Have fun and take pics!!

 :smt006

Sincerely,

Jim