So I've always wanted to grow my own vegetables. Every week I head over to Whole Foods where I pay exorbitant prices for produce; some of which I eat fresh, some I cook, and some I put through my juicer







Our small yard was initially planted with grass







But with our drought this year, we've stopped watering and allowed it to go fallow. The only water it gets is the occasional times when I rinse off my spearfishing gear or hose out my fishy coolers







A "slash and burn" approach was used to get rid of the remaining stubborn bushes and shrubs






Then off to Home Depot to pick up some Mendocino redwood






I had no idea how expensive lumber and deck screws could be.





Laying out where the beds would go






Impact driver was absolute money. I can't imagine using a screwdriver to put these together





Started out with some peas, both snow and sugar snap varieties






Into the seeding tray they go




Picked up 6 different varieties of potatoes for a Pepsi challenge and the two that won were the Russian Fingerling




and German Butterball




Kind of ghetto, but I didn't buy seed potatoes, but instead picked them up from the market




Within a week and a half, I had chitted my potatoes and they were ready for planting






My first bed consisted of sugar snap and snow peas, gai lan (aka Chinese Broccoli) and a few marigolds to attract bees for pollination and give the bed some color. I even put in a trellis for the peas to climb






Within a day, Finn had ripped out my plants and devoured the broccoli




The garden wrecker!




Anything else I should put in for my fall planting? Any tips for growing in the Bay Area?

Anyone else have vegetable gardens?
 


The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.
-  Thomas Jefferson





.

I speared this ling yesterday afternoon in Mendocino and it was immediately apparent this was no ordinary ling!

Trying to get the GF into kayaking and in HER OWN kayak instead of sharing the tandem 

The problem is my 48" bars are only wide enough to hold a single yak.

Anyone have 58" bars and want to trade?

I had the day off so I decided to try Hennessy in Napa.

On the water at a very leisurely 11:30 and immediately got bit while drop shotting a 4" keitech shad impact soft plastic. Nice chunky 3lber

Continued throwing the same setup for about a dozen bass ranging anywhere from 8-9 inches up to 2-3lbers. In the late afternoon the bite temporarily died, until I found the fish again tight up against the tulles.

The action was far from hot, but there was enough fish to keep things interesting.

Overall, Hennessy was a very cool little lake. I liked how scenic and peaceful it was compared to some of the other lakes in the bay area, but some of that could have been attributed to fishing during a weekday.

Lowpoint of the day was dropping my cell phone into the lake after releasing a fish. Oops.

What's strange is that the phone continues to ring, even though it is submerged in about 10 feet of water even now, hours later. If the lake wasn't a no-contact body of water I would have gone back with mask and snorkel to retrieve the phone.   

Anyway, still a pretty good day

Its been a little while since I've posted. I visited the Mendo coast this weekend due to the mild forecast. Saturday was flat with 4 to 5 feet of swell. Sunday, the wind was a mellow 5 knots and the the ocean laid even flatter.


The results of Saturday's dive. Bonus scallop as well.





A pair of lings up to 33 inches





Its stomach held a nice sized greenling




The ling followed me home to dinner




A Smurfling





First time ab shucker




Ab station gettin' messy





Prep cook





Steamed fish with enough scallion and cilantro to look like a salad





The sex sauce was also well received




Good food, good company




Capped off with a well deserved beer. Pacifico have a way of making me nostalgic for Baja. 




I picked up a Hog Trough from Harold at Albion and could finally measure my fish when diving without Harold so I was able to tape out the 33 inch ling. Kind of bummed that I wasn't able to measure the ling from the time before which was much bigger





 

Quick solo trip to Carmel (Stillwater south) this Labor day weekend. There was supposed to be a large south swell impacting the area, but while paddling out, I was surprised by how calm the surface of the water looked. It wasn’t until I actually got in, that I truly felt how strong the surge was. The vis was decent 8-10 in most areas, but being moved around so much underwater was unsettling and I found myself quickly cruising through areas instead of taking the time to work them thoroughly.

Didn’t see a lot of fish and only came home with two, a big kelp rockfish and a decent ling.

Due to the conditions, I didn’t bring the camera or gopro out, but took a cooler shot after I got home. Yeah, not quite the same as an on-the-water picture, but oh well.



Had lofty dive plans this weekend, but after this near skunk trip I spent the rest of the weekend at home with movie rentals.

 

Great movie! 


Oh, I found a fish stringer that was left in the parking lot. If it was an NCKA'er, send me a PM describing it.

Short version: I shot a fish. Scroll down to view the pictures.

Looooooooooong version: WARNING the following report was written after having dinner and a couple of beers in me.


Sunday morning did not start out well. I woke up with my left eye itching and burning. Half asleep, I reached my hand up to my eye to rub it and found a white pus-like substance had dried nearly gluing my eyelids shut. Immediately I knew what I had because I had experienced this once before as a kid.

I had pink eye!





I shot a quick txt message to Harold letting him know I couldn't dive with my eye in that condition and included a camera phone pic as proof so he wouldn’t think I was wussying out. Well, he still called me a wuss and told me to suck it up and dive anyway.

Hmmm... I still had one good eye and my freezer truly was in a sad state of empty. Making haste, I downed a quick breakfast and started getting my gear together.

Typical of our dive trips, we arrived late and didn’t launch our kayaks until well past noon. A quick dive along the inside of the cove found visibility no better than a hazy 4-6 feet. In search of cleaner water, we paddled out a bit further out until we reached a deeper set of pinnacles in 30 to 50 feet of water. This was well within my range of diving, but the past few months I had been working late, eating a lot of junk food, and not getting much exercise. The lack of fitness combined with the lack of time in the water resulted in me struggling with my breath hold. What didn't help was my pre-dive meal of two animal style In-and-Out burgers, french fries, and strawberry milkshake that I had scarfed down during the drive to Carmel.

However, what I found helped was if I first dropped my gun and then followed my floatline down as if it were a stalk of kelp. This gave me both something to visually focus on, as well as freed up my hands to do a solid downward pull. 
On one such dive, I had just touched down on the rocky bottom and as I lay on my belly, slowly swiveling my head to survey my surroundings, I lock eyes with a particularly large specimen of Ophiodon Elongatus, laying beside me not 3 feet away! Lying completely out in the open, I was stunned by the monsterous length of this fish and as I watched the sea lice scurry across its massive head and deep furrowed brow, I wondered how I could have missed seeing it during my initial drop. Oh how desperately I wanted my spear gun which was dangling off my float line somewhere behind me out of my immediate line of sight.

With one reptilian eye fixed attentively on mine, I held its gaze while slowly I reached a hand back in a blind attempt to feel for my gun, keeping my head motionless to avoid spooking this fish. It took a few attempts, but my fingers finally brushed against the smooth barrel of my Rob Allen. Gun in hand, I painstakingly inched the business end toward the fish until the tip of the spear rested nearly against the side of its head. 

As my finger found the familiar trigger....... I hesitated.

I don't really have an explanation why, but this phenomenon seems to affect me no matter what type of shooting sport I engage in. It occasionally happens after I've drawn a bead on a passing dove or a flushing quail, or when the cross hairs of my rifle scope settle in behind the shoulders of an animal; Or in this instance when the tip my spear gun is nearly touching the fish I was about to take I sometimes hesitate.   

Here's one possible explanation I came up with: The sole intent of the hunt, the purpose of the stalk, the entire pursuit was to eventually arrive at this single juncture. Andd when success is at hand, I think I may hesitate because.... I don't quite want it to end yet. 

Is it possible that I enjoy the pursuit more so than the kill at the end?

Or perhaps I hesitate because I was still admiring the majestic beauty of this fish and wasn't quite done before I turned it into dinner. 

Deep beneath the ocean's glassy surface, the philosophical debate I was momentarily consumed with was rudely interrupted by a sudden flicker of the lingcod's fin. The almost imperceptible motion of a single pectoral fin as the fish prepared to take flight broke my trance and my trigger finger instinctively answered with a flicker of its own.

I knew my shot was off because instead of stoning the fish, the ling went berserk, writhing back and forth trying to dislodge the arrow that had pierced it's body before bolting off into the murk, dragging my gun and floatline clattering against the reef behind it. I still had a bit of reserve left in my lungs, but with my wits returned I decided not to pursue, but instead to let the fish run and retrieve it from the surface. No ling wrangling for me today.

Delicately taking my floatline between loose fingers, I carefully played the fish to the surface. Later I found the extra precaution unnecessary, as my shaft had punched cleanly through both gill plates anchoring it securely.

With my hand wrapped securely around its gills, I realized I had just taken my first double digit fish for the 2011 season!






Harold came over and after exchanging a round of high fives we snapped a few pictures before resuming the hunt.









Underwater portrait service courtesy of H. Gibson Photography. Guaranteed to maximize the "awesomeness" factor in all your fish photos! Lol.









The next few spots were productive and we slowly picked up a collection of the usual reef species.

A nice blue rockfish for me






A chunky cabezon for Harold






What's cool about diving with Harold is that usually when he spots a nice fish, he’ll call me over to let me check out how it was set up in the hole before taking the shot. What I’m often amazed by is how little of the fish is actually visible while hiding in the cave or crack system and how easily a more inexperienced diver such as myself could or would have overlooked it.









A cab with a headache. Lol.







As the day slowly wound to a close I found myself relying more and more on my dive light to illuminate the bottom. Harold eventually picked up his first ling. It was a decent sized fish, but still nowhere close to the size of mine. I didn’t show it, but deep down I was secretly feeling pretty proud of myself. Here I was diving with Fuzz and I had shot a bigger fish than him.  Usually on our trips, Harold always shoots the biggest fish and I’m stuck with sloppy seconds.

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Whassup now?!? HAHA!!!![/SIZE]


Harold generously let me bask in my quiet, but immeasurable pride of having taken the big fish of the trip……until one of our last spots where he decided enough was enough and winched this beast from the reef after sinking an immaculately placed shot directly into its eye socket.




Monster!




Dammit! Out fuzzed at the 11th hour!! Lol. 


Tankwell photo of Harold’s carnage






In all seriousness I can’t complain because even though I could not claim top honors for the big fish of the day, my own tankwell held well over a weeks worth of sustenance for myself and to share with friends.







And while my eye was feeling a bit worse than it had been that morning…..






Being able to spend the day out at sea, the sweet salt spray on my face, warm sun on my back, I was already living a most blessed life.