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Kayak Diving and Spearfishing / fab weekend of diving
« on: October 07, 2018, 12:20:48 PM »
Like a lot of you, I couldn't believe how nice last weekend's forecast was. Did a solo dive in upper Big Sur, that was only marred by the most determined harbor seal I've yet encountered. When I got there, a fisherman said he'd hooked a 20 lb ling but had to cut his line when a seal got it. Sounded like a "fish story" to me but he pointed a ways off and sure enough, there was a seal at the surface eating something. And there was a plastic water bottle in the mix too that the fisherman must have been using for some kind of float. Forgot about the seal and went hunting. My first rockfish was shot under a rock and as I came up I thought my spear or fish must have snagged kelp so I let go of the gun and let the float line run through my hands. As I pulled from the surface, I saw a seal had the fish and wasn't about to let go. He got it off before I could recover it. From then on he was with me like a shadow. At times, he would even drop down ahead of me- super annoying! Ended up with some reasonable fish, but the seal got one more before I quit.
The next day, I got a dive in up in Mendo with one of my daughters.Super gorgeous day! We had an ambitious plan to do a big loop, explore new territory perhaps get a few scallops that might not normally be accessible. But early on we found some good blacks. On maybe the second or third one, this one shot by my daughter, a big old ling comes cruising up from the bottom. My daughter's gun was obviously unloaded, I was holding a pole spear, and my other gun was unloaded and tied to my float, not within reach. Decisions, decisions... went for it with the pole spear intending to blast him in the head so he wouldn't go to ballistic in open water. From only 18" away somehow I gagged and clipped off the top of his head. He swam down with a big white blaze on his head and all our scouting plans vanished as I spent probably an hour trying to find him. It should have been do-able, but the only complication was a massive spawn underway. What appeared to be "bottom" was really a brown blanket of millions of 1/2" fry. Under that was great structure, and I think the ling was still there, but, damn, I couldn't find him!
But overall, a wonderful weekend and I was super grateful to have a day in the briny deep with my daughter and a good outing with our loyal pup,Skipper, who was busy on the shore burying stinky stuff! Hope many of you got out, got back safely, and had some luck!
The next day, I got a dive in up in Mendo with one of my daughters.Super gorgeous day! We had an ambitious plan to do a big loop, explore new territory perhaps get a few scallops that might not normally be accessible. But early on we found some good blacks. On maybe the second or third one, this one shot by my daughter, a big old ling comes cruising up from the bottom. My daughter's gun was obviously unloaded, I was holding a pole spear, and my other gun was unloaded and tied to my float, not within reach. Decisions, decisions... went for it with the pole spear intending to blast him in the head so he wouldn't go to ballistic in open water. From only 18" away somehow I gagged and clipped off the top of his head. He swam down with a big white blaze on his head and all our scouting plans vanished as I spent probably an hour trying to find him. It should have been do-able, but the only complication was a massive spawn underway. What appeared to be "bottom" was really a brown blanket of millions of 1/2" fry. Under that was great structure, and I think the ling was still there, but, damn, I couldn't find him!
But overall, a wonderful weekend and I was super grateful to have a day in the briny deep with my daughter and a good outing with our loyal pup,Skipper, who was busy on the shore burying stinky stuff! Hope many of you got out, got back safely, and had some luck!