Monterey Kayak Freedive Report

Hey folks, just got back from a pleasant day in monterey. FishNDive and myself launched at 9am or so and worked our way out to some kelp beds. the vis was ok , maybe 20-25 feet in the best places. We watched sea lions and otters cruise around for a while.

We did some dives and got some fish. I saw lots of lings and one even swam up against me while i was cruising parallel to the bottom terrain. those fish are not fearful of much. come ling season i just might go see if he wants to pal around again. saw some giant perch and some large opal eyes. also saw many sunstars which were real wide, one was maybe 1.5 feet accross and it was movin fast with its gazillion legs.

saw a ginormous rock scallop about 6 inches accross. that i think is large by monterey standards but since they are illegal to take all i did was check it out. it was big with a nice bright orange smile.

here is our loot. alain got a wide variety of fish and i got two calicos and one cabezon. i pulled the trigger 3 x today. the rest of the time i was either checking out sea life underneath or just hanging out practicing my stalking techniques and kelp pulls.

in all a nice day to be out. where else can you dive in the ocean and see a mountain top covered in a light dusting of snow?

as for getting the calicos i just dived down. waited and ...... waited..... and scratched the rocks and waited some more.... it was kind of a long wait sometimes but dive bombing on top of them always seems to spook em. saw some real biggies but i think they recognize a speargun a mile away.

John you're making me want to get out and do a little diving

I've been casually slipping remarks past the heffe(wife) about maybe getting abs and so far no nasty reactions, once even an almost affirmitive response

More pictures of fish:
Conditions were outstanding. Swells increased a bit in the afternoon but the viz was probably around 20ft. One of these magic Monterey days. One thing worth noting though: I needed to check all my equipment before going.
I use a 4-prong tip on my 75cm Sporasub gun. All the prongs broke off one by one during the day. Fortunately, I had brought my 90cm single tip Sporasub. (I always bring 2 guns in the yak). I looked at the bands on my 90cm and they were badly chaffed and did not look like they would last long. Fortunately long enough to nail a beautiful opal eye as well as various grass and blue rockfish. A couple of rubber-lip and 1 silver perch as well as 1 cabezon. I even saw a legal abalone in Monterey! I have seen a few these last months. They are coming back for sure.
Here are my pics
Alain

John you're making me want to get out and do a little diving

I've been casually slipping remarks past the heffe(wife) about maybe getting abs and so far no nasty reactions, once even an almost affirmitive response

hey man, when you do go diving it will be lots of fun and as long as you are careful it should be worry free. its nice to be able to see whats underneath as opposed to always being on top.

i saw this one reef that had kelp rockfish all around it.

i need to fix my camera so i can take some photos of this stuff.

also saw this big white torpedo sitting on the bottom under some kelp and as i got closer saw it was a big harbor seal.

just see a lot of nice things.

john

holy christ!  that is a huge opaleye!!  I've read they get upwards of 2 lbs but that's the biggest ive seen.  great job.

Yup, awesome job.

BTW, why were scallops closed?  Is that a marine reserve for inverts?  I don't think they have a season.

I believe it is a fin fish only area.  It has been that way ever since I can remember.  I think you have to go south to Yankee pt. before you can take any invertebrates.  I don't know where the northern boundry is.  Why did you post this on the fishing section instead of the diving section?

I believe it is a fin fish only area.  It has been that way ever since I can remember.  I think you have to go south to Yankee pt. before you can take any invertebrates.  I don't know where the northern boundry is.  Why did you post this on the fishing section instead of the diving section?

i posted in the fishing report section because its sort of a report i guess. maybe i should post in both or only in the diving section. its a little of both.

next time i'll post diving stuff in the diving section. i guess that makes more sense.

Yup, awesome job.

BTW, why were scallops closed?  Is that a marine reserve for inverts?  I don't think they have a season.

yup, only finfish down to yankee pt. although this is the law i know some folks routinely gte their pickins of scallops, octopus ets... while freediving and hope not to get caught. most get away but i am sure some get nailed each now and then. definitley not worth the trouble and kills the public opinion of freedive spearfisherman when they get caught.