Multipal dive reports from the last month. Long winded

Since I finally bought a kayak I can actually post some Yak diving reports. and contribute. Well here are a few from the last month.

First one is one my Buddy Greg Typed he beat me to it,
Great day of spearing with Matt, made even better by the fact that it I took the day off work for it!

We met up in Petaluma at 4:30am and loaded Matt's new kayak onto my truck next to mine.  3 hours later, we were looking at a suprisingly calm Stillwater Cove, despite the 7-8 ft swell forcasts.  What a difference between a true West swell and a NW swell!  We paddeld out to about 40' depth and anchored.  My main goal was long range target practice with my 90cm gun, and was ready to chase small suspended blacks, blues, etc. and leave the hole hunting for Matt.

We were immediately greeted by 30-40' visibility.  First thing, we end up in a big school of blues - exactly what I had been hoping for!  I had told Matt on the drive that I would be fine with small fish, i just wanted to practice sniping at range... but I had to eat my words, because nothing looked over 8".  I couldn't quite bring myself to do it.

Soon enough, I found and shot my first ever Calico Bass over a sandy bottom at 40'.  He measured 19", and will be ont he dinner table tonight

Shortly after, I shot a few suspended Grass Rockfish (about 14" each, never measured).  About the time I was dropping the second one into the Kayak, Matt starts yelling from 150 yard away, "There's lingcods all over the place here!!!"  I may have wanted to practice on open water swimmers, but even I wasn't stupid enough to ignore a yell like that.

I swam over to join Matt, who was just getting his first ling off the spear and heading for the kayaks.  Sure enough, by the time he had returned, I had seen a ling, but judged it to be too small.  He got back into it, and within 20 min, I spotted that beautiful brown/orange leopard pattern skin hiding in a hole.  I took aim and fired a short right behind the head - the spear went in, hit the rock that the lingcod was up against, and bounced right out.  By sheer luck, the fish was stunned (though not dead) and still floating - I dropped the gun and lurched forward getting both hands around his head, pulling him to my chest, and heading for the surface.

"Matt! Matt!!! MATT!!!!"  The third one did the trick.  Matt came over to see why I was screaming, and immediately figured out that I had a deathgrip on a live lingcod that had no spear through it.  He took his knife, brained it, and left it in as a handle for me.  Woo! Got it in the kayak.

Shortly after I returned and realoaded my gun, I saw and shot ling #2, a bit smaller than the first.  As i swam by Matt, he told me to keep an eye out for any other lings I saw.  I dropped my second long off at the kayak, returned to the area, took my first dive down and.. another ling!  I dropped my gun, yelled for Matt, who came right over and plucked it out of his hole. 

A while later, we got back on our kayaks and headed in, though it was painful to leave the crystal clear water.  Measurements on the beach put my lings at 25" and 30".  One of the most fun dives I've had in a while!





All the rest written by me
Report #2
SWS
Got a call from Shannon Wednesday night asking if would be down to hit up SWS for a dive since he had never been there and to scratch that diving fix. So as usual I said yes. Well met him at 5am at his place and loaded yaks and gear and started our journey down there. Made great time threw the bay area.
 We arrived at SWS about 800 and was  on the water paddling by 830am. We started our dive out front of the islands with 30 ft vis. There was a good wind chop and a small swell that caused some surge but nothing bad. Shannon started out working on deeper dives and I headed in to the 25 to 30ft ranges where Greg and found our lings a couple days before.
 As I breathing up on the surface I see this nice ling swim below so I follow him for a bit then decided to go down and take a closer look. Once down there could see it was a little small looking so I passed but right next to it was a nice grass rock fish so I took it.  Continued diving and about 2 dives later I had my first ling small one but a ling.A couple of dive later I see the ledge where Gregs fatty 30 inch ling came from, and remember hearing that once a ling has been removed from it's hole another will take it place. S0 I drop down and look in the hole and guess what another ling pow !!! My second ling and closes out my limit for the second time in 3 days a personnel best for me.
  At this point shannon and got back in the yaks and hit another area to the south. That is where we ran into kelpmonkey and his dive buddy. Worked that area for awhile just picking up small empty ab shells as shannon shot 3 nice grass rock fish. At this point we called it day and headed in. In all another great day at SWS.

lings where 23 and 26 inches and the grass rock fish was only 14.5


Report #3
SWS Pebble Beach,
  was to days later another road day trip with Greg and another yak dive. Once again we had stellar conditions 40ft vis and no surge and very little swell. We went straight to the area that has been so good. Anchored up the yaks and I made my drop and my new found fish hole to see if any new resident had taken up. Wouldn't you know it another ling yes !!!! string him and continue diving for another couple hrs getting another ling to close out the limit and assorted rock fish and even a 27 inch 5 pound Monkey face Prickle Back eel. Once back at the yak I look down and see my new found GLORY HOLE LOL !!! so I make another drop and look inside and all I see is one huge ass cab head so whack !!! yes a monster cab and my PB best and this was is not getting stolen. SO I immediately headed back to the yak and call it a day. The Cab ended up going 24.5 inches. What day !!! My Pb best cab and my 3rd limit of lings in a week, it is by far one of my best days free dive spearing for !!! Since I mainly are a ab diver. Greg ended up with a 17 inch cab and assorted rock fish. Hope this was not to long winded. Try ed to make it short and left a ton of stuff out. I have to say is that area has some incredible diving to offer.


Report #4 2 days of diving on the sonoma coast.
 Well After seeing the forecast Thursday Shannon and I decided to hit the north coast for a dip. As we all know our north coast has been blown out for weeks so we jumped all over it. We got to our launching site and paddle out to a new spot. Started making drops in about 25 to 30ft. Vis was about 12ft. We both dove an hr so getting seeing not much fish of any size. Then Shannon finds a nice ling and made several drops on it trying to get a good shot, ended spooking it about 3 times before he finally got a shot off. Sadly the ling got off. Shannon ended the day with a few rock fish and I ended with a couple of blacks, a blue and and a black and yellow and 1 nice kelp greenling. The big fish of the day was my 20 inch black. Nothing notable so no pics. As usual another great day on the water in the yak with a very good friend..

Sunday dive.

Sunday's Dive was out of the same area but hit a few others spots. This time it was Jason Odule,Shannon and I on our yaks, ran into Dino and friends. Water was awesome flat and sunny and warm above water below was 47 on my watch. We had about 12to15ft of vis and were making drops in 25 to 35ft. We were not seeing much fish.I make drop on this pinnacle and find a nice little scallop. So I holler over to Shanon hey scallops and next thing I know he yells back I know I have 2 huge ones right here. So hell with the fish I say have that in the freezer I need and want scallops. I continue to hunt the area and end up with 6 nice huge ones ranging in size from 5 to 7 inches. By this time Shanon had got 2 scallops and shot a china, Jason had a few nice blues and blacks on his stringer. At this point we got in the yaks and moved to another spot. At this point I decided I am only going after lings and cabs since I have  6 nice big scallops in  the yak. I make a few drops and spoke a nice ling. So Breathe up to go back down to find it and end up spooking a cab !!!!  dam just phucked up on 2 targets species !!! oh well. I keep looking that area for them and stumble on to another ling whack !!! not the biggest but easily legal ended up being 24 inches. Nice one ling down one to go and a cab I would be done. So I make 2 more drops and look in this hole and guess what another ling whack  !!! this one is a bit bigger and fatter ended up measuring in at 28 inches nice done with my lings now on to the cab. As I am hunting for cabs I ended up finding what I am going to call a glory hole for scallops. I have never seen anything like what I am about to describe any where !!! I make a drop on the wash rock and find a nice ledge / under cut going back about a half torso so I go in and take a look and I see about 10-20 of the bigest scallops I have ever seen !!! all lined up smiling at me !!!! I ended up popping one to end the day with 7 huge scallops. I decided not to take any more no need have plenty in the yak and leave the rest for another day's harvest. When I go back I will be getting video of this scallop hole for all to see. I did not manage to find another cab so no cab for the day but still a great day with great friends and a nice catch to boot. I ended up sending my smaller ling home with my bro Shannon. I also have to say I love yak diving and should have got one a long time ago.Pics attached and hope I did not ramble to much.

I owe a huge big thank you out to Anthony AKA 9erfan for hooking me up with the awesome yak.

No prob bro! Glad it's working out for you!!

Anthony

Stay on the north coast.

Stay on the north coast.

LOL!!!!!!

 

Glad you had fun down here Matt and that I got to meet you out on the water.

Look forward to diving with you in the future!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

North coast needs to pay us back for all the fish you took south!  Lol

Or some 10" abs, lol

we will see Chuck, maybe you me Jim,Andy, Athony and a few others from FA do a group ab dive at decent spot that I know of. You have been there once before, but we will do another entry this time no repelling. There are tons of 9 1/4 to 9 3/4 inch limits to be had for every one in no deeper than about 20ft

we will see Chuck, maybe you me Jim,Andy, Athony and a few others from FA do a group ab dive at decent spot that I know of. You have been there once before, but we will do another entry this time no repelling. There are tons of 9 1/4 to 9 3/4 inch limits to be had for every one in no deeper than about 20ft

I'm in!

Awesome report guys!

Nice report Matt! Look forward to hooking up at the Ab cookoff.