Last Lings of 2014

Heading home to New Orleans next week for the Holidays so went out for my last dive of 2014 yesterday.

My goal was to get a bigger Ling...have gotten a bunch of 29-32 inchers this year, but nothing bigger...in fact the biggest Ling I found all year was a 34 incher that I pointed out for Nelson Kwok to shoot since I had already shot two. 

To be honest, the 29-32 inchers are probably the best eating size, but for sexiness and DOTY points getting one big one a year is nice. 

Anyway, paddled at before sunrise and went to a shallow area where I have good luck in the past for Lings while exploring a bunch of cracks and holes.

Within a hour I found a nice 35 incher in a horizontal crack about 15-20 feet deep and stuck my shaft through her face. 

Rottie Owner and damanij and his cousin showed up then and we hit several more spots.

Spent a bunch of time hunting in 45-50 feet of water, and passed on a bunch of 24-26 inch Lings hoping for another biggun, but finally was getting tired and was having some sinus and gear issues so paddled over to one more spot, shot a 27 incher to fill out my Ling limit and paddled back in.

Really enjoyed diving with Pete and Matt, and it was great to be able to spend some time chilling at the beach with Matt and his cousin.

 

Best fish of the day was at the shallowest spot, so hope this is encouraging to guys out there (like me!) that are still more comfy hunting in shallower than out deep. 

At 35 inches, the Ling is not a monster but it had some nice filets and was not stuffed full of eggs, so I'm stoked on her.

 

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/catches/1336

Final 2014 DOTY score is 3016.75...89.37 points more than my high score last year!!

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/leaderboard/list

Will see if its enough to hold onto 5th place or if Kris or Adam will pass me!

I know they CAN do it...just a matter of if time, conditions and fish will cooperate for them!

Either way, I'm stoked on the year and the quality of fish I got, and the awesome times I had playing DOTY again!

 

Here's a little vid and a few pics.



 

Sincerely,

Jim

Bad to the bone.
Thanks for the report and vid.
Have a safe travel and Happy Holidays to you and your family.

Tim

Well done! Encouraging to see the bigger ones coming in shallow for the winter. BTW, great placement and nice job on the dispatch. She did not want to go in the Jackson!

great report


great pics...

I  got to Meet Matt and his buddy as we landed Sat afternoon he said you guys were gonna have great group Sunday...right on!!

Thanks guys!!

I  got to Meet Matt and his buddy as we landed Sat afternoon he said you guys were gonna have great group Sunday...right on!!

Yeah Matt's a super nice guy and has had a great year diving as well. Always good to get to dive with him!

I forgot to say that at the beach I also got to have a beer and chat with fellow DOTY competitors Sean_Otter and MooMaid. My first time meeting MooMaid and it was great to put a face to the name!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Congrats on the nice Ling    Thanks for the report and video Jim.