Another Personal Best Cabbie!

Took advantage of calm weather to launch from a new (for me) spot. Have sold my Kraken and am waiting on my new one to arrive so took out my trusty old OK BigYak. 

Paddled to the area I wanted to explore and jumped in and started exploring.

Found a fishy spot with a variety of rockfish chilling and took one chunky kelpy.

Right when I finished loading my gun I looked down and saw the white chin of a sheephead cruise in to join the RF party. 

Turned GoPro on, dove down, spooked the sheep, but managed to still get a shot into her...crappy shot in the belly but oh well. 

Let her run until she tied up in boulders and then brought her up.

Not a big one (only 22 inches), and a cruddy shot, but am always stoked when I get a chance to take a sheep up here.

Switched guns from the Pathos 75 to 60 because I realized my mono shooting line on my 75 was super frayed and breaking....I need to check my gear more! 

Worked the RF party for a bit and snuck up on an Olive chilling up high and stoned him.

Cruised around and found a tight horizontal crack with a big cab head chilling in the back. Lined up the shot with the 60 and put the shaft right in her face, but the hole was so tight (and my shot angle so poor) that the flopper didn't deploy. 

Looked back in hole and couldn't see the cab and all the sand/silt was churned up and figured she had bailed out a back door.

Scoured the surrounding boulders to see if I could find her but no luck...went back to the original hole and the dust had settled and I could see she was hiding way in the back behind a rock...was able to angle the 60 over the rock and get a shot into her shoulder. Tried to pull her out but she got wedged between the rock and the roof of the crack and eventually the shaft ripped out.

Could see her head and shoulders were still stuck, but her tail looked loose so shot her in the tail and pulled her out backwards.

Looked mangled from the battle, but taped out to 25.25 inches, and my new PB. Stoked!!

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/catches/1884

Moved spots out deeper and jumped in to stellar 35+ foot viz and a big school of blues, blacks and olives. 

Ignored the olives and blues and started scouring the boulders and sand patches on the bottom at 50/55 feet hoping to find reds or coppers...no luck. 

A hundred or so yards from my kayak I found another little fishy spot and saw another sheep cruise in...this one was a decent size male....I dropped down off to his side hoping he would ignore me and let me sneak up, but he saw me and started swimming away around a boulder...I swam around the other side hoping he would be there chilling but he had already covered the gap to the next boulder....he paused and I paused and we stared at each other...I looked away hoping he would swim back within range but he was too skittish and swam away again. 

I worked the area for awhile grunting and scraping my speartip on rocks hoping I could bring him back in again...I did get another female to come check me out but as soon as she appeared she vanished in the maze of holes and cracks on the bottom.

Took a few chunky blues, then cruised back to the Olives by the kayak and popped some nice 18/19 inchers and then jumped out, strapped gear down and paddled back in.

Drove over to meet up with my family and some friends at another beach to chill and enjoy the beautiful day and let the kids play on the kayaks.

Good times!!

Here's a little vid and some pics.



 

Sincerely,

Jim

You jacked that cab and sheep up 

The girls are getting big bro.

Thanks for the vid.

Wow your kids are getting big fast!  Nice catches too.. 

Congrats on the PB Cabbie.  Thanks for the great report, pictures, and video Jim.

Deja vu! 

Congrats, Jim! And thanks for the report and photos. Looks like an awesome day!

Nice work, again! You went to that spot we talked about?

Thanks guys!!

Yeah, the girls are growing up fast!!

This was actually Valentina's first time paddling the BigYak by herself and she did awesome. Proud of her!!!

Nice work, again! You went to that spot we talked about?

Yep!! Super fun and excellent conditions!

Was honestly surprised at lack of Lings/Verms cuz structure etc looked perfect...but I really only explored a fraction of the area.

I'll be back and will find em next time.

 

And one day I'll figure out how to drop down on a male sheep without spooking him. 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Nice catch as always Jim. It was nice to see you there. Thank you for the short tutorial on navionics map! 

Nice catch as always Jim. It was nice to see you there. Thank you for the short tutorial on navionics map! 

No problem George! It was great to see you as well!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Jim's the man!

So that's what a school of fish looks like underwater? awesome video!!
p.s for some reason i picture you to be bigger. no pun intended. lol

So that's what a school of fish looks like underwater? awesome video!!
p.s for some reason i picture you to be bigger. no pun intended. lol

Jim is a lot like a 25" cabezon... they both look a lot bigger when you see 'em in person!

You got beautiful kids,that said thanks for keeping us entertained

Great stuff Jim- solid stringer and cute family! Definitely looks like good times. I'm sitting out for two weeks and this hurts (in a good way!) Love the vids!