Big Blue and Choppy Seas somewhere between Monterey and Big Sur

Hey All,

Im living in Seaside now and thought it'd be cool to contribute to such a cool forum. Been a water sport athlete since I was nine and often times feel more comfortable in the water than out. I try to dive once a week; Nothin better!

Any-who, went out to my goto summer spot and realize that there was more south swell in the water than I thought.... After the fact I realized it was SSW at 3ft at 15s... This is concerning because my partner for the day gets very seasick, but we decided to go for it. He's been jonesin to hit up this spot and I'm level 10 excited that my new dive suit has come. I've never warn a dive suit and my 4/3 surf suit is becoming too cold; who woulda known that uncontrollable shakes are bad for bottom times. The XXL fits great, and is comfy; although slightly restrictive in the chest. I may turn it into a high waist, but you cant fix broad shoulders... I slightly resemble an upside-down triangle.

I lube up( which was super gross feeling  ) and we head down to the zone. Greeted by 2-4ft shore-break that was manageable as a surfer; but my buddy lost his fin and luckily recovered it. This zone has very dense kelp and a nice trench (350ft) about 100 yards off the kelp bed- this place is stocked, has a hard entry, and its off the beaten path; my kind of spot!

The depth drops to 20' right off the shore and there's around 5-10ft of silty viz that generally opens up to around 20-30' of viz at around 20-30ft depth. We motor and park our craft in the kelp, and the swell is tossing. Too much surge in the shallows; the entanglement factor was a little too high for me. The 15 second period has some real energy and my shallow water fish were all holed up in deeper water I assumed- so I kicked out to the trench. Well not kicked, but strategically dove and surfaced as the kelp is too thick to even army crawl through.

Now I'm not going to lie, I'm looking for big lings and cabs so I start my descents to around 40' swimming through the blues who have schooled around me. Down at 40ft my pittiful 225 lumen light is barely enough to light up the deep caves. It is superbly dark down there due to the thick kelp cover; a truly amazing feeling though. I do a couple of dives at depth, but I fear the consistent wind and consequent windswell this summer has them out deep.

About 30 minutes in my buddy comes up to me and is very sick, I make sure he gets out of the kelp safely and look to make one or two more drops to depth. I can only see 5 feet into the dark blue as a I breathe up and the kelp entangling me is slightly comforting; a warm embrace ha! Make my drop with kelp trying to hold my feet up and using slightly more energy to get down (with 24lb of weight) until 30 feet where the weight equalizes and I slowly start to descend.

Noone is home in the deep caves, cracks and caverns today; or at least noone that I can see with my dopey little light. So I start to kick up and see the biggest blue Ive ever seen just right out of range and much deeper than his fellow mid water companions. I slowly swim towards him with my gun tucked and chin down (camo suit ftw), and get within range.

Line him up with a side shot and aim for the head but he starts to dart as my shaft catapults through the water. Penetrated him in the gut and the flopper just barely deploys as he starts thrashing. I hate non-lethal shots for humane and entanglement issues, but this was my chance to come up with a nice hog for dinner and I was in a  time pinch as my buddy got close to the shorebreak.

Go to grab him at depth because a tear off seemed imminent and he dwarfs my 10inch hands, but the fun isn't over. I surface and the fish wiggles out of my hands and tried to tear himself off, my knife is in my suit pocket and Im starting to get slightly tangled and panicky. "Relax and take it easy" I say to myself, kelp is funny in that it slides off easy when youre calm, and can easily drown you with panicked sudden movements. I dont like to bleed before I brain, but he needs to calm down as my hands are tangled; so I rip the gills out and use my spear shaft to finish the job. I string him on my gun and grab our board and kick in to ensure the safe exit of my friend.

Caught a nice two foot closeout on the shore and fumble out of the shorebreak and into the sand like a true pro.

Ended up measuring out at 17.5" mouth opened( Sorry!!!), but mouth closed at a PB 17". Still got a nice filet off him for a blue who had his stomach imploded, and looking forward to a tasty dinner.

Ill attach another picture of my last haul from out there with a PB 32" ling and some rockies also.

See you in the water!
Jesse


Instagram: Jrsnyder91

Fun to read---thanks for the report.

Great write up!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Nice play by play.  I could feel every bit of it as if I was there. 

Great day with some PB fish. 

Glad You guys like the write up! Hope to see you all in the water

Hey you put some fish in the box, plus got out there! Thx, for the writeup. That ling is still out there - you just gotta jump in again!

Right on jsynder, nice harvest. I grew up in Seaside but never got into the diving seen maybe some day i'll give it a try. Thanks for sharing and pics.

Great write up!
So what's your technique for lubing up?
I always thought it would be gross to do until after the first time I did it. Now I cannot imagine doing it any other way.
I use a spray bottle of 50/50 mix of water and Cure Care (not made any more, but any comparable substitute will work). Shake the bottle, turn the suit inside out and give it a good spraying. Suit slides on and off like a hot knife goes through butter.
And I can relate to your buddy getting sea sick. Just ask DG and Cabeza de Martillo.

Hey you put some fish in the box, plus got out there! Thx, for the writeup. That ling is still out there - you just gotta jump in again!

Haha very true, a scuba dood came out with a 29lbr a couple weeks ago. Theyre lurking!

Great write up!
So what's your technique for lubing up?
I always thought it would be gross to do until after the first time I did it. Now I cannot imagine doing it any other way.
I use a spray bottle of 50/50 mix of water and Cure Care (not made any more, but any comparable substitute will work). Shake the bottle, turn the suit inside out and give it a good spraying. Suit slides on and off like a hot knife goes through butter.
And I can relate to your buddy getting sea sick. Just ask DG and Cabeza de Martillo.

Alien seaside is the spot! Down to earth, working class, and great views

Honestly Tote I just bought some suit slide and diluted 1:1 and close my eyes and spray ha! A breeze to take on and off, but the goopy lube makes me feel all kinds of weird pre water entry. Ya boats are a different story, but years of surfing desensitized me to the chop while freediving; but didnt save me from getting hammered into rocks during said swells