Fort Ross/Mendo County 8/20-21

A weekend binge of diving in Sonoma and Mendocino..... 

I went diving at Fort Ross Saturday for a CenCal Competition. I wasn't sure if I was going to dive it at first, having no team, as well as no scouting whatsoever (I've mainly just ab dove at Fort Ross, never really targeting fish), but ultimately decided that it would be a good learning experience.

My dad and I loaded the kayak late Friday night, and opted to stay in Petaluma for the night, and drive over to the coast in the early morning. Or so we had planned.... We didn't make it to check in until 7:45 or so.

Soon I was at Fort Ross getting ready to launch. I talked to Dennis Haussler before the meet, and as it turned out, a couple of guys only had a two-man-team, so they welcomely allowed me to join them. I dove with Paul Vervenotis and Bob Humphrey.

Conditions were great, with no wind all day, foggy overcast all day, and relatively low swells. The visibility ranged, from maybe 10-15 (forgot to get a good estimate with my floatline).

With CenCal meets, the minimum size for fish is 14 inches, and no more than 4 fish per species, which promotes more selective hunting. Having never dove a CenCal comp or 20-fish meet before, I was a bit uncertain of how to go about it. In the first ten minutes, I found very few fish, and disconcertion began to cloud my mind. The day didn't seem too promising.

My doubt and inexperience quickly melted away, however, and within 30 minutes of diving, I had found a school of decent blues and shot my 4-fish limit.

Moving around a bit, I picked up a greenling, and saw a couple of legal lings, both of which managed to evade me. Finally, after checking maybe 10-12 holes and cracks (I hate the urchins that fill up some of the promising holes  ), I found a good ling down and back in a hole. I took my time lining up the shot, and stunned it in the top of the head. I immediately noticed the large bulge in the belly, and I could see a caudal fin in the gullet. I later discovered a blue in its stomach. 25 feet of water.

After moving to a few fruitless spots, Paul and I met up with Bob at the edge of the kelp line, with a little over an hour left in the competition. Bob mentioned a particularly large ling he was playing hide and seek with below.

The bottom here was about 40 feet (38, actually, I think), and had some large boulders and deep caves. I noticed a school of blues at mid depth, but having already filled my limit, I began to hover nearby, seeking out the large blacks that often hangout within the blues. Sure enough, my strategy was successful, and I picked off 3 decent blacks, 14"-18".

With my blacks and blues taken care of, the only place left to hunt was the bottom. I hadn't seen a cab all day, and I wouldn't in the hour remaining, either  .

On one particular drop, I checked out a promising hole, only to discover the urchins that lay within. With plenty of breath left, I sought out another hole to check. Rounding a large boulder, I froze dead in my tracks..........

Hovering just off the bottom was a HUGE vermillion, only the second I've encountered. I began to get nervous, as I had gotten very close as I rounded the boulder, within 4 feet of the red, and feared spooking it. Very slowly, I brought my gun to bear on the fish, and glided a wee-bit closer for a better shot. My heart sank as the red began to stir. Patiently, I waited a few more seconds, and to my surprise, it made a 360 turn and gave me a great shooting angle. I placed a very careful shot in head, right through the eye and out the mouth. Not a stone shot, but a solid one, despite the fish's erratic movements and the explosion after the shot. I pounced on the red, and ascended; the fish was mine.

I made one more dip just before hitting the beach, for a hail mary perch. I found nothing worth shooting, and headed in.

The red weighed in at 6 pounds even, with a length of 21". The ling went 29" and 10 pounds.

In total, I  weighed in 10 fish (4 blues, 3 blacks, 1 greenling, 1 red, 1 ling) for 33.45 pounds, and 43.45 points, an average of 3.35 pounds/fish. My team came in 4th place with 148.05 points, just 3 points out of 3rd place.

The winning team consisted of Dan Silveira, Paul Young, and Harold "Fuzz" Gibson, who combined for 190.6 points, winning by a margin of just over 1 point.

Top aggregate went to none other than Harold Gibson, who edged Dan by 1.4 points! Congrats to Fuzz and all the other competitors who put time in and came out with great stringers.

The next day I dove south of Fort Bragg a ways to scout for an upcoming tournament, and found beautiful low swells, low wind, and 20 foot vis. I found the great structure and decent fish counts I was looking for, and took a couple fat 9's and a ling.

A great weekend of diving and another milestone reached!

Here is the one Rick left behind, after showing me his stash of fish he caught!  Thanks Rick!

@.@

Great job at the cencal tournament this weekend Rick. You turned in an awesome score!

Just missed you at Mendo the next day and your car passed us going the opposite way in the redwoods.

Way to kick ass!

Nice Rick!

Beautiful Verm there buddy!

Well, a yeah,,,, I hope you got your homework done too,

Beautiful stringer, thanks for the pics, 

Impressive Rick! Monster red... Nice job!

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YEAH!!!!!!!

AWESOME!!!!!!

Congrats Rick....great job buddy!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Nickly done rick.

Wow! You are killing it out there, Rick. Gotta get you a gopro Did the verm look grey underwater?

Wow! You are killing it out there, Rick. Gotta get you a gopro Did the verm look grey underwater?

Thanks, Joe! I think the verm did have kind of a rusty-greyish hue underwater, though I can't really recall now that I think about it.  The red color must have been still showing a bit, because I remember seeing an orange greenling swim by that I could tell was orange. 

The one I shot at Pt. Arena in June was the same way, at 35 feet. For some reason, I knew both fish were verms right away, even with the faded color.