Stillwater South: 11/5/11

This year, the Monterey Bay Tritons hosted a year-long tournament series; the King of the Tritons, a species format in which a competitor could enter 15 species from a given list. I joined the club in July to see how I'd do.

After attending 3 of the 5 events, I had set my self up in good position, with 8 of 15 species. Yesterday was the fifth and final event, and it just happened to coincide with some not-so-great conditions....

My friend Nick and I arrived at Stillwater a little after 7am. Immediately, we noticed the high tide and large swells breaking all the way up to the stairs  . After loading my gear, I was able to launch without trouble, timing it well. Nick followed shortly behind.

My first stop was a series of finger-like pinnacles with huge, long trenches/cracks between them. Here the water was pretty dirty, with maybe 7 foot vis... maybe. The depth was, say... 40-50 I think, and it was DARK on the bottom. I needed a flashlight to see anything in detail. I saw one really big ling, probably in the range of 15-20 pounds, but it swam way down into a crack and the vis wasn't even good enough to see it after that. I ended up shooting a rainbow perch after an hour and then took a break. Nick already had a few species on his yak.

At this point doubt started to creep into my mind. I needed 7 species to have a chance at a good placing, but all I had so far was a small perch. The vis on the bottom made finding fish difficult. After a adjusting my psyche, I jumped back in to find a ling I needed-- and I did. It went around 5.5 pounds.

Moving around to a few different spots, all I found was bad vis-- as low as 1-2 feet in the inner cove. With about 3 hours left, I finally hit gold, with 10 foot vis and some decent boulder piles. My momentum grew with each fish, as did my point totals, and I finally settled in into a zone. Here (in the cove), I picked up another ling, a big rubberlip, a big grassie (around 18-19 inches), a black perch, an olive rockfish, and a small but fat cab.

Coming back in, I was cautious of the tricky swell that picked up over the point that's to the west of the pier. The area is very shallow and produces a break when the swell is up. I lost focus for one second, and before I knew it, a large set was forming behind me and already starting to break. Luckily, I guess I'm a natural kayak surfer  and manged to ride the wave out without any problems. Nick wasn't so lucky  ; he hadn't put much of his gear into his hatch, including his fish. A large wave capsized his yak and he some of his fish and some gear.  He was fine, though. Bad luck would strike again later, as his mom made a wrong turn and he missed the weigh-in.

As it turned out, I had locked up 3rd place overall, and won a new Rob Allen 90cm Railgun! 

My species for the series included: black rockfish, blue rockfish, black and yellow rockfish, lingcod, cabezon, vermillion rockfish, olive rockfish, grass rockfish, kelp rockfish, kelp greenling, striped perch, rainbow perch, black perch, pile perch, and rubberlip perch.

Also notable, there were tons of baitfish out at Stillwater. Anchovies or sardines, not entirely sure. I saw at least 3-4 different schools of them. I recommend getting out there and fishing for them for bait/food.

Some of my fish


Grass Rockfish


3rd Place

Wow! Congratulations!!! How old are you now? 16? You're gonna be famous before you get to 21. Great job!

ernest

Slayer! Nice job guys!

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Rick, you are a true young stud!! Awesome job young brother on placing 3rd. Can't wait to see how ya fare next year with a full year to hunt

Damn dude, you the man!  Congrats on placing in the top 3!  Good job dude!  I'm looking forward to diving in some of that epic winter vis thats coming up! 

Jeff

Thanks, guys! Still pretty stoked.

Wow! Congratulations!!! How old are you now? 16? You're gonna be famous before you get to 21. Great job!

ernest

15, almost 16. Diving since I was about 14 and a half. The cool thing about spearfishing and diving is that it's almost infinitely interesting-- every dive brings about a new experience and something to be learned.

Damn dude, you the man!  Congrats on placing in the top 3!  Good job dude!  I'm looking forward to diving in some of that epic winter vis thats coming up! 

Jeff

Definitely, dude! Even yesterday the kelp was a lot thinner than it was this summer, but still enough to clip off to. If it weren't for the nasty ground swell and recent rain, I bet the vis would have been epic already. Next time it's flat out, the vis will be awesome for sure.

congrats young gun 

Congrats Rick!!!!

FYI...vis was 25-30 today, no wind, sunny skies, abundant fish.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim