Double Dip Weekend

Inlaws were in town for Ana's birthday so I got the greenlight to go jump in the ocean Friday afterwork while Ana was out with her girl friends, and Sunday AM while she was studying.

 

Picked up Joe Bloodbath on Friday and headed down to PG and jumped in at the calmest spot we could find.

It was pretty surgy with hazy, dark viz but still had a blast, even though I didn't really find anything I wanted to shoot except my first grassy of the year:

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/catches/1568

Sunday met up with Adam415, damanij, Aaron The Flying Dutchman, and a newer guy DJ and paddled out nice and early.

Outside of the cove it was pretty darn sloppy with mixed and confused seas but we could see the viz looked great so decided to give it a try anyway.

Surge was pretty strong, but was able to relax and get into hunting mode after awhile.

Blasted a decent kelpie cuz haven't shot one all year and needed one for DOTY and cuz they are tasty:

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/catches/1574

Found a cool horizontal crack and could see it was stuffed with baby abalone and small rockfish and I could see a Cab lurking way back in there as well...

Came up and rested for a bit then dropped down and looked in the far corner of the crack and saw a nice Ling eyeball staring at me so I lined up my shot and put my spear right through the eye of the nice male 29.5 inch fish. 

Swam the Ling back to the yak, chatted with Adam for a sec, and then headed back towards the area where I had been.

Found the crack again, found the Cab still there and took him as well. Yummy 20 incher.

Headed over to explore a different section and found plenty of good size schooling blues but didn't really like shooting any so let em be.

Found another Ling and Cab but neither were as big as the ones I had so left em alone as well.

Came across a few Olives mixed in around some blues so took one. Such pretty fish. 

Seas seemed to be getting bigger, and could see the other guys sitting up on their kayaks so decided to head back towards my yak...dipped along the way and was rewarded with a nice 16.75 inch Grassy. 

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/catches/1575

Got back to yak and we made the call to head back into more sheltered waters because Aaron and DJ were sick, and cuz it really was pretty rough so prolly not the smartest idea to stay out in case it got any worse.

First spot back in the cove was pretty barren so moved to a super shallow spot where I have had good luck with grassies, monkeys and cabs in the past.

After a little bit of looking around I found the hole where I got a nice 23 inch cab a few weeks ago:

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/catches/1548

Peeked in and could see the beautiful mottled pattern of a nice solid Ling's back. 

Knew from my last time that this was a really awkward hole to pull a fish out of, so went up to breath and when went back down and after a bit of adjustment was able to line up a shot right into the Ling's eye and pulled her out pretty easy. 

Solid, meaty, beautifully colored 31 inch female who was spawned out. Stoked!!!!

Looked around a little bit longer, found another grassy (slightly smaller than the first one of the day) that I took with a shot right between the eyes, then jumped back on yak to get ready to head in.

Got to meet CaliDiverDan (Dan Romo) at the beach and was stoked to meet him in person and see him out there enjoying the day with his family and friends!! 

Got checked by a warden while having a post dive beer. No problem, and always like seeing them out there, and then headed home and fileted up the Lings and chilled for the rest of the day.

Really stoked I got out twice this weekend because will be busy with family stuff for the next few weekends.

Here's a quick vid and few pics...GoPro battery ran out before I got the bigger Ling and grassies. 



 

Sincerely,

Jim

Damn what a nice haul!    Finally the wait is almost over for us Topside guys.  Hopefully we will all be eating fish this weekend like BigJim! 

Nice!!

Thanks for sharing Jim.

I just need a babysitter!!!  Will have to live through Jims adventures!

I just need a babysitter!!!  Will have to live through Jims adventures!

Nah, we just need to get our kids in the water at the same time as us!!

The 31 inch Ling was in 10 feet of water...how awesome would it be to get Ethan to blast a fish like that!!!!

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

I just need a babysitter!!!  Will have to live through Jims adventures!

Nah, we just need to get our kids in the water at the same time as us!!

The 31 inch Ling was in 10 feet of water...how awesome would it be to get Ethan to blast a fish like that!!!!

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

I'd be pissed that he got one much faster than I...ahahhaahhaahah

  awesome Jim!  Thanks for sharing, 10'?  Wow!

Played around last night and pulled out some stills from the GoPro footage. Nothing to write home about, but still fun.

Lings and Olives are such cool looking fish underwater!!

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Great haul and cool video clips! Very impressed you got out there- I think I checked conditions for Sunday and they looked bad so built up my credits of yard and home chores. Nice job working fish out of that crevice. I know I've had fish work their way deeper in places like that- you seem to stone em and pull em before they get a chance to work deep! Awesome!

Very nice dive report. Saved my long day.

Great video, but nobody is surprised at that!! I would love to see a still of your watch with all the info.

Awesome bro like always you inspired me to film my adventures now gotta put that gopro to use. I was wondering what the forecast was for Sunday when you were out there since I've been wanting to go real bad and i have the day off tomorrow but don't know if it's doable in a place like sws let me know thanks