Good friends, small fish

MEAN Good friends, small fish

MEAN Good friends, small fish

Yeah....when I paddled into the shallows fuzz and sharkbait tried to gang up on me and capsize me.

 

I was all loaded up to go and pick up my crab traps from HMB.  They've been soaking for three weeks and I wasn't sure what I was gonna find.  Quick run over the hill and get them before the wind, which was forecasted to gust to 25, turned on in the afternoon. 

Instead I chose to go diving.  The first time since last July or August.  But I had fun.  It was good to be back in the water.  I was not particularly comfortable in the water though so it was good we dove a shallow spot first.  Feeling and using the surge, getting into a familiar breathing rhythm helped me get into a happy place. 

Knowing the wind will blow and not knowing how long I will be in the water, I shoot everything I see.  I've got six fish in my critter collector and I'm working this crack because I saw the back of a MFE.  I've not had a good record with this fish.  Just as I decide to shoot the thing in it's back Fuzz comes along.  I always miss fish because that a-hole is watching and judging me.  I miss and quickly blame it on his gun (even though I shot the first six fish no problems).  He bird dogs the MFE head in a small hole and I see it's between two abs with one of the abs in front of the fish.  I go down and rest my shaft on the ab shell with the tip facing the MFE head.  Yeah, I was all ready to pose with this bad boy.  I pull the trigger and pull a tellingly unencumbered shaft out.  I don't need to look up.  I can feel that a-hole shaking his head. 

As we paddle to the next spot I feel the wind on my back and the swell rolling under the kayak.  My OG (Old Guy) senses are tingling and I'm looking at our entry point with a voice in my head saying "I should do the prudent thing and dive those cluster of rocks close to that beach..."  I brush aside that voice and anchor up to dive the second spot.  As i get into the water I see and hear the kayaks getting raised up then angrily slap down on the water.  That voice is back and saying "you're a dumbass..."  I kick over to where the real divers are and make a half dozen drops through the dirty layer to the clear bottom, not seeing much.  I make it back to my kayak and dive onto a cluster of rocks where I spy the head of a ling in a hole.  It's size tells me it's on the border and I didn't want to rob the other two guys of their fun with Jim's ling so I leave it.  On the surface now and one look at the whitecaps and the slapping kayak and that voice simply says "haha, told you so..." 

Shitty paddle back. 

We chill on the beach and a nice lady chats Jim up about his catch.  Ever the ambassador Jim graciously answers her questions and correctly IDs his catch.  She sounded like she knew more than she let on, but leaves us to our tomfoolery.  As we're packing up a DFG truck with two wardens pull up and checked over our catch.  They were friendly and professional.  I knew it.  Jim's new girlfriend NARC'd on us. 

We quickly race to get into traffic and my shoulders are more sore than I can remember them being.  But it was great to be back in the water. 

Nate

I was all loaded up to go and pick up my crab traps from HMB.  They've been soaking for three weeks and I wasn't sure what I was gonna find.  Quick run over the hill and get them before the wind, which was forecasted to gust to 25, turned on in the afternoon. 

Instead I chose to go diving.  The first time since last July or August.  But I had fun.  It was good to be back in the water.  I was not particularly comfortable in the water though so it was good we dove a shallow spot first.  Feeling and using the surge, getting into a familiar breathing rhythm helped me get into a happy place. 

Knowing the wind will blow and not knowing how long I will be in the water, I shoot everything I see.  I've got six fish in my critter collector and I'm working this crack because I saw the back of a MFE.  I've not had a good record with this fish.  Just as I decide to shoot the thing in it's back Fuzz comes along.  I always miss fish because that a-hole is watching and judging me.  I miss and quickly blame it on his gun (even though I shot the first six fish no problems).  He bird dogs the MFE head in a small hole and I see it's between two abs with one of the abs in front of the fish.  I go down and rest my shaft on the ab shell with the tip facing the MFE head.  Yeah, I was all ready to pose with this bad boy.  I pull the trigger and pull a tellingly unencumbered shaft out.  I don't need to look up.  I can feel that a-hole shaking his head. 

As we paddle to the next spot I feel the wind on my back and the swell rolling under the kayak.  My OG (Old Guy) senses are tingling and I'm looking at our entry point with a voice in my head saying "I should do the prudent thing and dive those cluster of rocks close to that beach..."  I brush aside that voice and anchor up to dive the second spot.  As i get into the water I see and hear the kayaks getting raised up then angrily slap down on the water.  That voice is back and saying "you're a dumbass..."  I kick over to where the real divers are and make a half dozen drops through the dirty layer to the clear bottom, not seeing much.  I make it back to my kayak and dive onto a cluster of rocks where I spy the head of a ling in a hole.  It's size tells me it's on the border and I didn't want to rob the other two guys of their fun with Jim's ling so I leave it.  On the surface now and one look at the whitecaps and the slapping kayak and that voice simply says "haha, told you so..." 

Shitty paddle back. 

We chill on the beach and a nice lady chats Jim up about his catch.  Ever the ambassador Jim graciously answers her questions and correctly IDs his catch.  She sounded like she knew more than she let on, but leaves us to our tomfoolery.  As we're packing up a DFG truck with two wardens pull up and checked over our catch.  They were friendly and professional.  I knew it.  Jim's new girlfriend NARC'd on us. 

We quickly race to get into traffic and my shoulders are more sore than I can remember them being.  But it was great to be back in the water. 

Nate

LOL!!!

AWESOME write up Nate.

I remember the report of when you first moved back into the area and went out with fuzz and he tried to put you on a monkey....

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=25825.0

The monkeyface eel:  Harold came up from another spot and says there is a nice MFE deep in a cave.  I wanted to shoot one to show my kids as they like that kind of stuff.  The cave is not shallow at just under 43' deep.  I come back from my dive and tell him I don't see it.  He describes the structure and where exactly he saw it.  I go down again and come back without seeing it.  He insists it's there and tells me to keep looking.  After a few more dives he decides to go down and positions my gun to direct me to the eel.  After another few dives looking all over the direction, I don't see it.  With the two of us diving and crawling in the cave the sediment gets stirred up pretty good.  Vis. goes to crap and neither one of us sees anything.  We let it settle and he goes back down. 

Upon his return he tells me that he had "accidentally" mispositioned the gun as well as given me a poor description of where the eel can actually be found.  Said if I looked a few feet to the right of where the gun is, the eel should be right there.  I go down and swim to the "correct" crack and see the downturned mouth of the feel way back in the cave.  The entire opening was no more than 4".  It was so narrow in fact that when I put the gun in position to shoot the eel, my light is completely blocked.  So I lose sight of the eel.  So I'm there swapping out the light and the gun to make sure everything is lined up.  The last series of "gun, light, gun" on the eel, I take the shot immediately after seeing the eel.  Pull on the shaft and no eel.  I think it may have turned just as I replaced the gun with the light.  Harold just looks at me like I used his bathroom but pee'd all over the seat. 

I know that feeling of fuzz shaking his head when I miss or shoot a fish anywhere but in the head, or do any other boneheaded move.   

Really glad you guys came down and hope we do it again soon.

 

Sincerely,

Jim

ps...I still don't think my GF NARCd on us. 

Hey man, you don't gotta be so diligent in digging up the past ok?   

She's a snitch dude, ain't no good.  Next time you see her, slap her with your MFE 

Hey man, you don't gotta be so diligent in digging up the past ok?   

She's a snitch dude, ain't no good.  Next time you see her, slap her with your MFE 

LOL!! That report stuck in my head...for both the quality of the pics/writing, and for how later on when diving with Harold I totally related to what you were saying. 

I should have hit her with my eel...just cuz.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Dang that gunnel looks like killer bait!!

Always enjoy watching your vids

Thanks guys!

Few GoPro screenshots of Fuzz on the bottom, and of the windy conditions before we headed in, and some from dinner last night...

I did the Monkeyface whole in the NuWave Oven and it turned out great, and fileted the Treefish and did nuggets for my daughter Valentina and she gave them two thumbs up.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

that is a heck of crew you had there. I enjoyed giving Nathan crap about his humble stringer 

Nice !
And the music was a little better this time. 

Alex

Awesome video Jim-