RPT: 1/23 Monterey

After the bad vis and nothing-to-write-home-about fish over the weekend, I had the opportunity for a quick solo dive yesterday late in the afternoon. The swell was down compared to the double digits we dove on Sat & Sun, and with a long point swell and king tide I wasn't sure what to expect. Went to an old faithful spot that is typically blown out (so when the water cooperates, I love diving here). I was surprised to find visibility nearly 25' and hardly any water movement once you got out to deeper water. The top was super choppy due to wind, which made my breath ups harder, but it was a very pleasant afternoon of diving. I've been having a lot of fun just targeting one fish from each species so long as it's bigger than the last one I shot for DOTY which means I typically don't shoot more than 3 or 4 fish so far.

It took some swimming to find the big school of blues with other mixed RF but once I did, I put some semi-nice fish on the stringer. I also stalked a really nice 20"+ cabezon but was at the end of my breath hold and didn't want to shoot unless I was sure it was a good shot, so that one got away. I was getting toward the end of my dive when I FINALLY dove down on a cave I marked in about 45 fow, and was greeted with a large ling head looking right at me. I was at the beginning of my breath hold, lungs full of air, so I just pointed the light and enjoyed FINALLY finding a decent ling. I tried super hard at the end of last year to get a good one with no luck so I just sat and looked at it for a few moments before finally pulling the trigger. Man, I was stoked. It's still not the 30"+ that I'm hoping to find this year, but it sure felt good. Looking forward to Ling Roe Scrambled Eggs and ling cheeks in the morning!

I will likely not be diving much over the next couple months since our little Baby Bella is almost here, so if this was my last dive for a while, I sure enjoyed it!

Thanks for your report
I like your selective attitude towards take this year
Waiting for the “better GoPro footage” part of your resolution
Haha
Blessings to you and your budding family
☮️

Thanks for the report. Great write up 👍👍

Thanks for your report
I like your selective attitude towards take this year
Waiting for the “better GoPro footage” part of your resolution
Haha
Blessings to you and your budding family
☮️

I had it with me over the weekend but left it on the dive board due to bad vis... then figured vis would not be great yesterday so I didn't bring it! Shame on me!

Thanks for the diving report TK.