Another Day on the Lost Coast - 10/29/08 - VIDEO on page 2

My good buddy Danny, the one who gave me the name Abking so long ago, used to sing to me - we'd be on our way to or from the Summertime river along the main stem or south fork of the Eel.  "Just Another Day at the River!..."  The irony of the song being, we were having the time of our lives playing around out there in the hot weather in our youth - it was NEVER just another day.  Today I found myself singing the old song, but it was "Just Another Day at the Ocean!...", and I had that joyful grin that always accompanied the old tune.   

I took my 5 year old son to a favorite rockfishing spot the other day and we had a blast.  The current and light winds have been from the south the last several days and Monday I noted the water was much clearer than normal, as the south current sometimes pushes clear water inshore south of Cape Mendocino.  The conditions were holding well through midday today so I headed out again this afternoon, this time enlisting the company of my good friend Tim.  He'd bring his 4-wheeler and I'd do my Roleez trip.  We agreed to meet along the beach around 3:30 and head down for an abalone dive and maybe some spearfishing.  I arrived before Tim, loaded my yak and backpack with all my diving gear and some rockfishing stuff, and headed down the beach enjoying the smooth ride of the Roleez.  As I got to the water Tim honked from the highway, and headed up to his access point a couple miles to the north.  I cruised up the beach collecting shells, stills, videos, and trying to pace myself so I'd have plenty of energy for the yakfishdiving to come!   

Tim caught up to me around the buoy and had notions for checking out new territory today, so he headed farther south and I settled on in to my spot.  Unloaded the Roleez, suited up, packed the gear through the low tide rocks and pools, and paddled out to my favorite reef.  I played with the little nibblers for a while and gathered strength for the dive after the trail hike.  I think greenling are sometimes called "sea trout" because of how they bite - I was getting tons of quick, short bites with only one hookup.  I got snagged up on the kelp and could see the gear with the water so clear today, so I suited up in the ab gear and got in the water.  I got some cool footage of grabbing a surprise fatty greenling out of the kelp and went on to discover that there were greenling everywhere down there!  and perch, so that's why I get so many little, short bites!  I NEVER see clarity like this down at my spot, so I was in heaven diving around areas where I usually bonk my face on the bottom due to lack of visibility.  I had my Hawaiian Sling and had noticed the tubing getting little holes...  uh oh...  So I swim out over some boulders that you usually don't ever go near because they cause a breaker and the vis is always crap and there's big holes to get washed into (and never return), and, today, it's just calm and clear.  I see what I think is a big black rockfish, so I pull the tubing of my sling and it snaps in my hand!     I dip down 5' under in 10' of water and verify that there are several blacks schooling about - one of them freaking huge!  I thought to continue the ab dive, possibly grab a dinner if nothing huge presented itself, and then get out and try a jig from the rocks.  It was then, after seeing that huge black rockfish and following it to a cave under a truck-sized boulder, that I found a couple of big abs.  I looked up under a ledge into a cave that you would never see into on a normal day here and saw an ab that I thought at the time, "that could definitely be a 10".  Things look huge under there - it's hard to get used to.  This thing looked huge, but I knew the effect of everything being magnified.  I decided that it was definitely worthy of trying for.  I first took a video of it and the large ab next to it, then I spent about 10 minutes getting my iron under it, going for air, coming back and working it, and I started to wonder if I could get it out of the hole if I did manage to pull it.  The area for my hand and arm to move and pop this thing was very limited, and this wasn't the usual ledge that led back out to me, it was a crack into a large boulder ledge that fell back down into the abyss of big boulders that I couldn't ever get to.  MY worst fear was to pull it and have it fall down into that unreachable area.  I worked it and worked it and finally popped it from the rock - on that dive I tried to get it out the hole of the crevice, but it was wedged.  Abs have this very unique feel to them when they're wedged like that in a spot where you think you can get it out, but it seems to be holding its own and actually pushing up against the opening with its huge and muscular foot!  I went up for air, tried to stay very calm, and came back down on it and worked it back and forth until I had it.  Even on an above-average clarity and calmness day here I couldn't have challenged this ab - no way.  I caught the conditions just right, and I got lucky to pop it, remove it from the hole, and enjoy the grin that comes with Just Another Day...

 

That's a HUGE AB...no wonder you got the name.  Bet it was tasty.
Thanks for the excellent story and report.

Bryan

Serious helmet...very nice.

going over your old tracks someone needs to write a song of that    Great read Eric! & sweet pop-off
LIVINupTOtheLABEL

Awesome Abking, big congrats on the ab. Thanks for the great read and
pictures.

Jedmo

What the heck is that thing pictured in the 5th picture?

Abking,
     Monster ab... awesome post (your Klamath vid still kills me..) Beautiful coast. Thanks for sharing your adventures.

Gue

Huge!

Thanks for dragging us along with you!

Awesome report as always Eric.  Thanks for sharing and a very nice ab.  I hope to get one like that some day....

Norm

I like the narrated stills as a change from the video.

Looks like the life to me!

How sweet it is!  I'm thinking about making another trip to Shelter Cove in early November, if you not too busy, will you join me?

How sweet it is!  I'm thinking about making another trip to Shelter Cove in early November, if you not too busy, will you join me?

I'll do my best, Sonny.  If it's flat enough when you come up we should hit an old-growth spot instead of the Cove.

I like the narrated stills as a change from the video.

Looks like the life to me!

I too felt that the good old post style would be refreshing, Sean.  But a video will follow!     I got the big 10 and its big neighbor on video "in situ" before I pulled it.   

I hope to get one like that some day....

Norm

Hopefully we can do a combo trip next year, Norm.  Abs and rockfish/lingcod.  DaveW's comments on your catching-prowess aren't lost on me.  I could use some Nawm tutiledge on that!   

What the heck is that thing pictured in the 5th picture?

Totem Cabezon carcass, Troy.     I didn't copy Sean and makeout with this one, but I did get a special FisHunter-style video clip under the water.     (How's that for a video teaser   )

great report, you look like Moses on the beached buoy.  Next time hold your paddle up and see if it turns into an eel

So if you used smaller hooks, I suppose you could go perching all year?

So if you used smaller hooks, I suppose you could go perching all year?

Yes, but you'd catch more greenling than perch - that's open all year from the rocks too, but the limit is 1 (or is it 2 now?...).  I will be setting my son up with the small hooks next time so he gets some hookups instead of just bites.  I always use huge hooks because I USED to catch lots of bigger cabs, grassies, blacks and the occassional ling - now it seems I've just been sitting there re-baiting for these small-mouthed sea trout that are good at eating the yummy ab guts and squid off the hook.  The dive was a great way to analyze my rockfishing method - it was also big deja vu, because I've dove on my gear before, come to these same conclusions, changed a little, caught more smaller fish, and went back to the big hooks again - it's a Fishous cycle!