Fuzz & Spinal Tap - Monterey kayak dive

When I grow up I wanna be just like you guys! Awsome report, thanks...P.S You can pm me your gps cordinates if you wanted too! 

WOW ! real stuff!

That is a helluva welcome back. Congrats on the fat ling!!

That underwater shot of diver & ling is sweet! Thanks. jim

Where's the other red, kelpie and monkey faced eel?  

Brutal!
I felt bad & left that out on purpose, but since you asked... fair game!  

As I recall, his excuses (in order) were - fish farther than originally thought, defective gun doesn't shoot straight, and hand blocked flashlight.  

OK, OK...I missed a few fish.  I'm being called out so I feel a need to 'splain myself.  

The kelpie:  The first fish I took a shot at was a HUUUUUGE kelp bass.  The thing looked a good 4 to 4 1/2lbs.  Now a little back story.  As we're paddling out to the dive spots, Harold tells me he brought a special gun for me to use...a Hammerhead 90cm speargun with 2 new bands tied extra short so it wouldn't lack any power.  I figure I had the reach of a 90cm gun especially with the fresh short bands.  But with any new piece of equipment I like to test it a repeatedly and often to learn the way it behaves and how I might incorporate it into my diving style.  So when he pulls the gun out of his hatch, I see that it's appears shorter than the 90cm he had claimed, but he clips on the floatline and quickly dumps it into the water where it sinks beneath the kelp.  

On the very first drop I see this big kelp bass next to a stalk of kelp and using the kelp strings as a gauge, I knew that the fish was very big.  Remembering that Harold intimated to me that one of his many many pet peeves is that he will not tolerate a dive buddy who does not head shoots fish.  OK, back to this monster kelpie...with the gun in the fire position and using my left hand I slowly finger walk myself across the bottom to get myself within range.  About 9 feet from the fish it reacts to my presence and moves behind the stringer.  At this point I kick hard a few times to close the gap and fire.  I aimed for the eye but see that my shaft is flying much longer than I expected.  The shaft does hit the fish, but hits it very close to the anal fin and as the fish bolts my shaft is left on the ocean floor.  When I tell Harold that I must missed a kelpie on a long shot, he tells me that the gun was actually a 65cm gun and would be best used for hunting in holes.  

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.  

The red: This one isn't as long or interesting.After six hours of diving Harold takes me to the deepest spot.  He comes up from a dive and says there's a red on the bottom.  I breathe up and head down.  My weighed kind of heavy so I start gliding pretty good at about 35'.  At 50' I'm sinking uncomfortably fast.  A few seconds later I have to brace myself or the impact with the bottom would hurt.  I get there and wait.  Fish start to swarm but not red.  The next drop, Harold comes down with me and as I'm down there I see a light greyish fish swim towards me.  I approach it and as we close the gap I see that it's reddish in color.  I aim and shoot but the shaft goes in a funny downward and to the left trajectory.  On the surface I see that one of the bands has a hole in it.  Literally there is a hole about the size of a whole peppercorn so that I can see the inside of the  band.  I'm guessing it greatly diminished the power of that gun.  I thought he said the bands were fresh? 

Well, those are my stories and I'm sticking to them. 

So thanks for taking the time to read my missed opportunities.  I need to go out with Fuzz more to learn his jedi ways.  I urge all you beginner diver hunters to PM him with any questions.  We are lucky to have someone so experienced as the dive moderator.  

Thanks again Harold,
Nate

 


I was expecting "I was being a sportsman and fired a warning shot to make it more challenging!"   

wow great diving and under water hunting report! That Ling looks huge too! I sometimes wish and want to dive myself to be able to see all the life underneath the water!...Think im afraid of that Blackdeath tho....and the expenses of dive gear! great report, fw.

Okay guys you make me want to try your sport.  I think I really want to learn how to dive and spear my fish like that in Monterey.  Can you guys recommend on how I should start?  I've free dive and scuba before but in warmer waters of the PI where there are no kelp and surf like in Monterey.  So I know a little bit but I know it's not the same.  Is there a good basic training school in Monterey that will train you how to free dive at those depths and show you how to spear?  Thanks.

Rey

You guys are totally stud divers. Do you guys find that its easier to attain greater depth when the viz is excellent? I havent dove much in the last 2 years but I swear I could dive deeper when the viz was 20+. Then I go back where its 6-8ft and I cant seem to get down to 30+. Brain?

No calicos? Lame.
Haha just kidding, that is an awesomely inspiring dive report! Thanks!

Amazing! Thanks for the great report and pics. That was fun. Welcome back Spinal Tap.

Z

Totally awesome!  I love your followup report too, Nate.  Well done, Jedi Master and Padawan.   

I've pole speared fish smaller than that   ......that's what you call marksmanship. You fellas don't impress me at all 

Nice pics!!!

Thank you everyone for the nice comments.  Now I feel guilty and must come clean. 

I wasn't wearing a dive watch so I had no idea what depths I was diving.  I threw in some depths as a kind of an inside joke with Fuzz because I always say that if I don't weigh my fish or if I don't have a depth gauge, then I'm not technically lying when I give estimates on weights and depth.   That spot where I said was a little shallower than 43'.  I think Fuzz said it was 22'.   

That ling wasn't weighed but it looks big mainly due to Fuzz's camera skills. 

Lapulapu,
I'm not aware of any shop or school that teaches spearfishing in Monterey.  I think there is one class that is taught by Daryl Wong and Sheri Daye and they're associated with Performance Freediving International. 

Ravensblack,
Absolutely the visibility is a big determining factor in my depth and bottom time.  But when it's dirty, I really don't want to get in the water anyways. 

Nate

Holy crap!!! That ling is a monster. Great shooting guys. Really impressive stuff 

-FF