Yak dive & fish 9/12

After I swore this year all my dives would be off the yak I finally got a yak dive in after 4 shore dives. Joined by William102 & M2 we thought the conditions would be prime after the amazing weather on Saturday's AOTD. Unfortunately it wasn't quite so nice with a little more swell, chop, & south wind creating a pretty good drift and decreasing the vis but not too bad. I knew all week my left ear was clogged but never got around to unclogging it and paid the price during the dive and couldn't equalize very well. My abs were 'tiny' according to M2 and I'm really lucky I got any abs at all being wiped out from the AOTD. I stuck a Q-tip, yes I bring them in my dive bag, in my ear after diving and pulled out a gob of wax that could have waxed a whole surfboard.   Fishing started off slow and I almost gave up when the bite finally kicked in and we all started to pick up a few nice rf and both Will and M2 scored lings too.
Highlight of the day was William's first ever solid 9" ab after many many 8.99"er's. Congrats bro!
 M2's abs were also thick 9"ers unlike my pinners.  

One thing I forgot about yak-diving is because the yak is anchored once you move away from it there's no place to crawl up on, float-tube or boogieboard, to take your mask off and blow your nose or chill out & rest. This is hard to do when it's choppy and I burned up alot of energy kicking to keep my head up. Then you waste more energy kicking back to the yak to drop off the first and second ab. I think I will take the float tube next time with a little CO2 inflater to fill it and a shrader core remover to quickly deflate it. Yeah I know.....wimpy  .....but if it'll help me to consistently get bigger meatier abs then ****  it.

It was fun diving & fishing with you guys. See you soon. jim

Great haul and a fun report to read and see.  I like your idea for the float tube inflator system.  I cruise with a buoy when it's too cumbersome to drag the yak - it helps to have smaller yaks in the arsenal too.

 

Not a bad haul for a combo fish & dive day.  Thanks for the report and pictures Jim.

Nice to finally see those pics!
Jim, if it's any consolation, that second ab I got had a miserably small foot. Yours look thicker in the picture. But I'd hide those shells if I were you

Let's do it again.
Andrew

NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great report and pics Jim..."pinner" abs or no that is a GREAT harvest!!

Congrats fellas and thanks for sharing!!
 
Sincerely,

Jim

Great haul of fish and abs!!!
Any time you can can carry your limit from the water is a succesful dive
congrats William on the 9"

Thats A great bounty! Way to go! I usually strap my boogie board to the back of the yak on dives way easyier...Thanks for the report....

Nice Haul!!!   

great looking day guys, congrats on all the fresh groceries, jim, did you find the leak? thanks for the report and pics, cameron

That's a nice lookin haul for all you guys,

I usually drag the whole inflated tube in the back of the yak  it is a PITA tho.

love those pics !! Keep em coming.
any day fish n' diving has to be a great day indeed.

nice harvest!

I have a smaller tube with pool noodles inside instead of a tube. Very easy to transport on a kayak.

Tote, do you mind taking a pic and posting it of your smaller tube bag? Where did you get it? Thanks, jim

Killer report Jim! Everyone did well, swell, what the hell.