Playing at Pebble Beach 01/09/11

I was gonna wait for ShellBack to post up, but Andy FM1 is harassing me via PMs so I will start the thread!!

 

The usual suspects (AKA A-Hulls) were hitting up SWS on Saturday but I had to take Valentina to ballet so could only make Sunday. Also worked out that Porky was only free Sunday and Shellback/Jeff wanted to come out and try and spear his first fish, so we made our plans for Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!  

Got a PM from the Mooch that he wanted to come out and play so strapped both yaks on the rig and made it to the pier at 7ish...Jeff and his buddy Darryl were already there waiting! I like these guys!!  

Left the T15 on the beach for Joel and showed the boys where to park the rigs at, and off we went!

Swells were minimal and paddling out on the BigYak I could see the vis was gooooood!!

 

Anchored up at the spot and jumped in and began looking under every rock I could find...after a medium kelpy made its way onto my stringer I come eyeball to eyeball with a fat lunker of a grassy!!  

Nail him broadside and wrestle him into submission and finish him off with a knife through the brain!!  

Find some schooling blues and take out my aggression over the Saints loss on two of them!  

Next up is a Cabbie that I nail from above...good shot, but bend my spear tip a little on the rocks under him!!  

Luckily I brought out a 5 pronged Devils Pitchfork tip that my buddy Jim Okumoto welded...swim back to the board and swap tips and off I go again!  

The tip works GREAT and has no problem holding fish and I pick up another cabbie, a greeenling and a few more rockies including one with a tag that I will turn in!!

Saw several lings out in the open and even got to touch one on the tail with my hand!!  

Spent some time pointing out fish to the other boys and really enjoyed watching them dive down and nail them...or at least try to sometimes!!  

Back at the beach Joel was there chilling and had decided to kick it instead of coming out. Jeff and Darryl and their buddies busted out the weber and the beers and we kicked it and had a great time!!

Back home I measured up the hawg grassy and she was 18 inches...tie for my PB grassy that I got inside the island at SWS with Porky!!  

Each cabbie also had a whole baby abalone in their bellies!!  

Ana and I had 6 people over for dinner and drinks and the 8 of us devoured the grassy and the two cabbies...

Great times with old friends and new....already looking forward to the next time!!

Pics will follow but you should be able to see some here for the time being:

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Also just wanted to say how good it felt to be back in the water after two weeks of being on dry land and mostly drunk and stuffing my face in NOLA....

Felt AWESOME to be diving down, swimming around, hunting/stalking and gaining more experience!!

Last time I was out I lost quite a few fish after I shot them..Joe and Andy said it was because I wasn't securing the double flopper before shooting...I followed their advice and didn't lose any this time!!

Thanks fellas!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Another great report, Love your dive reports

Nice!   

Sweet report... I wish I could of made it out... *got a cold from my little one at Disneyland* LOL

Jim,

I lost two Cabbies yesterday after shooting them. And one Rockie. I never secure the double flopper, it makes a big difference huh?

I got there at 7:38 and you guys had already paddled halfway to the spot.

You forgot to mention one thing.. it was COLD at 7:30      39 degrees cold...

Jim,

I lost two Cabbies yesterday after shooting them. And one Rockie. I never secure the double flopper, it makes a big difference huh?

I got there at 7:38 and you guys had already paddled halfway to the spot.

You forgot to mention one thing.. it was COLD at 7:30      39 degrees cold...

Yeah it WAS cold!! When I was loading the yaks on top of the Montero they were slipping around on the ice!! 

Yeah, I think securing the flopper will help you...I think it makes a smaller hole when it hits them and thus makes it harder to wiggle off?? Maybe?? Worth a try!!

I got two more of Jim Okumoto's tips as well...if you want to try one next time out just let me know...I was really impressed with how well they held the fish...gonna keep using it until Ling season at least...will check with Jim and see if he thinks they will hold a big Ling!!

 

Didn't I see you taking some pics too??? Post em up!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Cough cough**make life easier and switch to single flopper shafts**cough

Cool! Ill try one.

No pics dude... I dont have a water tight camera yet...

Jeff or Darryl

Yeah I think it makes all the difference in the world! I agree with Art I am not A fan of the double floper, Thats why I am shoping for A new more powerful gun! Thanks for the report guys!.......(I got there at 7:38 and you guys had already paddled halfway to the spot.) ....Where you suprissed?????

hmmmm, i think I try the single then.....

Andy, your funny dude..

Yeah I think it makes all the difference in the world! I agree with Art I am not A fan of the double floper, Thats why I am shoping for A new more powerful gun! Thanks for the report guys!.......(I got there at 7:38 and you guys had already paddled halfway to the spot.) ....Where you suprissed?????

I HAD to leave early cuz Shellback and Darryl were there and were ready to go!!

 

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Sorry for the late reply boys, I have still been trying to figure out my new Pentax W90.  And you know a post with no pics is like...well, boring.  So here we go.

I arrived at SWS at 0645


I was followed shortly by my buddy, Darrel (who will one day get on NCKA) and my new friend BigJim.


We unloaded our gear and walked down the steps toward this


We paddled out to the right and anchored to some kelp under this ghetto ass house


Visibility was incredible, I'd say 30'. 


So, Jim, Darrel and myself were swimming around looking for fish to spear.  It was Darrel and I's first time ever spearfishing and we had our Ray Odor Pole Spears and Jim had his gun.  Jim nailed his first fish before I even was able to get my fins on!  The man is a Beast!  Porky showed up shortly after, here he his doing his thing. 


So we are swimming around and Darrel gets a nice Copper!  Awesome!  First speared fish!  I follow suit shortly after with a Perch!  Stoked!  So after a while of swimming around taking shots, missing fish, and looking for fish I come across a nice Copper, Bam!  Nailed him!  I pop my head up to go put the fish in the Yak and...."Dude Where's my Yak?!?!"  Oh shit, there it is, headed out to sea towards the huge breakers on the rocks!  Shit!  So I get my Michael Phelps on and start hauling ass over to it.  I'm fighting through kelp with one arm, and with the other I'm trying to keep my spear from getting tangled in the kelp while keeping the fish on the end of it.  Eventually the kelp got the better of my spear and yanked the fish off, dammit!  Whatever though, I still gotta haul ass and get my yak before it gets smashed!  I get to the yak hop on and notice that Jim had been swimming over that way to help too.  What a guy!  Thanks so much for that buddy!  I paddle back and anchor up to Jim's yak. 

Forget that kelp clip stuff, its all about the anchor system for me from now on, thats what Jim used and it worked for his BigYak and my T15.


So after anchoring up to Jim's BigYak he tells me to come over and spear a Cabbie he spotted on the side of a rock.  He goes down and points it out to me.  I thought he was pointing to the general area where the Cabbie was, but no, he was pointing right to it!  I dove down and came face to face with the fish and didnt even see it!  Jim went down again and pointed it out again and then I was able to see it.  Amazing how camouflaged they are.  I speared him and he ended up an inch short, I felt bad for that.  After that Jim pointed out another rockfish to me to spear and I hit him, but the spear didnt stick.  I think my Paralyzer tip became dull.  A little while later, after a couple more fish had been speared Darrel and I headed in.  Here is scary but proud looking Darell holding up his catch.


To my surprise, Mooch, the Godfather, was on the beach waiting for us!  Upon our landing back at the beach Darell put on a yardsale and lost the middle section of his spear.  Huge bummer.  I came in with no problems and proceeded to set up for a little beach side BBQ.



My friends who were nearby hiking in Big Sur came through and joined us on the beach for lunch.  It was a great day on the water and under the water.  Much thanks go out to BigJim for being our guide and assisting me with the rescue of my yak!  And also big thanks goes out to Mooch for bringing that awesome salsa!  I know there was some talk about who's hookup was better, and to be honest I'm going to say ours was.  We had Mooch.  How can you argue with that?!? Sorry A-Hulls.

A couple other divers who were kicking around on dive boards came in as Darell and I were about to leave and one of them had a huge Eel!  It was way cool!  I load up my stuff and drive home to Fremont and when I get there I notice half of my paddle is gone!  It must have flown out of the back of my truck as I was driving home, huge huge huge bummer.  I dont understand how it did, I had it wedged in between stuff and the paddle part was at the bottom, it must have been just perfect conditions to lift that thing out of the truck bed.  If anyone spots half a paddle on the side of 1 or 101 or 880 hook me up!  Anyhow, I'm looking forward to doing it again and thanks to everyone who was there!

looked like a great day, great write up shellback, thanks for the pics, really showed the day, cameron

Was great meeting you Jeff...really enjoyed diving with all you guys...I dig diving alone, but also really dig being around friends and helping each other find fish etc...

You guys did AWESOME for your first time spearing and I am looking forward to many more shared adventures!

As far as whose hook-up was better....

I gotta say for me...the best hook-up is the one you manage to make it to!!

 

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim