monterey spearfishing report

saturday fish n dive myself and ron met in pacifica grove and had some amazing visibility and chilly water. fishndive and ron did well with rockfish. i spent the day watching lingcod sit and model themselves on rocks. i saw 6 nice lings and they sure are out for spawning season.

visibility was over 40 feet at lovers point

fishndive will post more pictures later.

i got one black rockfish. thats all. did more sight seeing than anything.

John,

Can't wait to see add'l pics.  Makes me wish I were still in shape for diving...  Keep the post's coming so I can live vicariously thru your adventures...

( Hey, I accidentally spelt vicariously right )

Thanks,
Ron

Hey Ron,

It was nice to have decent water for once. Its been a while since conditions allowed for this. I think diving is fun but fishing off the kayak is also great because you hook onto some large fish. the large ones I catch on the kayak are always larger than ones i see spearfishing.

I noticed my wetsuit got tighter over the last few months though so i need to do some more exercise. i almost got stuck in it!

john

I was writing this report and was uploading the pics when the server did not respond and I lost the post ...oh well!
So I will post something shorter with some pics below:
It was a great day in Monterey last Saturday. Ron, JohnfChen and myself went to Otter Cove and split as we paddled out John and I went right off of Lover's point and Ron went way out left past the big rolling breakers.
We had super viz...down to 35 feet at least.... I anchored on a kelp frond (rare in this season) except the kelp frond was actually not anchored to the bottom! Avoid this situation! Oh well, I had to find one that was actually holding to the bottom!
Ok so I got underway and started looking down to ~20ft and gliding around....Nailed 3 grass RF within the first 10 minutes.
I then saw a monkey faced eel in a crack and right behind it was a nice RF resting in the same crack. I aimed at the RF but then felt something heavy pulling at the shaft. I had nailed the eel! And I had cut-off its tail too! I thought...oh well I will eat eel tonight (In fact I cooked it but it did not taste that good....lessons learned).
Later as I dove down this drop-off I see this couple of nice silver perch. The first one I see is decent but then in a split-second I had to adjust my aim because its companion was even bigger...quick rotation of the barrel....whaaack, I nailed it!....Hooked the fish back at my yak ( I never hang fish at my belt....maybe from having spearfished a lot in the south pacific among tax collectors there). So the stringer at my yak was getting heavy, I was nearing my limit in RF.
I had also lowered a bait cage down on a ledge filled with abalone guts (thanks Ron) to attract some cabezon.
First time i checked it, there was a greenling hanging close to it just eying it trying to figure out how to eat the ab guts in it. It was an easy shot....one nice greenling! I then decided to look around some other pinnacles..(Lover's point underwater scenery is like an extension of the point itself).
Down the slope of a pinnacle which was almost touching the surface, at about 25 feet, I see this cab basking in the sun. Whhaaack! I knew it was a 15 incher but not much more. I was already thinking about dinner....
I was getting tired and we decided to pack up and join Ron who was about 1/2 mile from us....It was a bit deeper there down to 45 ft. We found some kelp to tie to and I decided to get down to get my last RF to get my limit.
35ft down, I speared my last RF...not really big but decent. The visibility there was astounding for Monterey.
It was so great to get back into spearfishing after a 3 month hiatus. Great to catch dinner when you can't with a rod.
Here are some pics...The first one is a bit far away, you can't see the fish in detail. I took the other ones back at home.
Alain, Fish'n'dive

Next picture: Greenling and Silver Perch

Olive and Small legal cab
Btw, the olive rf was hanging in kelp trying to become as invisible as possible, I shot it from the surface.
Alain

Here is the Monkey Faced Eel....A face only a monkey faced eel mom would love!

Any underwater pics? 

Hi Mooch,

I need to get my ikelite auto 35 camera fixed by ikelite soon. its not a digital but i can probably scan the pics and post em somehow. i want a housing for the cybershot digital camera but cannot afford it right now. maybe i can find one on ebay.

i would like to start posting some underwater photos soon!

john

i would like to start posting some underwater photos soon

That would be super cool!   

Same here Mooch,
I am planning to get a DC 250 Canon housing for my S1IS camera. Right now I carry it in double zip-locks....not the best. Got to get some WAF points here.
Alain

wow, that's a fat eel! 

I got a new (to me) set of longblades, so I'd like to do a dive trip asap. 

a trip to do some spearfishing would be fun. maybe we can get some folks together to go down to carmel or something one of these weekends when the swell is low.: O )

john

Just an FYI - the silver perch is a rubberlip.

Great pics and report!

Nice picts.

I think that eel is a wolf eel, not a monkey faced eel.

Stuart