4-16-2011

I aint got no job im a fishin man and id rather have a dog than a dollar.  so lets go banjo ring a ling a ding hooooooooooooo.  have a little hoot anda hollerrrrrrrr!(song from Fox and the Hound after Amus returns from his winter hunt)
  So Big Jim and myself plan to hit up butterfly house today after he got done with his 16 mile run.  Total savage becuase i was tired after just getting my gear on the truck.  but thats why he is big jim.  So im cruising down HWY 1 and im thinking, wouldnt that be funny if I saw him running and sure enough as I am going through seaside I see a Paul Bunyon of a man, purple team in training shirt and gopro strapped to his head.  He was minus the blue ox today.  I would have honked but i dont have a horn.  So i get down to butterfly house and it does not look like its going to be a pleasant dive.  Jim calls and suggests that we should just do Otter cove so i agree and it was a good call.  I passed a couple of divers who said butterfly house was doo doo.  I pull in to otter cove and jim is ready to go, so i hop out of the truck and through my stuff on as fast as I can.  I haul ass down to the beach and jim beats me in the water by a few minutes.  Im looking for that damn shark on the way out and something just does not feel right but i ignore the feeling and continue.  I get out into some deeper water and prepare to complete my first decent.  Head goes down feet go up in the air and I begin to kick.  Turns out that bad feeling was accurate.  My feet never got passed the surface and I bobbed upside down in the water like a buoy becuase my weight belt was in the tool box of my truck.  Who has two thumbs and feels like an idiot??? This Guy!!! so I swim back get my belt and now im all set.  I find a few nice black and yellows but everything is holed up.  water was murky and 10 ft at best.  Jim got a few real nice fish.  you would think after 16 miles the guy would be tired but like a clysdale horse he continues to pull on the stage coach full of Budweiser Light Lime.  I find a few more rock fish, a nice 15.5 inch cab and we decide to work our way in.  No lings today but some divers from sack pulled one out that was just legal by the skin on his ugly chin.  As i am swimming back in I see a nice cab..... and my gun is loaded.  Like in the batman movie Kapow flashed before his eyes.  Im stoked and he turned out to be 17 inches.  I continue to move to shore and pop a kelp rock fish.  as the knife is in his head guess who shows up? that damn leopard shark.  I pull the fish of the spear and ditch him cuase i really want that shark.  I kept him in sight for a half minute or so put could not reload fast enough.  So now it is personal.  New Item at the top of the menu for me is LS from otter cove.  finished the day with two cabs 6 rock fish and a full belly as all of it is gone by way of fish tacos.  Ka-Cow
Big Jim has nice pictures im sure so ill let him to the photography and video.  nice diving with you has always jim.  16 miles and a dive.... No big deal
-hotplate-

Thanks for a good read Darrel.  Hope you get that LS next time 

"I would have honked but I don't have a horn." Hahahaa! I totally know what that's like buddy! Good write up man, can wait to get back in the water with you guys! Two weeks until the Shellback-Hotplate reunion slayfest!

Having a Banquet?  Keep it original. The Legend since 1873.   cant wait to see the vid and pics from jim

I am one tired monkey....16+ miles run, 4 hours of diving, 5+ hours of poker and drinking to raise $$ for a Cure for Cancer!!
 

Ana put in the order for some yummy fish meat to make her granddad a ceviche for his birthday next weekend....picked up some decent rockies, two 15 inch cabbies and a nice 16 inch greenling, but really wanted a meaty Ling or an eel so kept hunting!!

Looking under a ledge I finally find my ling, and a nice sized one at that but had been down for awhile looking and was on the end of my breath so dropped the gun to mark his hole and went back up to catch my breath and calm my heart....

Dive back down and he is gone!!   

After surveying the hole I see it is a pretty deep cave that bends around to the side and I am pretty sure he backed up around the corner out of my sight....spend a long time and a lot of energy diving up and down and exploring all around the rock looking for a side hole and seeing if he would come back into view...no dice!!
 

Keep on hunting and come across a nice fat eel back in a hole....shoot him but can't pull him out and he escapes back into the rock....

Move into the surgy grassy shallows to look for more slippery monkeys and  find another one...once again I can't make the shot stick, and while I am reloading he swims out into the open and I try and tackle him underwater but he is too strong for me and disappears into the boulders!!!   

Getting frustrated cuz I really wanted a nice fat fish to top off the ceviche and my stringer is not that fat yet...finally find a toad of a grassy and stone him from above!!   

Grassy taped put at 18+ inches and is a tie for my PB!
 
By now my legs are cramping on almost every dive so limp my way in and head home to gut fish, shower and head over to Miguel's for the Poker party...we have a great night and I eventually bailed at midnight before I passed out...the boyz were still playing and there was over $450 in the pot for Cancer research!!

Here is a vid from the run (looks best in 720p), and of nailing one cabbie before my battery died, and then some carnage shots from this morning....saved the heads for Ana's grandma to make a soup with!   



Darrel, had a great time diving with you as always bro and look forward to doing it again soon!  Thanks for the offer of the bag of monkey filets...I'll let Ana take a look at what I got vacuum sealed this morning and we'll see if she thinks we need more!!
 
Sincerely,

Jim

WTG guys! Some quality fish right there!!!

Jim, you are a different breed from us all. 16 miles and still got the energy to dive?!?!

Darell, I hope that you get your LS My buddy c&r a nice 4 footer leopard a couple years back from that area, I wonder if its the same one lol. Anyways, third time is a charm

Jim, you are a different breed from us all. 16 miles and still got the energy to dive?!?!

That's not quite how my wife described it...I think the exact words were stupid, crazy and idiotic!

 

Still sore as hell today...well worth it though....as you can see in the video the waters of PG looked WAY too nice not to want to jump in and play, regardless of sore muscles/fatigue!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim