carmel spearfishing report

drove down and arrived around 7am, went to see pacific grove which looked like low tide and pea soup. i ended up doing some diving at monastery in the end. the swells were not bad but the surge was a handful.

as idiots do, i forgot my backrest and decided to go without the kayak since im not a big guy and that thing would have been bousing around on the tops of reefs where i was diving. the tide was that low. all the usual pinnacles i like to cruise over underwater were all dry today.

ended up with one ling cod at 32" from 40' of water. saw another ling cod which was about 3 1/2 feet long but the protruding belly told me this one was a big old pregnant female. i passed on the shot since there will be a lot of babies to come. i sure hope this lady will be able to hunker down deep and have the divers from the dive tourney next weekend miss her. sorry spearos, i got to take sides on the pregnant female this time.

saw a big softball head cabezon hanging out with a smaller one. they were just cruising around together. i think they were a couple. love works in mysterious ways.

in the open away from reefs and kelp there was lots of small anchovies schooling. they were about 10 feet from shore oxygenating their gills in the wash and bubbles.

i saw a lot of small ling cod around a foot long sitting perched in deeper waters.

most rockfish were hiding out from the surge and saw a few black and yellows as well as kelp rockfish. perch were loving the surge and whitewater.

i was alone for a while and then when i dived i heard bubbles. a few scuba divers made the run out to the kelp forest but most i think passed on monastery because of the low tide / surge / thick kelp combo. water felt unusually cold this morning. funny thing is when i got into more kelp it was warmer. maybe that is why otters like wrapping themselves in it like a blanket.

Thanks again for sharing the view from below.  I envy the view.

John, Thanks for the report and thanks for leaving that big hen. You sound like an awesome freediver and conservationist. I passed on Linda Mar today; that minus tide took all the calm out of the morning water, then the wind kicked in for the afternoon. Maybe tomorrow.

John, Thanks for the report and thanks for leaving that big hen. You sound like an awesome freediver and conservationist. I passed on Linda Mar today; that minus tide took all the calm out of the morning water, then the wind kicked in for the afternoon. Maybe tomorrow.

granitedive, its just real neat to see that the lingcod population is doing well and at the rate they grow they will be around for a while. i have never seen so many small ling cod in one area before actually. they look like full grown lings just miniaturized and have a real pointy head. are you diving at linda mar? i have thought about it and have a couple of friends who do it but the closest i came to diving there was when i was showing my friend alain how stable my scupper pro is and when i stood up it got shaky and flipped me back into the water. i remember seeing the kayak from below and the vis was ok that day i would like to dive there sometime. i know that my friends who do dive there get lingcod pretty regularly and they always see good sized ones.

seabreeze, i was going to go to soberanes point but would rather dive there with someone else since the hike up and down is pretty steep. the view down below on a good day is real nice but when the visibility is not that great it feels a bit creepy floating and not being able to see whats around under you.

we'll see how the weather and swells shape up this week! sounds like lots of people got out and did something or another.

John,

It's pretty late in the year for a lingcod to be pregnant. In fact, unlike rockfish who actually become pregnant and give berth to live young, lingcod lay eggs.  Lingcod tend to lay their eggs in the middle of winter and are pretty much done by March (hence the reopening of the season in April) so I'm guessing this lingcod wasn't even full of eggs.  A more likely scenario is that the 3 1/2 ft ling you saw with a big belly had probably just eaten a nice large rockfish or even a smaller ling.

Brian

Brian,  I was thinking of saying the same thing.  I am no biologist though so I thought better to keep my mouth shut. Either way there is a nice ling who hopefully will live to mate again. I have seen a picture of a 50 pound ling.  What is the largest they can grow too?

Jason

Let's see the IGFA all-tackle world record is 76 lbs 9 oz and the state record for Alaksa is 81 lbs 6 oz.  It's probably safe to say they get to about 90 lbs.   

The largest lingcod I ever saw in person was almost 40 lbs and was caught by a reluctant vegan girl.   The marine lab has an annual fishing trip and we charter a boat to ourselves.  The vegan girl went along mostly to drink with her buddies and enjoy the view.  Despite her best efforts she eventually caught a rockfish and sent it back down hoping it would unhook itself and swim away.  About an hour later she almost lost her pole when the lingzilla snagged her rockfish for a snack. With some help from a friend they finally  managed to get the fish to within gaffing range of the deckhand.

Brian

bsteves, thanks for the information. sure is great having resources like this on the board! do you think a large ling cod would attack a person maybe? some of them seen so big i would probably not want to have fish on a stringer closeby when near them. the one i saw had a huge head. simply amazing underwater animals. no two alike and you never know what you'll see.

thanks!

john