Seafood Combo! (Food Porn on page2)

Paddled out into a pretty strong headwind at first light in a brand new shiny, sexy Jackson Kayak Cruise 12 that Sean Morley loaned to me...

Sean is a certified bad ass and he dropped the yak off with Dave Grigsby from Kayak Connection when he was in SC last weekend for the PaddleFest.

http://jacksonkayak.com/team-jk/exploration-team/sean-morley/

Stoked that I got the pleasure and honor of demoing the beautiful boat and getting her salty and bloody for the first time.

Yak handled the mixed swell and wind chop great, and even though it is a shorter yak than I have been paddling recently it tracked really well. 

Tied off to the kelp in a new (for me) area and jumped in to start exploring.

Great structure, good viz and abundant blues and a few schooling olives got my day off to a good start. 

Wasn't finding any Cabs or Lings though and wanted more than just regular old rockies, so decided to work my way back to the yak covering some deeper territory along the way.

Dropped down to 45 feet and see the grey mottled back of a nice Verm sitting out amongst the boulders at the base of a big pinnacle. Take my time gliding up on the nice fish and it starts to head off around a corner but I pop it right in the shoulder and the shaft goes right through the head, and the fish sinks to the bottom quivering. 

Only 16 inches, but my first verm of 2014, fourth one ever, and first one I have ever hunted down in Carmel. Stoked!! 

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/catches/989

Paddle to another spot I know and pick up a nice 19 inch cab, a yummy kelpy and a 27 inch Ling along with a surprise treat of an octopus that I hand grabbed while it was crawling along the bottom.  Smallest GPO I have ever seen but it will taste great tonight!! 

Move one more time and pick up a 28 inch Ling, another blue and an 18 inch cab to finish off both my RCG and Ling limits.

Enjoyed the paddle back in with a nice tail wind, and at the beach saw a guy (Sean Herrero) that I know from facebook but have never actually met in person. Super nice guy and he gave me a ride to where I had parked my car, and his buddy took a pic of me with my fishies. 

Sean makes these killer GoBro Grips for your GoPro which are super fun to use:

http://www.gobrogrips.com/

Great day in the water and really enjoyed diving off the Cruise12. Thought it paddled really well, and had plenty of storage for my dive gear, and was easy to jump on and off. Super nice dive platform!

Anyway, here are some pics and a little vid I made last night.

 



 

Sincerely,

Jim

Another AWESOME video Jim!  I'm so glad you got another GoPro.

I hope Sean wasn't expecting his kayak back without the smell and guts of dead fish all over it. 

That Grip is awesome.  Simple, adaptive ... just the ticket!

Love the yak & fish carnage ... as usual!

~Bill

SAWEET!!!! Great job bro!

Nice haul as always, well done!

Mad boy grabs the Cabazone with a fistful of eel 

Nice seafood bar display! 

excellent!!!!
thanks...wow

Wow, Nice job and great vid !

Nice haul there Jim.

Jedmo

sweet….. !!

Thanks for the great report, pictures, and video Jim.

Nice variety there Jim! Love the free swimming ling shoot. Also the shallow water verms are tough to find! Congrats man!

That could be a trip of a lifetime for many. Congrats on another dive hunt and one with such variety!

Thanks for sharing Jim! Another awesome write up and video!!!!

If you pause the video at 5:10 you can see the lings eyes seem to be pushed out of its head by the spear shaft!

Mahalo

Isao