Beautiful November Day!!

Forecast was for 8-9 ft swells at 12 seconds...that was about right, but me and Joe aka bloodbath and Joey Williams aka jwilliams still decided to paddle out and see if we could find some deeper reefs and some fishies.

Saw JJQ, Rbark, Trianglelaguna and PablitoPescador at beach and wished them well, then we set off for our spotz.

First up I checked a crack I know and saw a big toothy grin looking back at me from way back inside. Too long of a shot from where I was looking, but I know this crack well and knew that it curved around and I may be able to get a closer shot from around the corner.

Swam over, wiggled in as far as I could and lined up the shot. Shaft went into the Ling's mouth and out his cheek on the other side. 

Nice solid and meaty almost 33 incher. Biggest one I have shot so far this year. Belly was full of rotting greenling (or small Ling couldn't quite tell) but no roe to speak of.

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/catches/1284

Jump back on yak and Joey says "check it out, I found a shaft!" Look over and recognize it right away as MY shaft from an AB Biller that I am loaning (on a long term basis lol) to my young buddy Jesse! He had shot a fish way back in a crack and the old ratty shooting line had broken last time we were there a few months ago! But after checking with Jesse he had recovered the shaft and then when got back to shore couldn't find it...must have fallen off yak while we were still clipped up right there cleaning fish! 

Moved spots to another area I like. A long high ridge that drops off sharply on both sides with deeper boulders and killer structure down beneath.

Checked the ledge where I have taken two nice sheep this year, and found a nice Ling head peeking at me from a side hole.

Called Joey over and tried to explain where the fish was in relation to the marker weight...after a few drops where he couldn't see it, I dropped down and pointed it out...he lines up the shot, pulls the trigger, and pulls out an empty shaft. 

We breath up and drop down again, and luckily the Ling had cooperated and stayed tucked in the hole. Joey didn't miss the second time.

Spend some time hunting off the sides to 50 feet but wasn't finding a lot...started working my way back to yak and come across a nice cabby tucked in a crack. Line up shot and put shaft right through eyeball. Shaft goes deep into crack and gets STUCK. Spend 4 or 5 drops to 40+ feet trying to get shaft loose and just not happening...finally wrap the shooting line around my hand and pull and it breaks right where it connects to shaft.

Joey comes over and offers me his gun to shoot the cab (still skewered on my stuck shaft). He has a beautiful little seasniper so I was nervous about losing his shaft as well so tell him to shoot it!!  Joey shoots the cab but it is so tight against rock that the flopper doesn't have room to deploy.

Joey hands me the gun and I unload one band and drop down again...this time I get a good angle, flopper deploys and pull cab up and off my stuck shaft. 

Lost one shaft, but recovered another one so figure it's a wash. 

Move spots again to an area my buddy Matt showed me last time where there is a BIG school of blues and some killer structure. Pretty exposed spot and kinda intimidating diving so close to the pounding waves, but surge really wasn't that bad and the blues were there in force.

I am now using my back up gun (a tiny little 00 Riffe Paduak Comp) so shoot a blue just to make sure it still works. It does. 

Hunt around and find another nice cab out chilling and don't see any eggs so take him.

Find a 26/27 inch Ling in a cool horizontal crack and after not seeing anything better behind him shoot him in the face. 

Clean the fishies and paddle in with the sun shining and have a few beers back at beach with the fellas.

Great day!! 

Here are some pics and a little mini vid. Kinda heavy on Ling blood but was digging it last night when editing. 



 

Sincerely,

Jim

"That's MY shaft!!"  Classic!!  .....youGUYSareALLWAYShavingFUNdownTHERE! 

beautiful! I recognize that shaft tip!

Awesome!!! I need to get wet soon... ..BTW Jim, looks like you could use some of this right about now..

BTW Jim, looks like you could use some of this right about now..

LOL! Grrr!!! 

I've been told my "salt and pepper" grey hair makes me look distinguished and sexy.

 

 

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

  ...Shit at least you have hair.

 

Found a shaft, lost a shaft, shot some fish, drank some beers... Good times yesterday Jim!!  Had a blast cruising with you and Joe!! 

Found a shaft, lost a shaft, shot some fish, drank some beers... Good times yesterday Jim!!  Had a blast cruising with you and Joe!!

Hell yeah!

That was fun stuff!

Looking forward to doing it again soon!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Can't wait to get wet!
Thx for sharing.
Who had the weight harness????

Can't wait to get wet!
Thx for sharing.
Who had the weight harness????

Joey has the harness.

Looked awesome...my back is telling me to buy one!

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

great read and video
was great seeing you guys out there

I've always wanted to get into diving but you guys were handling each other's shafts way too much for my comfort level yesterday  Was fun seeing you guys on the water! It's always nice fishing next to human fish finders. Bloodbath showed me where to drop and I pulled up a nice ling. Joey and Joe both mentioned how many blacks were swimming around so once I had my ling limit I put on a shrimp fly and caught my limit of blacks and blues. So much fun and fun being above you guys while the carnage was going down

I've always wanted to get into diving but you guys were handling each other's shafts way too much for my comfort level yesterday  Was fun seeing you guys on the water! It's always nice fishing next to human fish finders. Bloodbath showed me where to drop and I pulled up a nice ling. Joey and Joe both mentioned how many blacks were swimming around so once I had my ling limit I put on a shrimp fly and caught my limit of blacks and blues. So much fun and fun being above you guys while the carnage was going down

LOL!

Yeah...shafts, lube, penetration, peeing yourself...all the essentials of a good post dive talk session. 

Cool seeing you out there dude. When/if you wanna try jumping in and checking out what's going on underneath the surface just let us know.

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Can't wait to get wet!
Thx for sharing.
Who had the weight harness????

Joey has the harness.

Looked awesome...my back is telling me to buy one!

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Been doing some serious research on those things.
Just need some first hand info from those who have used them....hint hint.