Hail Mary Ling at T2B2!!

T2B2 was an incredible success, we had great ocean conditions, 43 divers and 27 anglers signed up, amazing prizes donated by some of our finest, and we raised over $1,800 for Stephanie Clark to help her kick Leukemia's butt!!

You can see the results here:

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=64235.msg729551#msg729551

Here's my story of how the day went down:

Paddled out before sunrise with two guys from Santa Rosa (parvis and Sean) who I met at the Spearing Against Leukemia event at Caspar a few weeks ago.

This was their first time kayak diving and Parvis had a brand new Kraken and I loaned Sean my Perception Tribe 13.5 which actually paddles really well solo for a tandem yak.

Gameplan was to try and get a decent Ling/Cab/Rocky ASAP and then hightail it to look for a halibut before checking in anglers for T2B2 at MBK at 1pm.

First stop was a reef I know where I have had good luck with nice Lings, Cabs, sheep and olives in the past....very quiet this day though and we quickly decided to move to the next spot.

Next spot was fishier and I got a small 18 inch cab and a chunky kelpy to get on the board, and Parvis got a solid 32.5 inch Ling down at almost 50 feet, a PB depth for him!!

Sean was also hitting PB depths and looking strong and comfy in the nice 30+ foot viz we were having.

I made the call to move into a shallower area riddled with holes and cracks where I have taken some of my nicer Lings and Cabs in the past...this area can be hit or miss though and it was pretty much a miss on this day...I did manage to get a better cab (20.5 inches) and a small Ling (25 inches) so at least I had three species on the board.

Jumped back on the yak and checked in with Parvis and Sean, looked at the time, and decided we had time for one more Hail Mary spot on the way back to the beach...

Most of my spots were in the other direction but figured we would just gamble and try a random kelp bed around some of the many reefs on the way back in.

After a bit of paddling we ran into Matt Mattison who had a big old grin on his face, and an even bigger stringer full of fat Lings, a giant cab and some solid rockies!! 

Matt told us he got them all from one pinnacle in about 55 feet of water...I was feeling too tired to hunt that deep so decided to just tie up to a kelp bed right next to where Matt was and work my way closer to shore.

Viz was stellar here, and there were a ton of big blue rockfish around so I took a nice 16 incher.

Found quite a few small Lings but knew I needed a bigger one than the one I already had...

I could hear the clock ticking in my head and when I looked back towards the kayaks I could see Sean had already jumped out and was laying down on his yak and I knew I needed to start working my way back...

Kept dropping and looking in every crack and ledge and hole I could hoping to find the big fish that I had been looking for all day....

When I was about 50 yards from my kayak I did one more drop down to 35 feet and peeked in a promising looking alcove and saw a BEAUTIFUL Ling sitting broadside showing off her mottled pattern and big flared out pectoral fins and massive head!!! 

Line up the shot and my Pathos 75 placed the shaft right through her eyeball.

She exploded and started thrashing in her den and I wasn't taking any chances so tackled her, and after she gave my face a few good headbutts I was able to verify that the shaft was all the way through, got my hand in her gills and rose to the surface with my prize.

At the surface I could see how SOLID this fish was...giant head, gaping mouth, THICK body, empty spawned out belly. PERFECT!!

 

Of course, my GoPro was out of batteries and I was so high on adrenaline that I didn't take the time to get any pics out on the water and we just hightailed it back to shore.

Back at shore we were greeted by Stephanie Clark and her buddy Amanda and Saladfighter and Soleman and Brandon from NCUH.

After a few beers and high fives I measured the Ling and it was a solid 38 inches, and my second biggest one ever!! 

Weighed in at 20 pounds. Not super heavy because of empty belly and no eggs, but that's 100% fine with me!!

Headed over to MBK to meet up with the fellas (always a GREAT time ) and weighed in some nice fish for T2B...when I heard nobody had caught any halibut I cracked another beer and decided not to jump back in the water to stare at sand. 

After it was clear we had measured in fish for anyone interested we loaded up the fish, beer and prizes and rolled over to the Triton Open check in at Oak Newton Park along with Steve 57fishy and Pat Reelcrazy831.

I had made the decision to start earlier than the required Triton check in so my fish didn't count but was stoked to see my buddy Matt Mattison get 2nd place and Biggest Ling, and Jason O'Donnell get 3rd!! Great job guys!! 

After 3pm had passed and we had made a last call announcement for T2B fish (and had someone else double check my math and the top 5 scores) we announced the winners and handed out the prizes!

Still in shock that I managed to get that beautiful Hail Mary Ling and pull out a win and that the Piscean Plaque is now on the wall at my office!!

Here is a little vid of my first three little fish...of course my GoPro battery died before I got the bigger Cab, Blue and nice Ling.

 



 

Sincerely,

Jim

Some carnage pics.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Congrats Jim for the T2B2 champion!  Thanks for the report, pictures, and video.

NICE!

your office is starting to look like my house

that is a really nice ling in anyone's book. Congrats!

Triton Open and T2B spearing events recap,

This last weekend May 2nd was the 2105 Triton Open hosted by the Monterey Bay Triton dive club along with this annual event there was a Fundraiser being co-hosted as well called the Top to Bottom “T2B” for short where hook and line fishermen competed against spero’s with the proceeds going to The Clark family to help with their fight against Leukemia and the cost that goes along with treatment. The T2B was organized by one of our Norcal divers and member of Red Triangle Spearfishing Team Big Jim Russell who most of us know or have heard of.  There was a total of 40 Divers and 27 Kayak Anglers entered into this event, so far have raised $1,705.

A little overview of the 2 events, The Triton open event was 6 fish comp meaning your 6 biggest fish combined for a total weight along with a big ling Cod category. We were free to dive anywhere we wanted just had to be out of the water by 230 pm and back to the weigh in table by 3pm. What is nice about this event the Monterey Bay triton breaking it up into experienced, beginner, JR and women’s divisions which gives all levels of divers a shot at winning. The T2B event was set up as 4 fish event with categories done by length for Halibut, ling Cod, Rock fish and cabazone with the scoring being done in a points system as follows.
Rockfish= 8 points per an inch, Cabezon=8 points per an inch, Lingcod= 5 points per an inch and Halibut= 5 points per an inch.

Alright Morning of the event myself and my fellow Red Triangle teammate Jason O’Donnell were up nice early and on our way over to the Divers safety meeting and sign in for the events. After a short wait and signing all waivers and saying hellos to everyone we hit the road to our dive site. Jason I quickly got suited and wheeled our kayaks down to the water and started our long paddle out the outer reefs which is about a 1.5 miles give or take. The paddle out was not to bad a little chop and a little wind but nothing horrible. We found some nice structure and rock piles on the depth finders and tied up our kayaks. Jason and I both chose separate areas about 100ft apart to work so not to be on top of one another. The Visibility was good easy 25 maybe a hazy 30.

I started making drops in the 30 to 40ft range but not seeing fish of the size I wanted, the one good thing was to seeing the healthy ling fishery, just about every dive I would come across a small to just legal lings but I left them all to grow bigger. I worked the area with my for about 30 min mostly working the schooling fish with Panthos 82cm   man this thing shoots like a laser !!! Pulled the trigger twice and had 2 hits right on the intended area of the fish!!! Ended up with one nice kelp rock fish and a nice fat blue rock fish. I then relocated to another rock pile. There was not much there once again lots of schooling small blues and blacks. I move to another spot and at this point I was only focusing on lings and cabs so I made the switch over to my Panthos 60cm for hole hunting, the size and the way this gun is set up is bad ass a ton of power in a compact gun, perfect for nailing ling cabs in those tight holes. I finally come across a decent ling, a nice 30 inch 9 pounder. I work the area for about a hr. coming across more small mid water column schooling fish and just legal lings. I made one more final move and this was the best one of the day a nice rock pile a little further out in the kelp bed and off shore in about 40ft-50ft of water. On my first drop down I come across a nice 32 inch 10.5 pound ling whack!!!  I go over to the Kayak string it up and head back over to this rock pile next drop down on the other side of the pile I come across another nice ling Whack!!! 32 inch 10.5 pound ling yes!!!! 2 dives 2 lings!!! I go string him up and head back over and make another drop on this rock pile and what’d I find in one of the holes, a nice big ass cab head looking at me whack!!! 23.5 inch cab!!! Hell yea!! I start signing in my snorkel lol, 3 drops 3 nice fish!!! At this point I have 2 nice lings a nice cab, nice kelp rock fish and Blue rock fish, by this point I only need one more ling to round out my stringer. I move to one last spot and come across another 30 inch 9+ pound ling. At that point I call it a day. I start my paddle back in which took about 45min to get to shore. Jason arrives shortly after me and we load all the gear up and rush back to sign/weigh in.
We make it back to the weigh in at Oak Newton Park, with plenty of time. I submit my fish to the Triton Open. The final standing for the experienced division was Alex Reynaud in 1st with 6 fish with a weight of 43.26 pounds and a score of 49.26
This is where Team Red Triangle took over!!! I ended up taking 2nd place with6 fish and a total stringer weight of 41.30 pounds with a total score of 47.30 points; I was lucky enough to also when the Big ling of the comp as well with my 32 inch 10.54 ling cod, Jason O’Donnell took 3rd with 6 fish for a weight of 31.42 pounds and total score of 37.42, 4th place Rick Duenas - 6 fish / 24.46lbs for 30.46 points 5th place Chris Chaput - 4 fish / 26.04lbs for 30.04 points. in all a great showing by all that competed.





 
 
I would like to thank the Monterey Bay Triton Dive Club for hosting this event and thank Greg and Vanessa from the Freedive shop for donating all the raffle items for the raffle.

Now as for the Top 2 Bottom comp, to recap The T2B event was set up as 4 fish event with categories done by length for Halibut, ling Cod, Rock fish and cabazone with the scoring being done in a points system as follows.
Rockfish= 8 points per an inch, Cabezon=8 points per an inch, Lingcod= 5 points per an inch and Halibut= 5 points per an inch.
The final rankings were as follows, this was a clean sweep by Team Red Triangle Spearfishing, Big Jim Russell in first place with 3 fish and a monster toad of a ling that went 20 pounds and 38 inches!!!



 I took second with 3 fish and Kris Cortez taking 3rd with 3 fish and 4th place being taken by the only hook and line fishermen Coleman Cosby. I have to say it was great event and great times and all for a awesome cause.  I want to send a huge shout out and thank you to Sean Walker for the awesome plaque just like in STAR TREK  DAM YOU JIM !!!!! I wanted it so close but it could not have gone to a better guy and diver.
 I also want to thank the following Amadeo Bachar for donating those 2 awesome prints for 2nd and 3rd place and Dennis Shu for the Lawrence Fish finder for the 4th place prize and would like to thank Bill Perrymann for the Handmade razor and stand for 5th place.Thank you all for your support and thank you all to who either donated cash donations and or competed. This event was just one more example of awesome our Norcal community is. I will close with these final team pictures Red Triangle spearfishing pictures from the day.


 
In closing I want to thank my awesome and very generous Sponsors Red Triangle spearfishing Thank you Matt and Suzie Lopez. Also stoked and honored to be apart of a such great group and talented group of divers on Team Red Triangle Spearfishing.

Way cool. Thanks for the recap, guys. And congrats too!

congrats Jim

Noice, interesting video too

Thanks fellas!

Ate the massive head last night...did it in the NuWave oven with a little bit of olive oil to keep the skin from sticking to the cheeks, and some Tony Chacheres and Cilantro and Garlic Cloves for taste.

 

So.Good!

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

So sad that the Beast wasn't captured on video, but your recount gives me a great visual of the underwater battle    Those cheeks, do they puff out like that when you cook the head?!  I've tried to cut them out, of my tiny by comparison lings, but think I'll try baking the head whole next time now!  Scary yummy! 

So sad that the Beast wasn't captured on video, but your recount gives me a great visual of the underwater battle    Those cheeks, do they puff out like that when you cook the head?!  I've tried to cut them out, of my tiny by comparison lings, but think I'll try baking the head whole next time now!  Scary yummy! 

Thanks Al! yeah, I'm super bummed I didn't get it in vid either but oh well! 

Yeah when cooked they kinda puff out when the skin shrinks it seems...

Cooking the whole head is the way to go IMO...SO MUCH meat in there...not just the cheeks, but all the other yummy head meat that you really can only get by cooking it whole.

You can cut the whole head off with collars still attached, rub it with some olive oil, add whatever spices etc you want, wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil and throw it in the BBQ.

Will look scary when you serve it but once you start digging in and eating the yumminess you won't mind.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Great ling, Jim!  Congrats.   

Thanks again everybody!

Just finished eating the big Ling last night...

We ate all the filets fresh with family and friends.

Cooked the head whole and ate all the meat off it.

My daughter's soccer coach took the skeleton, collars and belly/rib meat and made a soup for him and his family.

Only parts of that whole fish that didn't get cooked and eaten were the guts and the skin.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

I was about to do BigJim style  backed Ling Head for dinner the other night.  

However when I was trying to remove the guts from the head one of these things fell out of the gills and I lost my appetite