Kurious George And the Monkey

Made a plan with George to take him out and hopefully get him on a fish or two...

I made the call to go to a shallow area I know where I can often find cabs, monkeys, grassies etc in shallow.

Unfortunately the kelp was SUPER overgrown and underneath the canopy it was dark and green and murky and really not very fun diving. 

I came across a nice chunky Ling early on and put my gun next to it hoping to mark it for George to shoot, but it took off right away. 

Then I found a nice ledge I know where we have taken monkeys and cabs before....at first I couldnt find anybody home, but after searching more thoroughly I came across a decent cabbie chilling in the side of it...

Marked the cabbie and tried to get george to come down and shoot it but the thick matted kelp made it hard for him to get down, so after awhile we decided I would just shoot it and we would try somewhere else.

The cab was tucked back in the angled crack pretty good and it took me a sec to line up the shot, but the Pathos 60 is an excellent hole gun and I was able to place a nice shot right into his eyeball. 18/19 inches, no monster but still a nice eating size fish. 

Headed to one of my secret shallow monkey cracks and found a nice little monkey chilling in the corner of the crack and I lit up the monkey and George came down and skewered him. 

Great job George!!!   

Right about then the fan turned on which botched my plan to paddle to a more remote reef...George decided to head back to shore, and I stopped at one more area on the way in and blasted 4 monkeys real quick.

 

Only took one cruddy pic back at the beach but here is a little mini vid...of course battery ran out before I blasted the last 3 monkeys lol:



It was fun getting out there with George and I gifted him 2 of my monkeys as well so he could have a bunch of monkey meat to try.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Way to get out there!  Awesome of you to show the way, Jim. 

What happened when a guru took a rookie out spear fishing? A lot of stories.

Jim is a super nice guy to take me to his secret hunting ground and to show me how to spear fish. He even offered to bring his yak to use for me. When I arrived at SWS on time, Jim is already unloaded both yaks and left it on the beach. I performed his special protocol, shook hands.  He headed out first. I suited myself up. Then headed out to paddle. Begin of the stories. 

Paddle to the hunting field.
So I launched, paddled, got sore arm, went to find Jim. Found his black Kraken with dive flag, parked by the edge of a huge blanket of thick kelp. No Jim.  Looked around and around, all of a sudden a flapper stick out of the kelp. There he is. He said, "come down, I found you a cab. I marked it for you with the blue float line."  I said, "Jim, I have to go back. I forgot my weight belt."  .  "Ok. Go get it. I'll wait for you.", Jim said. So I headed back to get my stupid weight belt! Sore arm, paddled hard in the 7mm neoprene farmer john wetsuit cooker  . 

Hunting round 1, Cabezon.
An hour later I came back with my weight belt. I swam to Jim. He said, "The Cab is still there waiting for you." Wow, fish still there? I smiled. Viz aren't as bad under the kelp. But the darn kelp are so thick I had to push open a small hole to dive down. Tried once, twice, can't find the fish. Then, I stick my head out of the kelp, where is my snorkel?  I told Jim. He immediate went into search mode. After several dive he found my snorkel  Then we decide to move to a shallower spot. He took the cab in one dive. Then we left.

Hunting round 2, Monkey faced eel.
He took me to a rock with water about 10 ft deep. With a search, he found an eel in the crack. I looked down. No fish. Looked down again, my cheappy dive light died. Jim Offered his. I dove down, still no fish.  Then he said, "I'll dive down and point the light to the eel, you check it out. " "Ok" I said. He went down, 30 second later, I went down. Yes. There is a black fish, swim around in the hole, irritated!. I run out of my breath, surfaced. 30 seconds later, Jim surfaced. How can he stay down so long?  I am puzzled. I felt like he can stay as long as he wanted.  Came to surface, he told me he will go point the light again. I will shoot the fish this time. I smoothed my breath, he give me an ok sign, I waved hand wanted longer rest. When he hand signed "Ok?" the 2nd time, I was ready. Again, he went down, point the light, I went down, point the spear to the fish, trigger.  Jim said "I think you got it man!" He later retrieved the fish. Bingo, the fish was speared shish kebab style! Stocked!

A lot of times I wish I can get fish like Jim. And I wished i knew the secret spots he went to. I am also sure I represents a lot of us!  Now I know why Jim always has fish. Because he can hold breath in the water for a long time. And because he can dive in the places I didn't even dare to dive 

Thank you Jim. I look forward to dive with you again.

Attached is my lunch today, monkey faced eel.

Really glad you had fun George!!

Proud of you for hanging in there even with having to backtrack for the weight belt, the stupid thick kelp, lost snorkel and dead light...most folks would have just said F it and gone home. 

You earned that monkey and I hope you enjoy eating it and the other 2!

Get yourself a new dive light and lemme know when you wanna come out again....even if we are diving deeper it is good practice to work on equalizing and increasing your comfort in the water.

I got some more spots out there I think you will like as well.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Yes, Jim IS part amphibian.

Glad you guys got out there.  Don't worry George.  You will get better with practice.

Yes, Jim IS part amphibian.

none of you bother to look behind his ear,im sure he has gills like kevin Costner in waterworld
on another note I feel bad so I have to confess.all that hard work you put into your writing I rarely read it I just scroll down to the youtube link.
whew!feels good to finally confess

Awesome report dude! Kudos for getting a noob on the feesh

Glad you guys got out there.  Don't worry George.  You will get better with practice.

Thanks DG. Btw, you said besides the dive light Jim use, you want to have something even brighter. What light did you finally get.

Thanks DG. Btw, you said besides the dive light Jim use, you want to have something even brighter. What light did you finally get.

I still have the same one as Jim.  Been looking to upgrade and use it as a spare but haven't found one I like at a good price.  I want to at least double the lumens.  Went diving with someone who had 1200 lumen light and it lit up the entire cave.  It was awesome but probably a $500 light. 

Thanks DG. Btw, you said besides the dive light Jim use, you want to have something even brighter. What light did you finally get.

I still have the same one as Jim.  Been looking to upgrade and use it as a spare but haven't found one I like at a good price.  I want to at least double the lumens.  Went diving with someone who had 1200 lumen light and it lit up the entire cave.  It was awesome but probably a $500 light.

theres an oceanic light on sale on leisure pro

Thanks DG. Btw, you said besides the dive light Jim use, you want to have something even brighter. What light did you finally get.

I still have the same one as Jim.  Been looking to upgrade and use it as a spare but haven't found one I like at a good price.  I want to at least double the lumens.  Went diving with someone who had 1200 lumen light and it lit up the entire cave.  It was awesome but probably a $500 light.

$500 is too steep. I have 2 cheapies. One still working. will run out of battery quickly. Until I found a good deal, I'll just keep buying more batteries .

Thanks DG. Btw, you said besides the dive light Jim use, you want to have something even brighter. What light did you finally get.

I still have the same one as Jim.  Been looking to upgrade and use it as a spare but haven't found one I like at a good price.  I want to at least double the lumens.  Went diving with someone who had 1200 lumen light and it lit up the entire cave.  It was awesome but probably a $500 light.

theres an oceanic light on sale on leisure pro

Thanks Dune12 for the info.

Are those things fit to eat?

Are those things fit to eat?

I give those monkeys to my relative. He fried them nugget style with skin. They are very tasty. I didn't have enough from last night dinner. So I brought some for lunch today.