Jesse and the LingCod

Made a plan awhile back with fuzz to go explore in southern Monterey County and hopefully get a decent fish or two to get some new UW pics...I then heard my young buddy Jesse was having a tough time after he seperated from his wife so we invited him along to come out and play and get some water therapy and to spend the day with us.

Went to an area where I have never been and where fuzz had only been once...ran into our buddy Jack and his wife at the parking lot and after BSing for a bit we all headed out. Super beautiful area, excellent conditions and felt great to be paddling across the flat glassy seas...

Hit up a shallowish area to start and warm up, and I got lucky and took a nice chunky 30 inch Ling and a solid 21 inch cabbie to get the day started off right.

Jesse scored as well and found and took a nice cabbie! The smile on his face was priceless and we were all stoked for him!

Fuzz shot some steamer sized kelpies and then we jumped back in the yaks and paddled to the next area...target fish was vermillion and we started doing drop after drop down to 55+ feet looking for structure and fish.

Very dark and green under the thick matted kelp, and I wasn't seeing a lot of life but kept moving and dropping and looking....

Dropped down to the bottom and a NICE stocky Ling cruised underneath me and up and over a boulder and I was able to shoot him in the head before he could get away. 

Stoked on the range and power and accuracy of my Pathos 75!

Swam the Ling back to the yak and then heard fuzz call my name and saw him holding up a verm, and he said he had seen some more in the same rockpile.   

Paddled over and jumped in and cruised down to find a bunch of nice size schooling blues and blacks...but couldn't see any verms. 

10 or so dives later, a nice 18+ inch olive came by so I took him.

Few more dives later and I finally found a verm chilling so took him....not a big one, but still a verm so I was stoked! 

Fuzz and Jesse picked off some of the chunky schooling blues, then Jack had to paddle back in so we started spot hopping around looking for another fishy spot, but just couldn't find what we were looking for so decided to take some pics with fuzz' fancy camera and then head back to the first area...

I started cruising around in about 30/35 feet scouring the boulders and peeking in cracks and holes to see what hidden treasures I might be able to find...

Dropped down and saw a small horizontal crack at the base of a nice boulder....at first peek it appeared empty, but then laid all the way down and put my face flat against the bottom and looked all the way in and saw a BIG Ling head back in there. 

Left gun to mark hole, and came up to the surface....looked over and saw Jesse and fuzz together and could see they were working on a fish....I wanted to call Jesse over so he could take the fish, but if they were busy maybe I should just take it myself? 

Dropped down again and took a longer look at the masszive head...man, it was a nice looking fish!!

Came up again and decided if I didn't call Jesse over now I wasn't going to be able to control myself and would end up shooting the fish myself. 

Hollered out and the guys swam over...told fuzz where the fish was and how big it was and he said ok let me go see...

He drops down and comes up and says "Nice fish!! What were you doing looking in that hole?!? I'm impressed you even found it!" 

Super glad fuzz was there cuz he is a way better and way more patient diver than me...he started working with Jesse, and coaching him on how to dive down and how to turn head and press face into sand in order to see the fish...and how to line up the Pathos 60 to make the shot work.

After a bunch of drops though Jesse still had not been able to see the fish...it wasn't super deep (30/35 feet), but deep enough that after awhile we could tell Jesse was getting tired and was starting to look defeated....

Jesse said "ok, one more drop and if I can't see it you guys should take it".

We had him take his time and breathe up and then follow fuzz down again...when Jesse came back up I could tell from his eyes that he had seen it and he yelled out "I shot the f*cker!" 

I dropped down quick to see if fuzz had gotten the fish out of the hole and was super bummed to see him coming up with an empty shaft in his hand! 

Fuzz said he had been on the shaft but had managed to tear free, but was still in the hole...

I dropped down and could see the Ling was still there...but there was also a big dead partially digested floating cabezon in there as well?! WTF? Ling must have puked it up?? 

Let Jesse rest and breath while fuzz and I made sure the fish was still there, and the Pathos 60 was right in front of the hole lined up correctly...

Jesse dropped one more time and I followed him down and saw him get in position and aim and pull the trigger! I could see the shaft thrashing around and I grabbed it and could feel the big powerful fish on the other end...worked the fish gently towards the opening of the crack until I felt it get wedged...then came up holding the floatline and keeping pressure on it so it couldn't wiggle free and thrash and get stuck back in the hole.

Fuzz dove down and managed to get his fingers in the Lings eyes and pull him out and Jesse was able to pull up the floatline and get his hands on the prize!!

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL fish....and by far the biggest fish he has ever taken. His stoked smile and yells of joy were awesome and fuzz spent some time taking some UW pics of him and the beast that I know are gonna look great. 

By now it was getting late so we paddled back in, shared a few beers back at the beach and then headed home...

This day was definitely in the top ten days of diving for me....not so much for the fish I took, but just for the whole experience and where I was and who I was with. Really special day and one I will never forget.

Thanks again to fuzz for being such a good friend and for helping Jesse out so much. 

Ok, enough words...heres a vid and lots of pics.

 



 

Sincerely,

Jim

ps...back at the car we looked over Jesse's Ling to see where the first shot that tore off had been...finally found the spear hole way down inside the throat! he shot him right in the mouth, shaft went into soft throat, made the Ling puke up the cabezon and it was able to roll and tear off! 

His fish taped out to 35.5 inches and 18 pounds...if it hadn't puked up the cabezon it would have definitely been over 20. 

My bigger Ling was 33.5 inches and 15 pounds. 

More pics.

 

Sincerely,

Jim

That was a 2-for-1 fish combo platter!  What a beast! 

Nice!

Monday Morning WakeUp Vid!!!   thanks Jim.........right down the throat = a good shot!

Nice fish, Jim!

Looks like it would be a top 10 contender.  Another unicorn ling for Jim.  Good job guys. 

Thanks for the play by play report and fish porns Jim.

Nice shooting Jim - 55' - what????!!!!!!

The story of the weekend!    Great job on taking Jesse out and getting him that big ol' ling!    Great ceviche this weekend too Jim! 

Nice shooting Jim - 55' - what????!!!!!!

LOL!! Yeah...it was deep for me....was much happier when we moved back in shallower. 

Tony, Jesse is the young man who now owns your old Scupper pro...would have made you proud seeing your yak punching through waves and covering miles and getting stuffed full of quality fish.

 

The story of the weekend!    Great job on taking Jesse out and getting him that big ol' ling!    Great ceviche this weekend too Jim! 

Thanks Al!!!! 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Wow! Beautiful spearno Ling. 

Bitch'in video. Congrats To Jesse to the PB Ling. You guys are in beast mode at all times!!!!

Very nice report and pictures Jim and huge congrats to Jesse!

Did you guys happen to get a length measurement on the dead cabbie?  

Very nice report and pictures Jim and huge congrats to Jesse!

Did you guys happen to get a length measurement on the dead cabbie?

Thanks Nelson!

Nah, we didn't bring it up...looked legal though for sure. 

At first I was like "WTH?! Where did that cabbie come from??" Then when we saw it was partially digested and dead it all made sense. 

Back at beach when we weighed the fish we were kicking ourselves for not taking the time to bring it back with us. 

 

Sincerely,

Jim