Monday dive (or good luck better than no luck)

With the month coming to an end and conditions all week not looking too great, I decided I might try to get in one dive yesterday  no one seemed to be available, but fortunately my crazy dog, skipper, was able to make some room in her calendar, so it was a go! Once highway 128 hit the coast, conditions actually looked worse than I expected: windy, really choppy, and you could see a band of stirred up water along the coast, probably marking something like the 40 or 50 ft deep line. Anyway skipper is always game for trying so we found a way down and a bit of an entry gap.

At first I was wondering why Ihad bothered even bringing a speargun and a pole spear as vis was so crappy. not quite "swim your head into rocks" bad, but not too much better. but then I found some areas of about 8 ft vis which wasn't too bad so I alternated looking for any plump abs or hopefully some fish. At one point I came down onto a rock that seemed like it should have decent cave underneath but as I got in position there didn't seem to be almost any opening at all so I shot back up to the surface. As I was breathing up it occurred to me that there might have been a big eye over the right. My float had blown away so by the time I got that it took me forever to find the same place again as you couldn't really tell from the surface what was below. But I did find the rock and there actually was a decent ling just lying sideways basically filling up the narrow opening. I should make up some clever spearo action, but he didn't move and I shot him. Skipper had swum out to an island to supervise the hunting and gathering but either had got cold or lost track of me so she was back at the beach by the time I called it. turned out the a pretty good outing, but both beach dogs (skipper and i) were whipped by evening time!

sorry been trying repeatedly to add photos but site isn't working...

Sounds like a fun day dude!!

Sorry you are having problems with posting the pics...send em to me and I'll add them for you while we figure out a better solution.

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Are these the pics?

I stole em from your FB lol!

Glad you made the best of it.  I tried to get out for Salmon yesterday at sunrise and lasted a whopping 5 minutes before heading back in as a large fog wall was chasing the boat in.  It was nasty away from the protected coves. 

I saw others braving it but I don't usually go when Mendo waves are predicting over 8' with gale winds.  Just winds or just waves are easier to handle but both makes for a less than fun day. 

here's fish pic (I hope)

thanks for you help, Jim! Finally the fish pic uploaded. No idea why it kept not loading!

DG, you were probably smart. I have been meaning to be smarter this year, but already have probably been stupid with the solo dives in not great condition. Note to self: get smarter!

Beautiful ling dude!!

 

Nice job!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

here's fish pic (I hope)

Sweet!! Did you get'em on the pole spear??

Nice chunky ling right there! Really nice for stirred up conditions!!

Nice Ling.

Thanks guys, dumb luck, not skill. Snapperhead I had the scubapro spear with me and I took it down around the ocean side of some turbulance hoping for blacks. You know how with blacks they often aren't too huge so you want to be able to get them on the stringer and get back to hunting, so I had the pole spear set up with long slip tip, figuring the length would help me in the open water spearing and the slip tip comes out really fast using a ferrule. But where I was the prime black hunting spots I guess were just too stirred up- couldn't see any at all. But I feel good about that concept and want to try it with calmer water. I'm still so stoked to have it- will post some pics for you(or try to).