First Dive of 2017

My last dive was in October and since then have been dealing with a painful knee injury (partial tear of the quadriceps tendon in the lateral patellar retinaculum).

Not being able to get out on the water has been HARD for me, but have finally regained full range of motion and got some strength back through Physical Therapy and finally felt confident enough to give diving a try.

Met up with my buddy Steve (lorikay2) at my house before first light, loaded up the gear and headed to the beach.

Was very glad to have Steve there with me because besides being a super cool guy and great dive partner I really don't feel strong enough yet to carry my yak by myself. 

Pebble Beach is prepping for the upcoming ProAm so hedgerow and tennis court parking was full of construction stuff so after unloading we parked up at the Spa. No big deal and the stroll back was a nice warm up for my knee. 

Waves were still pretty big from the recent swell, but the storms have brought a bunch of sand into the beach which makes launching easier and we both got out without any issues.

The first two spots were pretty much a bust...surgy and didn't see any fish I wanted to take home, and a lot of the holes were stuffed with wood and kelp from the recent storms.

BUT, it felt SOOOOO GOOOD to be back in the water!!! Just diving up and down was a joy, my knee felt fine and even though I didn't push it (went to a max of 45 feet and most dives were between 25 and 40 with short bottom times) I didn't feel as out of shape as I was afraid I would.

After about 50 dives we decided to try one last spot so went to an area where I have had fun in the past...ton of fish out here and took a kelpy, grassy and small cab for the fryer and then started looking hard for a Ling.

Structure was killer and I felt optimistic I could find one if I looked hard enough...

Saw a few baby calico bass which is always cool to see up here...hopefully I see them again when they are big and fat. 

Passed the 65 dive mark and saw that Steve had jumped out of the water and was sitting on the kayak so knew I didn't have much time left...

Passed the 70 dive mark and could tell I was starting to get tired so figured I would go to 75 dives and then call it quits...

Did a drop and finally saw what I was looking for...a nice size brown head with a big golden eye staring at me from under a boulder. 

Shot her right through her eye and shoved my spear in to make sure it went all the way through to secure her and headed back to surface to catch my breath.

I was afraid the fish might be hard to get out given the small hole I shot her though, but was easily able to move the spear over to a bigger opening and get her out.

Beautiful meaty fish, not very long at only 29 inches, but still was a GREAT way to end my first dive post-injury!!

Steve and I paddled back in with the sun shining and had no problems landing on the nice sandy beach.

Had a few beers, took a few pics and headed home.

The next morning I cleaned the fish, used the eggs from the Ling for a scramble with some cheese, garlic powder, Tony Chacheres and bacon and it turned out super tasty!!

At night the inlaws came over and I cooked the Ling head and collars as an appetizer, made tacos with the Ling filets and had the rockies and cabezon fried whole and picked the meat off for more tacos.

Thanks again to Steve for coming out with me, and thanks to everyone who has been supportive while I have been dealing with this injury. 

Here's a quick vid of the Ling and a few pics.



 

Sincerely,

Jim

that ling was a fatty!
glad to see you back in the water dude. See you Saturday.

Great way to get back into it!

Welcome back Jim! I think we were all getting bored without your winter dive vids!

Good to see you recovered well and back on water, Jim. Always enjoyed your video!

That's awesome that you were able to get back in the water!

How was the viz?

I've have a question about that egg scramble. Did you make the scramble and then add the eggs raw or did you mix them in with the eggs before cooking? It looks awesome.

Glad to hear of your recovery btw
Cheers

That's it!what a rip,I want a refund
Still waiting on my first dive

Hey all you fish  lookout because BIGJIM is back

So nice to see you finally out killing and eating stuff again Jim    I've got to try those eggs sometime 

Glad your knee is better and  got out! nice fat ling! hope I get one tomorrow.

Thanks for the kind words folks!

Can't wait to get back out there when conditions are a little better!

Here's two screenshots showing the Ling's eyeball hiding under the boulder, and then with my shaft through it. 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Awesome vibe to that video!  thanks!

really cool!  great story and great fish.