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 experience 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.
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.