On Wednesday I was checking the forecast and noticed it was looking great with a minimal wind and swell. So I made plans to join some buddies up on the mendo coast for a dive. Upon waking up that morning at 330am with the pukes from something I ate the night before I had to call my buddies and back out, WHICH SUCKED!!!! Well I hung around the house for a while and by the time 7am came around I was feeling way better. I think I flushed whatever was bothering me out LOL!!!
Now that I was feeling way better I placed a call to my good buddies Trevor Larsen and Jason O’Donnell to see if they were up for a dive local on the Sonoma coast. We all made plans to meet up and Jason House and load kayaks and gear up and headed to up to our chosen dive site. On the drive up we could tell it was going to be a nice day on the water.
Once we reached the parking lot we all quickly started unloading and getting gear ready and put on our gear. It was nice for once not to be dressing in the freezing cold but to have the sun heating you up to the point once you go the suit on you were ready for that cold ocean. Started our short walk down to the beach using my handy Wheel Ezz beach cart and Wheels life savers I tell you!!!! Once on the beach did our final checks and started our paddle out, we decided to head north. Man it was so nice out there, clear sky’s gentle light North West breeze blowing our faces. As we were paddling and looking for spots, I hear Trevor yell out WHALE !!!!! Jason and I turn to look and see the very last part of the back deciding and the sprays of it spout. We sat there for a while watching this whale swim all around us and within 30ft of us so close the spray of when the spouted would drift over and hit us so cool !!!!
We continued on our paddle till we found some nice structure. This pinnacle was in about 40ft of water and came up to within 5ft of the surface. We anchored up off it and started diving. Right off the bat Trevor pops up with a nice 8-10 pound ling, which ended up being the only fish of the day taken!!!
The 3 of us all picked a direction and started working it. Next thing I know Trevor is saying scallops and comes over with a couple of decent ones. I make my first drop down the side of it and as I got deeper it was getting darker and more murky the visibility at best on top was 15ft then on bottom maybe 4-6ft. Once I hit bottom I am in a desert of sand for as far as the eye can see. DAM! I head back up and swim over the top and take another drop and start working the edges and top of this pinnacle.
On about my 4th dive covering this area I find a nice under cut and hole I look in and holly shit!! An apartment complex of scallops!!!! Probably like 8-10 of them in there and decent sized ones in the mix. I drop my gun and float line and head up to recover and start my harvest and start my eviction process!!! It took about 4 dives to harvest the big ones out of there on each dive I would pull one and then drop them out side of the hole in a pile and go back for more air. I ended up pulling 6 out of this hole and left about 3 or 4 of the smaller ones to grow.
As I am going down to pick up the pile of scallops I look to my right about a foot from the first hole I was working and I see a very small hole I shine my light in there and low and behold there is another scallop the biggest one I have ever seen !!!!!!!! I proceeded to go back to the surface and try to calm myself down and do a good breath up. I head down and start the battle and man this was a battle to get off. When I finally got it broke free and pulled it out I was like holly shit that is big scallop!!! The scallop ended up being a PB at 8.4 inches long I add it to the pile and start looking for more. I ended up finding one more to give me 8 for the day. I kept looking for those last 2 for a limit but all I was finding were smaller ones in the 1-3 inch size which I left them to grow. I also have to say Thank you Red Triangle for the Ab grab bar it not only kick ass on abalone but scallops as well. Here is a short You Tube video of the most of the scallops
By this point we were all ready to move and look for fish!!! As luck would have it everywhere we went, it was the same story no real fish of any quality just some small schooling blues and blacks. As for lings all I saw all day were 2 small ling cod a tad over 22inches which I left to grow bigger. It was the same story of find a pinnacle and drop down and nothing but sand a desert around the rock pile and pinnacle!!! Along with no fish !!! We tried several different spots and the same story time after time rock pile and nothing but sand around it.
At this point we decided to hit the shallows for some trophy abalone diving. We paddled around looking for an area that looked like there was no shore access and had bad visibility, all the recipes for big abalone. We found a spot that had fit all that criteria so we anchored up and started are search for the elusive ten inch abalone snail!!!! Immediately we could tell we were in the right spot, because all of us on our first drops were seeing good sized abalone. We worked the area for about 45 minutes and in that time Jason had found 2 nice tens and a real nice crusty old barnacle covered 9.75 and I had found 1- ten inch abalone as well. I was happy with just one for the day especially now that we only get 18 for the year anything to help prolong the season and the report card is a good thing. Taking full limits of 3 every time will make it a real short and quick abalone season. Trevor ended up with a nice fat healthy 9.5 inch ab for a dinner some scallops and a nice ling. We then all got back in our kayaks hung out and enjoyed the beautiful warm weather and talked about the day and our next adventure, Days on the water like this make you understand we enjoy the ocean and the north coast’s beauty. Below is a picture of me and Jason with our catch.
Oh and on the nice drive home got to see some of the usual residents enjoying the awesome weather on the coast, and they were in full velvet
In all another awesome day with good friends and dive buddies. There is no bad day on the water when you enjoy what you’re doing with good people and you do it smart and safe!!! I want to thank all my dive buddies and my awesome Sponsors at Red Triangle Spearfishing.