San Juan Ling Diving

[popeshawnpaul]

Kind of a wierd weekend for diving for ling but we did the trip up to the San Juans this weekend.  I only managed 1 dive yesterday due to the bad weather, tides, and equipment issues.  It was really swift out there with a huge tidal exchange.  I managed to make it down to a decent ling spot and cruised the rock fingers at 40 feet hoping for a lazy shallow ling.  No luck so I dropped over the edge down into the black water and started spotting ling.  First up was a small 25" ling that came right up to me.  The visibility was only about 15' so it was hard to see them before they took off.  I then saw a tail flash as something went over a rock wall.  I went over and straight down to a cave where there was about a 45" ling.  He was going the other way at a distance of about 10 feet but I let the spear fly.  It glanced off the gill plate and he took off.  (Probably a good thing I missed as fisherman always get pissed when I bring a huge linger up)  I look at my depth guage and it reads 70 feet and it's too dark to hunt this deep.  I go back up to 50 feet.  I swim over a rock finger and a ling comes out to greet me face to face.  He turns sideways at about 5 feet and I put the spear through him.  He turns and goes straight down taking 20 feet and yanking at my gun.  I drag him up into 40 feet of water where I pull him in and have a battle with him.  I grab my dive knife and stab him throuh the head thinking that will kill him.  Negative.  After battling with him 5 more minutes and he bit my hand, I just left him on the spear thether.  I'll worry about him on the surface.  He was only about 30" but will taste good as he's one of the rare coveted green lings.

When I get to the surface my wife has the boat down about a half mile from where I told her I would be.  Figures.  While waiting there is another boat nearby and I see bubbles all around me.  Oh crap, is that the orca whales that come through here all the time?  I'm peeing my pants thinking I'm killer whale bait and then I realize it's some other divers.  Whew.

I wanted to dive in a known ling spot today but Rosario Strait was so rough I barely made it accross in my 25' boat.  Couple that with a huge tidal exchange and I bagged out.  I'm always nervous because my live pickup operator is my wife and she doesn't even know what the up/down button does on the throttle...

Next time I'm going after scallops.

[robodad]

Thats awesome Shawn !!!

[bowhunterforever]

Nice fish!

[Buschingc]

Wow.. Thats always something I really wanted to get into.. Great stuff.. Thanks for Sharing.

[huntnphool]

Nice one Shawn

[wastickslinger]

awesome

[Thenewguy]

Tasty

[actionshooter]

 Thats cool! How bad was the bite? I know a guy who was a bass fisherman who caught his first ling, you can guess the rest. 

[Hunterman]

Nice looking ling What time is dinner??.. The next time your down and have one giving you a hard time, grab it under the gill plate and that will stun them. I found that out by accident when I forgot my net out at Westport. I landed 4 nice lings that way.

Hunterman(Tony)

[whacker1]

great story and nice pic

[Wea300mag]

Congrats on the ling, I've never tried your method but it sounds interesting. Where's all the under water pictures?

[KillBilly]

Shawn, I thought Lawyers could swim with Killer whales & Sharks without fear... professional courtesy....

[Wea300mag]

Shawn, I thought Lawyers could swim with Killer whales & Sharks without fear... professional courtesy....

OUCH!!!

[jeepasaurusrex]

Where were you at in the San Juans? I used to live on Orcas. My parents ran West Beach Resort. One day we get this boat hauling butt right up to the boat launch. This guy hobbles out, holding his leg. He is bleeding. So, my mom calls 911 and gets help on the way. Turns out, he was spear fishing and nailed a big ling like you did. Only it was pissed off and came around and took a chunk out of him.  The guy estimated the ling was around 60+ lbs and judging by the bite marks, it was all of that and more.

[ratherhunt]

Great story and nice fish