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

[Alchase]

Jeep we use to camp at Westbeach resort and rent their boats to dive for ling of the little islands you can see from the dock. Some good times were had at that big bonfire by the beach, lol.

[TeacherMan]

Instead of putting your knife throw the head pinch the eyes, its a pressure point on the fish. Then pin it down to something and sever the spine. Nice fish, makes me miss diving.

[cohoho]

Shawn, I'm in for the re-cert anytime, miss bang sticking fish...  Found my precription mask the other day, other than that need to check out the new dive computers and BC's...  and re-diving with my extra mid section now days....  Besides, I want to see those pesky Sturgeon on the bottom of the Willamette..   Looks like you and the family had a great time in the sun...

[HawkenBob]

Looks like fun! So you dive alone?

I have all my equipment now. Need to get certified. I want to spear fish too. But I always have people say not to go alone? Im really not too worried except if I get disoriented from some oyegen issue or something that people can get?

Do you worry about that or just stay above a certain debth? I just dont have anyone else to dive with and Im on the water so much I feel I need to check out the debths...

[Geno]

There's nothing like that rush you get while trying to subdue a big ling that you've just speared. I'll be in the San Juans this weekend getting my "fix".

[popeshawnpaul]

My wife dives with me.  She wasn't feeling up to it so i did it alone.  I'm a master diver and have been diving for 21 years.  I was familliar with the area and stayed relatively shallow.  I don't like to dive alone but will do it in a pinch.  I've saved 2 lives in my diving career and helped a few others out.  I know my limits and keep it as safe as possible.  I'm always looking for dive friends but it can be frustrating diving with new people.  It seems they always battle equipment or don't have the ability to keep up and do it at my pace.  My wife is the exception and she is a good dive partner although she doesn't have a lot of experience.  Seems like everytime I turn around she is there.

Jeep, I've stayed and dove out of Westbeach resort many times.  None recently though.  I would love to go again as it's a great base area to dive out of.  

Big ling are aggressive.  I've come face to face with many ling in that 50-60 lb range.  Some in Edmonds and elsewhere.  Sometimes you will point your light in a cave and they come out to meet you face to face.  They feel fairly cozy in a cave so most of the time they don't run.  If they aren't in a safe position they usually swim away.  Most of the time ling are perched on top of rocks waiting for something to go by.  Because the big ones will stay there and not run most of the time I can get a brain or killing shot on the big ones.  It makes the fight much easier.  My tether is 20' long and most of the time I like that fish out there dying and not close to me.  I've thought about adopting a new system including a line that goes from my gun to a buoy on the surface so the fish canbe retrieved easier.  I've lost a lot of fish over the years due to the point slipping or some other happening.  It's a fun sport.  

I'm always willing to go diving so if someone wants to try this let me know.  

The only thing more fun than hunting a big lingcod is a big octopus...  

[HawkenBob]

I just ask cause Ive got a bunch invested and am going to pursue it. Buddy or not. Maybe we could get everyone together and have a easy dive somewere sometime.

Performance wise, I can keep up if its physical or mental. As far as gear issues. I need to do a few dives to make sure Im setup the way I want to be.

So do you dive Nitrox?

[popeshawnpaul]

I don't dive with nitrox.  I don't dive real deep so it hasn't been much of an issue with me.  I have steel 120 tanks so I can generally stay under about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Two of those long dives and I'm usually spent and exhausted.  I do spend a lot of time in the shallows at the end of a dive collecting lots of scallops for dinner as they are my favorite. 

I think the group dive is a decent idea.  I'd be willing to do an Edmonds dive with anyone.  I've offered to take Cohoho out and give him the rundown of the diving as he hasn't done it in a long time.  If anyone else is interested let me know.  I have always wondered while fishing certain areas what they look like and that is one of the reasons I started diving years ago. 

I've had a lot of dive partners that come and go over the years.  I have kept with the sport and love cold water diving.  I don't ever get cold except after the dive on the surface and that's not an issue with me.  You don't need a drysuit.  I dive with a semi-dry suit which is just a warmer wet suit. 

Many people don't get past the cold and rental equipment problems to get to the happy medium where you are comfy with your equipment and in your dive ability.  I make the analogy to taking someone hunting and they are unfamiliar with things.  It woudln't be that much fun if someone just dropped you off and didn't tell you where to go, what to look for, where to find animals, and handed you a foreign gun that you didn't know where it shot or whether it was accurate.  It wouldn't be much fun.  That's what diving is to many beginners and they never get to experience the good stuff.  Did you know we have king crab here?  They are amazing crabs.  Did you know you can regularly see 30 foot long octopus?  Huge lings?  Etc.  Cold water diving can be really fun. 

[boneaddict]

Not sure why I never got into diving.  I was going to be a Marine Biologist for God's sake.  Even got accepted to the University of Hawaii for it.  Took a wrong turn somewhere and landed in Ellensburg.  Probably had to do with scholoraships and Franklins.  I got to skin dive a bunch in Greece, befriended a local and hunted little Octs with him for a local restuarant.   I always wondered what the big blue was like.

[cohoho]

My last dive was in 1994 in Hawaii, but have close to 300 logged dives, both shore, night and boat.  I used to love it, obviously since meeting Pope it has began my interest here lately. Even though previously certified right below Dive Master as a Master Diver and rescue diver, I need a good refresher and time in the shallows to regain the lost experience that I once had.  It is a skill that you got to work up to, it is actually confidence that needs to be regained more than anything.  You bet I am taking Shawn up on a refresher dive till I learn the new stuff and man has the technology changed for sure...  Our fun times consisted of knocking White Tip Sharks with bang sticks then bringing them up fresh as fresh could be for the Barby....  Yummy...  One main goal, is to see the Sturgeon in action if possible...

[huntnphool]

I dove the Columbia Cohoho, the lower river looks like the beach at Long Beach for the most part, miles and miles of sand with an occasional log. We were searching for a rather expensive anchor lost the week before in 30' of water, took a bit but we found it.

[popeshawnpaul]

I wonder what it would be like to shoot a 10 foot oversize?  Let it tow you around until you run into air?  I would imagine they are real spooky and won't let you close?  One trick I use is to hold my breath for a while and search.  It's not recommended as you can really hurt yourself if you change depth at all.  That being said, you learn a few tricks for hunting animals after a while.

[robodad]

Hey Pope, maybe you and Huntnphool could take Cohoho on a dog fish hunting expedition, I hear shark is pretty good stuff    !!!   

[huntnphool]

Don/t need to dive for those, you can catch a hundred in a day.

[CastleRocker]

My wife and I used to dive a lot.   Heck, we did a dive vacation for our honeymoon.  

I can tell you that big sturgeon aren't as spooky as most other fish.  It's almost as if they don't care.  I helped a friend do a survey about 20 years ago at Bonneville Dam, and they just layed there until you grabbed their tail, then they would move a little.  That was the highlight of that dive though.  The vis was not very good and current by the dam is so unpredictable!  We both just about washed downstream by getting too far from the base.  A couple feet either way would make the difference.  I sure miss diving, but the kids take up all the spare time now.  

I think any big fish would give a wild ride.  Watched a friend of mine up in Kodiak pass on a perfect shot on a 250-300lb halibut.  He kept looking back up at me, and wrote on my slate; "it's your gun".  He didn't shoot it.  It was laying about pretty close to an edge that dropped from 10 into about 100 fathom and beyond.  I don't even know how we would've got that one into the skiff anyway.

[jeepasaurusrex]

I did some work on the dam on Lake Shannon up in Concrete years ago. We had some divers going down and doing some inspections. One diver came up, his eyes were huge. We asked him what he seen. Apparently there are some sturgeon behind the dam from before they built it and they are HUGE. 

[Geno]

I'd be willing to dive with you Shawn. I've been diving for 24 years and know what you mean about finding dependable dive partners. Let me know when you are diving next and I'll try to make it.
Gene

[hawksfan75]

This has been a fun thread to read through. I got certified while in school in Hawaii but haven't been since. The equipment was always an issue since I am 6'8 and 425+ lbs… That's why I like the warm water, no need for a wet suit.

Thanks for the story.

[cohoho]

I think you and Bone ought to wrestle......   Seriously one word of advice never ever wear a fur jacket around being that size, might get mistaken for Bigfoot...

[hawksfan75]

heh, fur coats aren't in my closet, I promise. I haven't shot a buffalo 

[cohoho]

 

[shoot-em-dead]

Cool topic. The only diving I ever did was at our high school graduation party in a pool. It was fun and I always wonder what it would be like in a natural habitat. But I must say that sharks scare the crap out of me. 

[popeshawnpaul]

You know what's scary?  Go down to 60' by yourself and look down a rock wall into the abyss at 100' plus and the dark inky water and have the balls to swim over a ledge own into that stuff knowing you only have about 5 minutes of air...  But you are looking for that last big lingcod...  That takes balls in my book...

'

[shoot-em-dead]

Does sixty feet have too much pressure to hold your breath to swim back up?

[cohoho]

Balls is defined about obsession with Lobsters, got on a face once and realize was way too deep, 145....  Oops...  Three saftey stops later and No more dives that day period....  Thought we were going to be in trouble...

[Alchase]

Does sixty feet have too much pressure to hold your breath to swim back up?

You better be a humming on your way back up, lol

[Hillbilly270]

i had an operator ride to the bottom of the sound in a backhoe 60' deep and he made it back up.....he did have a lifejacket on also.