BigJim's Shelter Cove Adventure!! Vid Added

Left my house on Friday at 3am with my NCKA buddy Paul to make my annual pilgrimage to Shelter Cove for my 6th year in a row for the Gimme Shelter Kayak Fishing Tourney.

SO much more than just a kayak fishing tourney....if you've never been there, you really should try and make it one day...

Conditions and viz are always hit and miss though and it is probably the toughest place I have ever personally tried to hunt underwater.

Got to Cove around 9am and beelined for the launch to paddle out.

Paddling out was AWESOME, and I felt strong and fast in my Kraken and it was great to cruise by and say hi to friends old and new bobbing out there on their kayaks fishing.   

However the water looked BROWN and I was nervous it would be impossible to find anything to harvest... 

I headed to an area where my buddies and I have taken "trophy" ten inch abalone before and anchored up and jumped in about a half mile from shore away from the breaking sets in shallow, and where the water looked less brown/clearer/more green.

Unfortunately past 30 feet it was a total blackout cuz the light all got absorbed by the particulate matter in the water...even with my light could see nothing at all.   

Strated working my way in shallower and found that between 25-15 feet there was a "sweet spot" of depth where I had up to 2 foot of viz...

Shallower than 15 the waves were breaking regularly and the sand and silt were so stirred up it was impossible to see anything.

After about 50 dives the seas and wind really started to pick up and I was at least 1/4 mile from my kayak...but was reassured that I could see the dive flag mounted on the back and so knew the anchor was holding and it was still upright...

Kinda felt like a pinball getting bounced betwen boulders, so even though I had brought a small hole gun (Pathos 60) I decided to unload it cuz it made me nervous getting flipped and turned and tossed around with a loaded gun...

On dive #65 I FINALLY saw my first abalone of the day!    It was way back in a cave hanging from the ceiling, and I dropped my ab iron with my floatline on it in the hole to mark the spot before the surge and swell could rip me away...

While resting up on the surface I decided I was just going to take it and that I wasn't going to spend time and energy trying to measure it way back in the hole....from my first look at the ab I could tell that it was for sure legal size, definitely over 9 and looked to be 10 inches...several waves had already broken right on top of me, I had already cut my chin getting tossed into a rock, and wanted to get back to my yak ASAP before the seas and wind got any worse...

Dove down and popped the ab off first try, but it fell back into the hole and out of my reach!!   

The way the hole was oriented I knew I would be able to reach further in with my left arm so I moved my light and gauge from my left wrist to my right wrist and dove down, lay flat on the bottom and put my arm all the way into the hole until my shoulder was wedged in the entrance...felt around all over but couldn't feel the ab!!   

A few more tries and angles and looks into the hole with the dive light gave me the same result and I was starting to get nervous and pissed!

Finally I dropped down and the surge pushed me around the boulder and I could see a little side entrance....wiggled my way in and there was the ab!!   

The moment of truth at the surface revealed that the abalone was indeed a ten inch "trophy" and after a quick hooting and hollering and fist pumping session I tucked the ab under my arm like a football and duck dived through the breaking waves and eventually made it back to my kayak.

The ocean was straight up nasty now...took concentration and patience and having my head on a swivel to make it back to the launch safely....came across several buddies on the way in including my young buddy Matty who was overheating in his 7mm and dry heaving...made him take his top off, took his banks board from him to lighten his load, and my buddy Raydon in his Hobie towed him for a bit until he started to cool down and get some energy back.

Halfway in a BIG sneaker wave came out of nowhere and took Matty out!! I paddled right over grabbed his fins and wetsuit top from his tankwell where he was holding them in place, flipped his yak back over and said "Let's get the F outta here!!"   

Once on the beach the ab was tagged and the party began!! My first 10 inch ab of the year and my 5th one ever!! Ab was also over 8.5 inches wide! 

The rest of the weekend was spent celebrating, taking pics, gorging on food, running a raffle to raise $$ for Heroes on the Water and our NCKA Pay It Forward fund (raised $1,879 for each charity!!), catching up with old friends and making new ones from the club and locals as well.

Haven't had a chance to check out Gopro footage but doubt it is any good. LOL!!

If you've never been to GS and/or Shelter Cove, you really should try and make it one day...special place for sure!!!

Thanks for looking!!

   

Sincerely,

Jim

  That was a great report Jim. Thanks for sharing a superb narrative.

  That was a great report Jim. Thanks for sharing a superb narrative.

Thanks dude!!!

Threw together a quick vid last night...

Looking at the footage, I'm like "Meh, it doesn't look that bad!"...Trust me...it was.   



Sincerely,

Jim

looks like a lot of fun Jim.

Wow Jim, looks like a tough dive to me, lots of particulate in the water. Had to work for that one, eh? Another excellent report. Hope to make it down there next year.