Hail Mary Ling at Top2Bottom2

I recently found out that a fellow kayak diver's wife (Stephanie Clark) was diagnosed with Leukemia, and I knew right away I wanted to do something to help...

Some of my spearo buddies and I coordinated a HUGE raffle on 4/18 and raised a bunch of $$ for Stephanie, and I decided to put on a "Top2Bottom2" (T2B2) comp that pitted yak anglers against freedive spearos.

I put on the first Top2Bottom event in 2012 and raised over $1,200 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society so I knew the format would work well.

There was a kayak fishing derby going on in Monterey on May 2nd (put on my good buddy Allen "Bushy" Bushnell), and a spearfishing comp put on by the Monterey Bay Tritons in Monterey on the same day, so it was the perfect opportunity for a little friendly competition and fundraising between the two groups!
 
T2B2 turned out to be an incredible success, we had great ocean conditions, 43 divers and 27 anglers signed up, amazing prizes donated by some of our finest, and we raised over $1,800 for Stephanie Clark to help her kick Leukemia's butt!!

 

It was a tough day of fishing and diving for a lot of people including myself, but I got lucky right at the end and got a nice 38
inch 20 pound Ling to put me over the top for the win and the prize Piscean plaque!!!

Matt Mattison had a SOLID stringer and got 2nd place and the custom one of a kind cancer awareness themed pinup made for us and donated by Amadeo Bachar!!

My good buddy Kris Cortez got 3rd place and the Marilyn and the Marlin pinup also donated by Amadeo!

Coleman Cosby aka Soleman was fishing from the top and got some quality fish including a monster cabbie that put him in 4th place, made him the best hook and line angler of the day, and won him the Lowrance fish finder donated by my NCKA buddy Dennis Shu.

Erinne Boyd got a NICE ling which got her 5th place, best female of the day, and the hand crafted razor and stand donated by my NCKA buddy Bill Perryman!!

Thanks again to Alex Reynaud and all the Tritons, and to Allen Bushnell and MBK for letting this fundraiser go on in conjunction with their tournaments.

Here's my story of how the day went down:

Paddled out before sunrise with two guys from Santa Rosa (Parvis and Sean) who I met at the Spearing Against Leukemia event at Caspar a few weeks ago.

This was their first time kayak diving and Parvis had a brand new Kraken and I loaned Sean my Perception Tribe 13.5 which actually paddles really well solo for a tandem yak.

Gameplan was to try and get a decent Ling/Cab/Rocky ASAP and then hightail it to look for a halibut before checking in anglers for T2B2 at MBK at 1pm.

First stop was a reef I know where I have had good luck with nice Lings, Cabs, sheep and olives in the past....very quiet this day though and we quickly decided to move to the next spot.

Next spot was fishier and I got a small 18 inch cab and a chunky kelpy to get on the board, and Parvis got a solid 32.5 inch Ling down at almost 50 feet, a PB depth for him!!

Sean was also hitting PB depths and looking strong and comfy in the nice 30+ foot viz we were having.

I made the call to move into a shallower area riddled with holes and cracks where I have taken some of my nicer Lings and Cabs in the past...this area can be hit or miss though and it was pretty much a miss on this day...I did manage to get a better cab (20.5 inches) and a small Ling (25 inches) so at least I had three species on the board.

Jumped back on the yak and checked in with Parvis and Sean, looked at the time, and decided we had time for one more Hail Mary spot on the way back to the beach...

Most of my spots were in the other direction but figured we would just gamble and try a random kelp bed around some of the many reefs on the way back in.

After a bit of paddling we ran into Matt Mattison who had a big old grin on his face, and an even bigger stringer full of fat Lings, a giant cab and some solid rockies!!   

Matt told us he got them all from one pinnacle in about 55 feet of water...I was feeling too tired to hunt that deep so decided to just tie up to a kelp bed right next to where Matt was and work my way closer to shore.

Viz was stellar here, and there were a ton of big blue rockfish around so I took a nice 16 incher.

Found quite a few small Lings but knew I needed a bigger one than the one I already had...

I could hear the clock ticking in my head and when I looked back towards the kayaks I could see Sean had already jumped out and was laying down on his yak and I knew I needed to start working my way back...

Kept dropping and looking in every crack and ledge and hole I could hoping to find the big fish that I had been looking for all day....

When I was about 50 yards from my kayak I did one more drop down to 35 feet and peeked in a promising looking alcove and saw a BEAUTIFUL Ling sitting broadside showing off her mottled pattern and big flared out pectoral fins and massive head!!!   

Line up the shot and my Pathos 75 placed the shaft right through her eyeball.

She exploded and started thrashing in her den and I wasn't taking any chances so tackled her, and after she gave my face a few good headbutts I was able to verify that the shaft was all the way through, got my hand in her gills and rose to the surface with my prize.

At the surface I could see how SOLID this fish was...giant head, gaping mouth, THICK body, empty spawned out belly. PERFECT!!

 

Of course, my GoPro was out of batteries and I was so high on adrenaline that I didn't take the time to get any pics out on the water and we just hightailed it back to shore.

Back at shore we were greeted by Stephanie Clark and a bunch of spearos and yak anglers.

After a few beers and high fives I measured the Ling and it was a solid 38 inches, and my second biggest one ever!!  :

Weighed in at 20 pounds. Not super heavy because of empty belly and no eggs, but that's 100% fine with me!!

Headed over to MBK to meet up with the NCKA fellas (always a GREAT time  ) and weighed in some nice fish for T2B...when I heard nobody had caught any halibut I cracked another beer and decided not to jump back in the water to stare at sand.   

After it was clear we had measured in fish for anyone interested we loaded up the fish, beer and prizes and rolled over to the Triton Open check in at Oak Newton.

I had made the decision to start earlier than the required Triton check in so my fish didn't count but was stoked to see my buddy Matt Mattison get 2nd place and Biggest Ling, and Jason O'Donnell get 3rd!! Great job guys!!

After 3pm had passed and we had made a last call announcement for T2B fish (and had someone else double check my math and the top 5 scores) we announced the winners and handed out the prizes!

Still in shock that I managed to get that beautiful Hail Mary Ling and pull out a win and that the Piscean Plaque is now on the wall at my office!!

Here is a little vid of my first three little fish...of course my GoPro battery died before I got the bigger Cab, Blue and nice Ling.

 



 

Sincerely,

Jim

Some more pics...

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Last ones.

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Congratulations Jim!

Dang. How cool is that?   

Thanks guys! 

Finally finished eating the big Ling...

We ate all the filets fresh with family and friends.

Cooked the head whole and ate all the meat off it.

My daughter's soccer coach took the skeleton, collars and belly/rib meat and made a soup for him and his family.

Only parts of that whole fish that didn't get cooked and eaten were the guts and the skin.

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Plant the unused parts under some corn.Just sayin'.

Nice job Jim! That ling is huge.

Nice job Jim! That ling is huge.

Thanks dude!

Plant the unused parts under some corn.Just sayin'.

No corn or other veggies in my tiny little excuse for a yard. 

Threw the guts and skin in the freezer...will put em in a crab trap this weekend up at GS9.

 

Sincerely,

Jim

We ate all the filets fresh with family and friends.

Cooked the head whole and ate all the meat off it.

My daughter's soccer coach took the skeleton, collars and belly/rib meat and made a soup for him and his family.

Only parts of that whole fish that didn't get cooked and eaten were the guts and the skin.

And the guts and skin are going into a crab trap. Damn near 0 waste. Impressive. So what happened to the bones from the head?