Met up with my NorCalKayakAngler buddy Brent to get him some water therapy and hopefully get first blood on his new prize Cuda14 Illuminati!!

We were treated to excellent conditions with stellar 25-30+ foot viz and minimal surge.

First stop was one of my favorite reefs with a crack where I have frequently found Lings, cabs and the occasional sheephead.

First approach on the crack and there was a nice 21.5 inch female sheephead just outside the far left end..I popped her and brought her up to the surface and threw her on Brents yak! First blood!!

Then spent time exploring the depths of the crack with my dive light hoping to find a Ling for Brent to shoot..saw another female sheep in there that I let be but no Lings…

However, there was a decent cabezon on the far right side so moved the float line marker right next to it so Brent could spend time getting his ears used to diving again and hopefully get down to the 30 foot deep crack to take the cabbie.

I explored around a little deeper and a decent 26 inch ling swam right up to me so I shot him in the face.

When I came back over by Brent he showed me the cab on his stringer! Nice meaty 18 incher…stoked for him that he got down there and got the fish!!!

Moved spots over to a hole I have marked where I shot a nice Male sheep earlier this year…the hole is down around 40 feet but the reef above comes up to less than 20 and often has nice Blue and Olive Rockfish schooling around up high…

I checked my hole but it was empty so started exploring around…Brent and I each shot some decent olives and then I circled back around to check my hole one more time…a nice fat 23 inch female Sheep was there now so I took her. : )

Brent was feeling a little tired by this point so he said he was gonna chill and eat some food…I headed out to another, deeper, area hoping to find a verm or a big Ling lurking…

This spot had stellar viz and structure but after not finding what I wanted down deep I settled for target practice on some big fat Olives (up to 19 inches) that were lurking up high in the kelp.

Back on beach chilled for a bit, and took some pics and drank a nice cold beer.

Back at home I showed off the fish to my oldest daughter Valentina, then fileted up one sheep and we ate half sashimi and gave the other half to Brent to take home and share with his family.

Here is a litte vid…excellent day in the water with a great friend!!

Thanks for looking!

Sincerely,

Jim