I went up to Gerstle today not to dive but to kayak fish. Don't ask me what the hell I was thinking because I'm still trying to figure it out myself.

Quite a long time ago I used to really be into hook and line fishing. At that time I was not diving yet so I had no idea what the bottom typography was or anything about what was below for that matter. I guess that must have been part of the fun and excitement, not knowing what was down there and what I might pull up.

Last week I found all the old fishing gear in my garage that was buried away for years that frankly I had completely forgotten I even had. Something in me twinged and I though it might be interesting and even kind of cool to give hook and line a shot again, just for a day, off my kayak.

This morning when I got up to Gerstle the fog had lifted by the time I got up there and the water was very calm and I could see in the cove that the vis was very nice to put it conservatively.
There where already many people there diving that I knew, and it almost felt like I was some sort of outsider considering what activity I went up there to do.
Long story short I caught one nice ling and let one canary rockfish go. The winds picked up on the outside and some of the outer wind swells were fun to ride on a kayak. I put down maybe 2 miles total paddling around. I went way out and rode the 120 foot line. I lost lots of gear because of snag ups that I don't care about because I'm telling you right now I'm never doing it again. It felt weird. There was no excitement like I remember. That's the thing, I tried to remember and get the feeling back and it wasn't there. It seemed like a wasted day to me just paddling around and not being able to get in the water. The ling I caught didn't seem to mean much, don't get me wrong I'm glad I got it and it tasted darn good, but it's not the same, it was just too easy. All I did the whole time was kick myself at how great the diving probably was and how I screwed up. Back at the beach I ran into all the people I knew again and they asked how my dive was as they looked at my fishing pole confused, almost like they just blurted out a standard diver to diver question like "hows the vis? before they actually observed what gear I had on he kayak. I told them I wasn't diving, I was kayak fishing. They said "You're doing what!!?? I thought that was for people who can't dive!". This really hit, I thought never friggin again man, I don't like this at all. I've felt hollow and depressed, like my thirst for a good dive had never been quenched and a precious day had been stolen.

So I guess the fishing gear will go back into the dusty corner again or maybe I'll put it out on street with a "Free" sign on it.
Maybe I'll give it away to someone who's into wasting their time and scared to get in the water.

Anyway, I wish I had a dive report to share but I don't.
This sucks!

• Re: Gerstle cove non diving report Jim C. 21:19:03 08/14/07 (1)
  • Re: Re: Gerstle cove non diving report Eric S 22:18:11 08/14/07 (0)
• Too funny seahunt 21:56:22 08/12/07 (0)