976-KayakJan Reports April 15, 17, & 18

The title of my kayak reports was coined by fellow kayaker Jim Carlisle when he received my daily email reports. It seemed appropriate.

April 15, 2008: Kayaking inside Dana Point Harbor began around 8:30 a.m. with 10 knot winds. The fish were not biting well (just one spotted bay bass) so I took a tour of the harbor from bait receiver to baby beach and coming back along the inside of the breakwater. It was a good trial of pedaling the kayak into 1 foot wind waves at 5 second intervals. It also helped me keep warm. I pulled the kayak out of the water early.


Baby Beach

Harbor Entrance

April 17, 2008: I met Tim Boyer and his friend, Jack, at the harbor at 6:00 a.m. We had the kayaks in the water and heading out of the harbor by 6:30. This was my first voyage outside of the harbor kayak fishing. It was 48 degrees when we arrived but quickly warmed up as the sun got higher in the sky. Jack fished close to shore and Tim and I fished the buoys and surf line first.

Jack caught a 5 foot leopard shark that hauled him around a bit. Tim tried to get a photo but the shark broke off just before he got the photo. Tim caught and kept a sandbass for his dinner. I caught and released 1 nice sandbass, 2 short sandbass and one short halibut. I also hooked into what felt like a good sized halibut but it quickly bit through my 10 pound line.



I followed Tim around as I don’t have my fishfinder yet. We pedaled out (in flat calm water) along the sewer line that runs off the coast. It was quite an adventure for me to be that far outside of the harbor. Unfortunately, Tim said the kelp that normally grows along the pipeline wasn’t there nor were the calicos that reside therein. We fished for 6 hours before calling it a day. What a perfect day of kayaking.


Tim Boyer in his kayak

April 18, 2008: Jim Carlisle and I put the kayak in the water and headed out of the harbor at 9:00 a.m. in flat calm weather. Shorts and tank tops were appropriate even at that early hour. We checked out the buoys and got a few short bites then tried the surf line. It was an incoming tide so the surf line required careful attention while fishing. We also had a strong southward drift. Within an hour, we felt the wind come up and watched a fog bank roll in over Dana Point.


Jim took this photo of me in my kayak before the fog rolled in

We felt it prudent to return to the harbor to fish inside. A cold wind was blowing and the fog had rolled in thick enough for the fog horn to blow periodically announcing the entrance to the harbor. We had a couple short bites inside the harbor but never hooked nor landed a fish. Jim talked me into making one last run along the boat docks before calling it a day. The wind and drift were so strong, it was nearly impossible to fish. My guess is that we were traveling at 5 knots inside the harbor without pedaling. We gave up around 11:30 and spent the afternoon watching fishing videos instead.