976-KayakJan May 20th

I launched around 8:00 am and picked up bait from Jeff on the receiver. Anchovies with a couple sardines, so I took a short load. That was a mistake as the bait was in very poor condition. It must have been a busy weekend because this bait needed to cure.

I headed out of the harbor in cloudy, misty 60-degree weather. The water temp was 66 degrees with big rollers coming from the southwest and loaded with wind chop. Do I want to get beat up or have fun? Boats that were fishing outside were coming back in to fish the harbor – humm – I think I’ll fish the harbor. Good decision. I later heard that Jack went all the way to Salt Creek this morning for zilch!

I fished my 6 sardines and all the anchovies (that survived) drifting outside of the Wind and Sea. Around 10 am (right before slack tide), the fish woke up and nailed my baits with every pass. Most were short bites – just enough to maul my baits. As it turned out, the halibut were as happy with a dead, mauled sardine as a fresh live bait. I caught one short halibut that went 18-20 inches, a nice yellowfin croaker and a baby sculpin that tried to eat a sardine longer than it was.


As soon as I pulled the kayak on dock (around 1:30 pm.), the sun came out. That’s fishing.