976-KayakJan August 1st

We headed out at 5:30 a.m. Friday morning in order to get our bait before the sportboat rush at 6:00 a.m. There were four of us this day including Tim, John, and Eon. Tim and I bought a kayak scoop of bait at the cost of $10 which is a 100% increase since June. The sardines looked good but they hadn’t been cured so they didn’t last long on the hook.

The skies were overcast and the air was a warm 68 degrees as we left the harbor on flat calm seas. The water was 72 degrees with a strong 2 knot current pushing south. We headed out to the headlands. The current was so strong that the kelp at the headlands showed up on the fish finder looking like a false bottom just 12 feet below the surface. The lack of kelp on the surface was quite a change since my last kayak trip a month ago. It would have been nice to tie off to a kelp stringer since the current kept dragging us back towards the harbor requiring significant peddle power to keep getting back to the fishing grounds.

The Headlands

Eon was fishing a Zoom and catching fish with every cast. Tim and I were using sardines and catching kelp. John fished plastics but didn’t have much luck with them. My first fish was a 14 inch calico bass (released) caught on a 5 inch Rapala. Tim caught a couple of 21 inch white seabass (on sardines) – just 7 inches shy of being legal. Eon kept catching calicos, barracuda, sandbass and mackerel. He had the hot lure. Tim switched over to a Zoom and caught more fish than using the sardines. I finally switched to the Berkley Gulp Jerk Shad and caught a big sandbass followed by short calicos, mackerel and barracuda. Artificials proved to be the ticket again.

Tim Boyer on his Kayak

There was a lot more boat traffic around the headlands since the water warmed up. One boater trolled his lines right over me and did so with malice of forethought. One wonders what such a person is thinking. We headed back in around 1:30 p.m. after being on the water for 7 hours. My fish finder said we had traveled 12 miles!

Ringing Hooks - I ran out of my smaller ringed hooks so it was time to get out the welding equipment again. I put the butt rings (size 3) on two boxes of Mustad 92677 hooks; 50 hooks in size 1/0 and 50 hooks in size 2/0. I put flux on the rings and hung them on the new rack that Kub Ito made for me. It was perfect for holding the rings still while welding them (actually silver soldering). I pulled out my Mapp Gas and Oxygen tanks and hooked up my Little Torch and tried to light it. The oxygen wouldn’t flow even when I changed tanks. I gave up and tried the new little Butane torch that Jim Carlisle bought for me. It was perfect and easier to use than the Mapp Gas and cleaner burning too.

Ring holding rack made by Kub Ito

Anyone thinking that it costs too much to buy hooks already ringed should consider the cost and time to ring your own. The costs include buying the hooks, the butt rings (http://www.roscoinc.com/butt_rings.html), silver solder (56%), flux, and the welding equipment and fuel tanks. Add in the time involved (7 hours for 100 hooks) and buying hooks already ringed is a good deal. However, if you are retired as I am, it’s fun.