976-KayakJan October 25th

We (Roland, Frank and I) headed out of Dana Point Harbor at O-dark-30! It was breezy with an air temperature that numbed my hands and feet (somewhere around 54 degrees). The water was 59 degrees with a light chop. It was just breaking dawn when we rounded the point and cast out our Gulp Jerk Shads.

Roland caught a nice calico bass right away. He kept it for fish tacos the next day. I caught a nice sandbass shortly thereafter. I offered it to Roland before I released it and he said he’d take it for his taco dinner. I threw it in my bag.

At 7 a.m. I turned on my wind-up radio and listened to Let’s Talk Hook-Up. Brandon Hayward from Western Outdoor News was on the show. He’s a wealth of information and a great guy too. Towards the end of the show Tim Turis from Atlanta phoned in from Basil Pappas’ home in New Jersey where they were making top shots for our Thanksgiving 16-Day trip. Tim complemented Brandon on his writing and on being a great addition to WON.

There was bait everywhere I looked – sardines and mackerel. I watched the bait boat set its net just outside the buoy at the headlands. I’d never seen the bait boat make a set so close to the harbor. By 9 a.m. the sun was out, the wind had died down and the seas were calm - time to remove the top layer of clothing and put the sunscreen on. On the horizon I could even see Catalina Island. It was beautiful!

Catalina Island on the Horizon

We were fishing close to the big boiler rock when we noticed some big waves coming in. Roland was on a fish and just started his motor. Frank and I peddled and paddled as fast as we could to make it over the wave. When we looked back, we saw a small skiff with a couple guys fishing the inland side of the boiler rock that hadn’t seen the waves coming. When the wave crested, it nearly capsized their boat. We didn’t see them anywhere close to the rock the rest of the day.

Boiler Rock before the waves

Most of the fish we caught were mackerel with a few small calicos mixed in which we released. I bagged my mackerel for lobster bait for my hoop netting buddies. I also caught a small bonito the size of a large mackerel. I bagged him too. After having that sandbass in my bag for an hour or so with the mackerel, I suggested to Roland that he may want it in his bag rather than let it marinate in mackerel juice. He agreed. I lipped the sandbass as I pulled him out of my bag and just as I leaned over to hand him to Roland, that da*^ sandbass took one look at Roland and bit me then flipped right out of may hand and swam straight to the bottom. Guess it takes longer than an hour for some fish to die.

We fished along the outside of the breakwater on our way out to the headlands and on the way back in. We had a strong current pulling northeast in the morning and a strong south current in the afternoon. Current went slack around 11 am and the fish quit biting. After the current picked up again, the only thing caught were some small barracuda and Frank caught those by trolling and casting a small Rapala.

On the way back to the harbor, we saw a couple guys sitting on top of a pontoon boat motoring out to the headlands. It looked like it was made for lakes or calm bodies of water rather than the open ocean.

Pontoon Boat

We pulled the kayaks out around 2 p.m. after traveling a little over 9 miles for the day and I didn't see Frank light up one cigarette. He says he's "smoke free" now. I sure hope he succeeds as I know it helped his fishing.

I started to clean up my kayak at the Dana Point Jet Ski & Kayak Center where I store it and the owner, Tim Boyer asked about my fishing. I said I hoped he could use some lobster bait. He was overjoyed to have the fresh bait since his normal supplier was all out of mackerel including the frozen.