976-KayakJan 5/1 & 5/9/09

We departed at 8 am and fished the beach on May 1st – the first day of the Western Outdoor News Halibut Tournament. The seas were calm and a nice 62 degrees. Fresh sardines from the receiver were bounced along the bottom in the surf line in 10 feet of water. Jack caught a couple shorts and Tim and I just had our baits raked.

May 9th was completely different. I fished with Roland and Andy departing at 5:30 am. The seas were confused and we had a southwest wind at around 10 knots. We had overcast skies and water temps of 65 degrees. It was low tide and we couldn’t fish close to the beach early as we had big waves breaking far off shore. The seas stayed choppy the entire 7 hours we fished. We covered 7 miles fishing south of the harbor off the beach then tied up in the kelp south of the harbor. We ended up fishing the breakwater until we called it a trip around 1 p.m.

As for the fishing, it was good. We only had anchovies from the receiver but they did the trick for me. I caught white seabass (short), sandbass, spotted bay bass, calico bass and even mackerel. I just slow bounced an anchovy across the bottom which is where all the fish were congregateing – away from the rough, choppy seas. The wind and current carried my kayak at a speed of .5 to 1.0 knots – just right for slow trolling. Fun fishing considering the cold, windy and rough conditions.
Tim Boyer had his monthly kayak tournament and BBQ with the weigh in at 2 pm. A 4 lb. 12 oz. sandbass took the JP. There were a couple legal halibuts brought in but they weren’t entered in the tournament. Everyone is looking forward to next month’s tournament.