Back on the Yak!

Now I won't say it was just like riding a bike again but in the end, it was a great day! It started out at 7 a.m. when I got to Dana Point Kayak Center and couldn't find my kayak. I was an hour early for launch time and hoped to get all the kinks worked out before the other kayakers arrived. Tim Boyer (owner of the kayak center) arrived at 7:30 and said he had my kayak cleaned up and it was inside.

I connected my fish finder and turned it on. Whoops! Nothing happened so I disconnected it and decided to fish without it. I got everything loaded and down on the launch dock. Tim helped connect my bait tank and informed me its' battery was not strong enough so he loaned me a battery. Another problem solved!

I climbed in my kayak, turned on the bait tank and peddled towards the bait receiver to prime my tank. Just as I approached the receiver, I noticed I was sitting in water. My kayak seat has always stayed dry so back to the dock I went. Tim wasn't sure but thought there might be a crack in the kayak so he went to get me a loaner kayak. I unloaded all my gear including rods and bait tank. I got out and removed the seat and found the problem. There is a drain plug under the seat that had been unscrewed when the kayak was cleaned. I didn't even know there was a drain plug there.

I loaded back up and got to the bait receiver by 8:30 a.m., loaded the bait tank with a healthy mix of anchovies and sardines and left the harbor. We fished the beach first where I caught and released a small sand bass. There were seven of us - five fishing the beach (Tim, Tracy, Mike, his client, and me) with Wayne and John out at the pipeline. I think it was Mike who hooked a 4 foot leopard shark and took a ride for a while. Otherwise the beach was dead while Wayne was catching bass.

We headed out to the pipeline and made the trip in about 30 minutes. When we got there, we were surrounded by leaping dolphins chasing bait into the air. What a sight! Even the whale watching boat came in to show their passengers.

We had about 7 knots of NNW wind so it was difficult to stay on the pipeline especially since I didn't have a fish finder and had to rely on where the other kayakers were fishing. Our water temperature was 64 degrees with light chop. Tim fished in deeper water and connected with a 19 inch sand bass and a 20 inch calico. I decided to head back to the beach to fish for halibut. I called it a day around 1 p.m. Tim was already in and Wayne was in the harbor.

All in all, it was a great day as I spent 5 hours peddling around without having a problem with my knees. Not bad considering I hadn't been kayak fishing in over a year.