Islander Kayak Trip

Jim Carlisle picked me up around 12:30 p.m. Thursday.  We loaded up my gear and headed to Dana Point Kayak Center to take my kayak off the rack and ensure it got loaded on either Tim or someone elses truck for a ride to San Diego.  Mike Ponce's father took it on his truck.  Thank you. 

We got to Fisherman's Landing around 3 p.m. and headed to Mitch's for a beer.  When the rest of the kayak fishermen arrived, we all had dinner at Mitch's.  Around 6 p.m. we rolled our kayaks down to the Islander and the crew loaded them on the racks.  Then we loaded all our gear on the boat.  We departed for San Clemente Island around 9 p.m. on flat calm seas.

Friday morning we awoke at the Island and quickly outfitted our kayaks so the crew could just drop them in the ocean so we could crawl in from the swim step.  It wasn't long until we realized the fish were not in the biting mode and if that wasn't bad enough, the wind came up.  At noon, Captain John said we needed to empty our bait tanks and get back to the boat so they could load the kayaks back on the boat and take us to a safer area without wind.  The weather was better but not the fishing.  I had a couple short calicos and one 14 incher. 

After dinner the crew and some passengers made squid for the next day's fishing.  Jim and I had brought frozen squid which worked as well as anything.  I crashed early as I was exhausted having traveled 8 miles in my kayak.

Saturday dawned in calm seas and sunny skies.  The kayaks were mostly set up from the previous day making it easy to get back out fishing.  Still poor fishing except for those fishing for rock fish.  Jim and I preferred to fish for other species.  The morning still sucked but the afternoon was better.  We got into an area that had a bait ball and calicos and perch in them.  I pulled out calico bass, blue perch, a sheepshead and a couple white fish.  A sea lion grabbed one of my blue perch and took me for a ride for a few minutes.  That was fun.  It was also great getting beer and bait delivered right to our kayaks.

I called it a day at 7 p.m.  I had traveled 9 miles.  Not bad for having bad knees.

Most of the crew on the Islander were new since last year.  Jacob was cooking and this was just his second trip.  He did a great job too.  All the crew were fantastic and very helpful.  Dave, Ryan, Steve, and Cameron.  Thanks guys!

Jim and I released all our fish so no filet bill or fish to process at home. The trip back to dock was as smooth as it could be.  Not even a ripple on the water.  We got to dock at 6:30 and unloaded tackle first then the kayaks.  I was home by 9 a.m.