Capitola 6-1 (My BEST day of fishing to date!)

Woke up at 5AM, ontime for a change, suited up and made some coffee.  Out the door by 5:30, and made my way up and over the hill. On the way over 17, hit a dense patch of fog, and thought that it would be worse at the coast, but it was not.

This one goes out to the picture/video king himself, AB King:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pmjvD8RnBqI

Arrived right on time, around 6:30, drove down the dock and unloaded all my gear, then parked my car up the hill in one of the two spots that don't have meters     Saw some others gathering and dragging equipment down to the beach on my way back to the doc. Bought some anchovies popsicles and a few squid for bait for the day.

Took a few pics before dragging my kayak (which barely fits) down the ramp, and dropped the yak into the water.  Got some jigs ready and started working the close edge of the kelp, saw 8 or so other kayakers launching out there too, heading off in all directions. Worked the edge of the kelp, but only had snaggs.  Started to troll a chovie tward open water and heard the clicker going mad!  Set a WPT and grabbed my rod, and pulled up a underling. 
Re-baited and trolled around some more, marking a few WPT's that had serious FF activity, and drifting over them.  Had a nice hard takedown, and then slack...  The cheap leader I bought broke below the loop .  Drifted south a little bit and had another take down, this time it was a nice sized brown RF. JM's right, I kept drifting the same spot, ended up with two more browns, one of which was small and pulled a swing shift as Ling bait before being released. Had one more take down that got tangled in some kelp and got loose.

I worked the area's I marked again for a while, and decided the wind is starting to drift me pretty fast, and feel like I had a pretty good day, time to head in and have a beer.  Since still had bait left, decided to drift one last chovie on the way back to the launch, letting the wind push me tward the shore, drifiting between the mooring floats for the boats that anchor out there.  FF read a sort of hill out there, in like 14 ft of water, it went to 6ft.  Thought I was gonna snag up in something, but then I heard my rod squeal and I brought up a decent looking Hali and netted him.     Some guys in a boat were heading out, passing by and started cheering for me!   Took a measure, and sure enough he was legal, at what I thought was 24".  Got out my new "fish smaker" and made his crossed eyes go straight! 

As I paddle to the launch, I can hear people gathering above me on up above, and as I pull all my gear out of the water, and back up the ramp, a crowd of people gathered to see my catch.  I'm about as dirty, smelly, and bloody, as I have ever been fishing, but enjoy the prop's all were giving me. 

Pull my yak over to the bait shop, and was asked to take a survey.  Didn't realize it was DFG for a minute there, but the guy was nice and asked if he can survey the catch.  He measured the hali at about 23", after he closed its mouth which I hadn't thought of.  Still legal, but I will have to remember to measure that way next time to be sure its legit. 

So the short summary is:

  1 Underling
  3 Brown's, 1 Released
  2 Shakers
  1 Halibut

And I couldn't have asked for a better day out there fishing!

CHEERS!

Bait shop guy took a picture of me and the hali for their website, you can see it on http://capitolaboatandbait.com/2008/06/01/woot

Nice catch. I am pretty sure the survey people are NOT DFG enforcement people. The can't write you a ticket but if you come in with an illegal fish it does go into the data pool and get extrapolated out. So you get crazy numbers sometimes. This is how they where justifying the canary closures etc.

looks like you get your booty spanked by Mooch.

Fan-f'ing-tastic.  what agreat day and report.

good work Al! I met with scallen near there to test his arm out on some shore casting. the test didn't go so well but we watched you fish for a bit.

do you always fish bait or do you use artificials at all?

John

JM: I tried at first with jigs along the kelp bed, but grew pretty bored with it after an hour, and no fish.  So then I decided to do the drift/troll the chovies (and briefly whole squid).  I'm still new enough that I don't have a particular style, so I try and cover all bases 

SOLID! What a great day w/ the variety catch.

Z

Nice report and pics.  Congrats on the great day of fishing!

I am green -- repeat, GREEN -- with envy.



Now mooch will never give me the spankin' I deserve.

Great report! 
Congrats on an excellent day - definitely deserved a beer.
Re: the video, thanks for bringing us along for the ride!

   Nice work, Al.  I kept waiting for the fishing in the video though!!     Truthfully, I used to drive 17 alot, so it was a nice little flashback for me.  Great day of fishing, and a well narrated report.  Congrats on the flattie.   

Eric

Loved the soundtrack. who is it?

That was the fastest drive over 17 ever  .

Nice catch in a tough spot and the hali frosting on top, excellent.

WTG AL - Great Day!  Nice Hali!

way to get your BestDayEver Al!!  That's a hell of a way to get it!
.....had some leftover bait, so I trolled it back and.....
too fricken SWEET! 

and the best part was....

    He measured the hali at about 23", after he closed its mouth which I hadn't thought of.  Still legal, but I will have to remember to measure that way next time to be sure its legit. 

DIDhePINCHtheTAILtoo? 

maybe have to start calling you a BUTT magnet!  Congrats on the elusive Crapitola fish!