San Carlos 11.4.07 lame/ late report

Plan was to get some tacos.  Someone put the bad juju on us on saturday.

Met Sin Coast at monastery just a little after 0800.  Blustery conditions contradicted the 5 kts forecast.  Decided to launch out of carmel river to avoid the longer paddle.  When we got there it looked as gnarly as I'd ever seen.  Steep bank shore, big waves - Definitely a no go for a mirage yak.  Would you launch in this? 







Was a real heartbreaker to see the conditions cuz we could see a mass of birds working bait just beyond the breakers.

Looks like you should have brought a Surf Board

We headed further north to San Carlos.  Good move.  First time there, and I was impressed with the convenience.  very pretty beach.  many scuba and skin divers, at least 200-250.  Even though I'm in an adventure, I knew I'd be safe from whitey with all the alternative food sources.  





We both made it out of there w/o konking any divers with our hulls.  I took one in the face going out.  Waves were small enough, but still timing was somewhat tricky b/c when the wave pulled back, it left me sitting there.  then I dragged my yak forward, and all of a sudden I was looking at a 2-3 foot face in knee deep water.  quite a surge.

Here's a couple of PK in his latest acquisition.

Paddled into a pretty stiff headwind to the red mile buoy.  Drops off very quick to about 140 ft.  Red tide was so bad it was like fishing in a shirley temple. 

Then the wind, and swell.  Not a good time to be out there from 1000 to 1100.  Even still PK picked up a couple sand dabs.







We covered a few spots, although I never really could find a decent reef to pick at.  Best I could manage was a 2lb mackeral.  released that, bounced for a few more drops, then we decided to cut our losses and hit the shallow pot hole kelp.

As we were coming in, the weather got real nice.  Wind laid down and it warmed up.  there were a lot of boats coming in and out of the lane.  Some of them came a little close for my comfort, and at full throttle.  This guy was not one of them, as he gave us a lot of breathing room.





I tied off in about 40 fow.  Picked up a keeper grassie and lost a few more bites.  PK had a blue.  in short, it was a pretty slow pick, but it beat getting pounded out in open water.  Funny thing was, the shallow water was WAAAAY cleaner than out in the open.  we couldn't figure that out.

1230 rolls around and I'm getting hungry.  PK says lets cast a couple in shallow to see if any cabs are home.





No joy. 

We land at about 1300.  PK shoots the rocks and lands squeaky clean.  Me, I get turned sideways a little and think i'm gonna dump, but i didn't.  this is one beach where you want to have your stuff wire pretty tight b/c of all the spectators.  eat it here, and there's gonna be an audience.

Anyway, it was a good day fishing w/ a new friend.  I'm sure earlier in the season (w/o red tide) San Carlos can put out.  it's a fishy place for sure, and it would be dab city if anyone was so inclined.

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just so I could get my fish fix, I went to the MBay Aq before driving home.  I've got a plus membership so I can bring in two guests.  I grabbed two random young adults out of the line and told them I'd save them $50 by getting them in free.  Turns out they were from Tx on their honeymoon and had never been to CA.  So I did my good deed which will hopefully erase the bad juju that otherwise stunkified our monterey saturday!

east (offshore) wind and nice swell that day. I surfed moss landing till my arms were noodles.
so I think you did pretty well given the conditions, but I would have launched at that
river mouth I think.

John

Man, that was easily the worst rockfishing I have EVER experienced. By far. My previous low score was 6 rockies. Not really sure what was wrong. It could have been a number of factors, including red tide, late launch, or sloppy weather. But I am not going to make excuses because I tried everything…to no avail. It was a very humbling experience, to say the least. If I was out there by myself and had such a poor outing, that’s one thing. But to have yakuza drive down to Monterey to fish with me, and have such a poor outing; that’s even worse! Man that sucked. Now I have to redeem myself!

Even though the fishing sucked, I had a great time fishing with yakuza. I probably should've went to the aquarium with you…at least I would've got to SEE some nice rockies!
 
It was a very unusual day. First, we met up at Monastery and saw some strong wind blowing. So we drove around to the north end of Carmel River beach, where it is normally protected from the NW swell+wind (and it would be a shorter paddle to the fishing grounds compared to Monastery). No DICE! It was pretty gnarly. Much worse than the pics show. I wish we would've got some video of the washing machine cove.

So, we retreated to the Monterey side of the peninsula and launched at San Carlos beach. And, well, you know what happened after that!

I should've known it was gonna be a tough day; I had an ominous sign when we got to San Carlos…no TP!! After unloading my yak+gear, I hit the bathroom on the Coastguard jetty. Ahhhh….that was nice….time to wipe….OH NOOO!!! No TP! I had to cowboy up and use the toilet-seat cover stuff. You know, the stuff that resembles butcher paper in texture and appearance. Ehhhhhhhhkkkk.
Yeah, I should've just called it right then and there.

At least the T140 paddled nice. At first, I was a little disappointed by the way it dives into cresting waves and takes water over the bow. This was mainly happening when paddling directly into boat waves; after reaching the apex of the wave, it would take a steep nose dive into and through the next wave. Even still, it keep gliding along pretty swiftly.
But then we turned and began paddling perpendicular to the wind. And it seemed like I was flying. Fast. I couldn't believe how smoothly it keeps gliding after each stroke. Compared to my Drifter, which stops moving forward as soon as I complete a stroke.

I'll be spending most of this week outfitting the new yak. Can't go fishing this wknd but I plan to have her in ship-shape by Nov 17, just in time to do a combo crab+rocky trip!
PK

Sucks that the fishing wasn't as productive as we all like but sounds like you two had a good time...and it just doesn't get any better than that.

We stopped by there last weekend to freedive but after seeing how many people were out there we decided to go down to Coral St.  What is it that attracts so many divers to that place?  I'll probably have to go check it out myself pretty soon.

That looks like a pretty nice wave to ride on my board, but definitely would not launch that spot like that.
I fished MBK on Sunday and am sad to report my worst day ever there; red tide as think as any bloody Mary with less than one foot visability and few fish to be had. I don't blame them for not hanging around in that nasty stuff. One 12" gopher and two san dabs kept, 6 RF under 10" released to grow another year.