The link below is to NOAA data from electronically tagged marine life; sharks, mammals and birds. You can click on maps for individual animals and see where they've been. It's pretty cool. These animals travels a long way, especially the turtles.

I wonder what happens when a tiger shark eats a transmitter-bearing turtle.........

http://las.pfeg.noaa.gov/TOPP_recent/index.html

Me and the Mrs got on the water by 9.30, water fairly calm, drifted anchovie popsicles in front of the pier. There were plenty of boats out, and plenty of folks on the pier, but I heard of no fish today.

Around noon I suffered another episode of Fishing Brain. Having stared at my bouncing rod tip for ~2.5h, I suddenly realised I was very cold. I was very cold because, out of nowhere, it was very windy. We had been drifting for a very long time, and Fishing Brain had not been paying much attention to where we were drifting. The shore was a VERY long way away. It took us 2h to paddle back in over the whitecaps against the wind. We carried M'Ladys Scrambler up to the car. I went back for mine and.......Fishing Brain talked me into going out for just one more drift. Of course I got nowhere and packed it in at 3. Learned another lesson today!

Good luck to the Monday livebait shift. The OP Bait shop had only a couple of weary looking bullheads and some grass shrimp, so you'll probably have to make your own.

I am going to be in South Lake Tahoe Sat-Mon March 1-3. Anyone else being dragged away by skiing friends that weekend?
Anyone got any yakking suggestions?
How long will it take me to catch hypothermia?
Should I just stick to the charters?
Or stay at home in front of the fire?

Short version for those looking for tips for tomorrow: Rapalas in The Narrows!

Long version.
I am knackered.
Here are the details.On the water a little late: 8.30. Got delayed putting my apartment back together after I trashed it with the Drifter. Forgot it’s a bit trickier to lug that thing down the stairs by yourself.
Trolled a kastmaster and a krocodile up to the dam. Drifted night crawlers around the damn and Heron Bay. Nada. Fleet of PB’s going round in circles had the odd fish, landed on rapalas from the surface down to 20 feet. My FF screen was blank.
Drifted/trolled slowly back towards the marina, marking no fish whatsoever. Pulled out to stretch my aching back. Fishin-Jay tells me he just hooked up in The Narrows. Jump back in and head down there. Boats were everywhere and the shoreline was equally busy.  I finally bagged one trolling a firetiger rapala. Missed a couple of good hits as well. No other patterns saw any love for me, but a PB with limits on the stringer reported “trout pattern” had done it for them. One of their fish was a 10lb monster, with no tail and a lump on it’s head like the elephant man. But a beast nevertheless.

Plenty of people had plenty of fish today. The guys on the shore were doing especially well on power bait and eggs. One of them also hooked a 200lb Homo Sapiens in a green Drifter. Sorry mate, I’m new to this. Will troll further away in the future.

Beautiful day, no wind. Forgot my sunscreen. Don’t tell the Mrs will yer?

Good luck to the Sunday Shift.

Hello 

I have been lurking for a long time, always with the intention of getting kayaked. Earlier in the year I had a near-thing with Pacifico where a last minute change of plans prevented me from going out with him at Bean Hollow on July 21st (that would be Shark Attack at Bean Hollow day).

Childhood exposure to Jaws has given my a lifelong fear of sharks, and the events of July 21st only compounded that. But I suffer from what my Mrs calls "Fishing Brain", where all sensible considerations of life and limb are placed below fishing when it comes to decision-making and priority forming. So I eventually bought an old Drifter. Here it is.



Looks a bit beat up huh? The previous owner tried to clean it with car polish so it’s a bit, erm, odd looking. I think it has character. Old and suffering from the results of poor cosmetic enhancement. Maybe I'll call it Kenny Rogers.

I went for a test run at Lafayette. Here is where it gets embarrassing. I’ll level with you folks, I have never paddled a Sit-on-Top. To be honest, until I bought this, I have never even really seen a Sit-on-top with my own eyes. The guy I bought it from mentioned it was a bit of a “wet ride”, but I didn’t really pay too much attention. I thought he was being dramatic. I thought you guys were all wearing waders in the pics because, well, I guess I didn’t really think about it. Fishing Brain doesn't care about that.

So I load up my yak and get in. And leap straight back out again. There’s a lot of water coming in! Sensible Brain figures out very quickly that this is supposed to happen but Primal-i-don’t-want-to-drown Brain takes two more goes before it is happy to remain sitting in a boat that has holes in the bottom while it fills up with water.

I was wearing jeans and t-shirt (and a PFD). This, I realise as I am sitting in a few inches of water, was not very smart. I guess I could have stopped right there and gone and bought some waders. Or just fished from the bank. Or rented a row boat. Or I could have paddled around in wet clothes for 5 hours. Fishing Brain took the last option. This, also, was not very smart. Especially when you have a dinner engagement later that evening.

I trolled around for a bit, and then went to the south end and tied up to buoys to drop bait. Both tactics were unsuccessful. So I switched to just drifting in the until I found life on the FF, and then dropping night crawlers to the appropriate depth. Lo and behold, I caught my first kayak fish: this midget trout. I also missed a couple more.



The one I landed was gut-hooked so he came home for dinner (today). For yesterday’s dinner engagement I really should have stopped fishing early and gone home to change my clothes. Or I could have gone to buy a new set of clothes en route to dinner, thereby saving me an extra freezing hour to fish in my soaked outfit. You can guess what Fishing Brain chose to do.

The trout was baked and served with cannelini bean puree, a winter root vegetable medley and broccoli, all drizzled with a balsamic vinegar reduction. And, erm, some scallops to make up for the midget status of the trout. I had absolutely nothing to do with the preparation, but made up for that by contributing extra effort to the eating.



I learned a great deal yesterday. In addition to learning the basic mechanics of a SOK, I learned that as a novice Kayak Fisherman I have enemies, their names are Wind, Overly Long Leaders and, erm…Ignorance. I also learned I am going to make a new friend, his name is Neoprene.

Alright, no, this is not strictly a Kayak fishing question (I am still researching my first yak, I'll be there soon!).

But I know you guys have your tourney at Elk and presumably have some experience fishing there.

Has anyone ever fished from the beach/rocks at Elk? Or caught fish off a kayak within casting distance of the beach?

I am headed up that way this weekend and was considering fishing off the south side of the beach 'cos it looks really fishy.

Any info gratefully received.

NB