I got WAF points to go. Here are results. See pictures below.

In 1st hour, I got heavy taps. I set the hook solid and had battled 5+ minutes. I had snare ready, I got a surprise. 

My boy and I had a great day of fishing Sunday. Sunday’s condition was best. I could not ask for better one. See pictures below to feel it yourself. I have been thinking of father-and-son fishing for a while. Sat evening I made last-minute decision on taking my boy out. Now He is stoked with kayak fishing on saltwater.

I woke him up at 5AM and drove south. He fell asleep quickly in the car. Obviously he did not get used to early start. When driving back home, he was so tired and fell asleep again. Kid’s resting was so effective.

Bites were wide open. We caught a lot of fish (too many to track), but no lings. My boy did well and had a nice string at the 1st time of fishing. He pulled up 18” colorful Cab (see pictures below). It is rare to see Cab at the south of Carmel. He kept 1 Cab, 1 grass and blacks and blues and released a bunch. Highlight - He had a heavy hitchhike ling unbuttoned at the mid-way of pulling up. Bitten marks were all over black RF’s body.

I kept 2 reds, 1 grass, 2 olive, a few of blacks & blues. Highlight – I had a heavy pull down. My yak was turning and line was peeling, then unbuttoned. I was excited only for a short period of time.

Water was warm (62F). Ocean was super calm. I had not seen lake type of the condition for a long time. Great day to introduce my son kayak fishing!

Eric

No report was posted by me for a while. Better contribute...

The season is approaching to end soon, only with a few weekends left. This weekend is not an option for me, since I signed up volunteer work for kids. I checked the forecast and Friday seemed ok. I decided to take off Friday and go fishing.  Friday was hard for fishing buddies, so I went solo. BTW, going alone is not recommended for the area.

I went south of Carmel – Garrapata, because oil slick did not reach to that spot.  I got there around 8:30AM (late start). It was kind of cold (54F) and wind was breeze (10knots). South swells added some challenge. I decided to launch. Launch went ok. Drifting was a little too fast. With 4oz jig head and draft chute deployed, it was doable in most of time. When wind was blowing hard, I had to tie up with kelps and went still fishing. I called off a day around 1PM, just after landing the ling.

Fishing was good. During calm windows, I managed a few good drafts and caught reds, lings, coppers, and olivers and released a bunch. See pictures below.

Weather went wild today – a bit of everything. It was sunny in one hour, cloudy in another hour. Later it rained for ~20 minutes, during which the wind blew hard so fishing was not possible. Wind direction was SW rather NW, so did the swells. After rain and wind stopped, ocean became glassy. Down to Big Sur, it had fire too. What a hack! 

Ocean looked like lake afternoon when I drove by Carmel Monastery beach.
 
Good day on the water, great relief of the madness! 

Eric

We (MByakker, sackyak, dave, eyeatbay, great bass, sandman) met at Monastery beach at 6:15AM. We chatted about the condition and quickly decided to fish at Asilomar Beach (called “ling spot” by Chris).  AM would not be a good choice.

Launching was gnarly. Everyone made out ok with furious paddling through rocks except me. I caught in a set and got dumped into water.  My 2nd attempt went through. Nothing lost. Thank Chris for picking my floating net (because of pool noodle). South swells exposed every cove. Wind was not bad. Current was swift.

We had fished around holes of kelp beds in front of Moss beach and Pt Joe at 50-70 FOW. Kelps were pretty thick beneath, although they did not surface. We had too many snags if just drifting.

Fishing was very slow. I only got a few bites. Luckily, one of bites was a fat ling (10.5#), which made my day. Wait for other to post pictures of the condition and our catch.

We got a call from Sin Coast around 8:30. Given the surfs were big, they went to other place for fishing. It would be interesting to hear his story.

Landing was tricky. Swells at noon were clearly much bigger than ones in the early morning. My confidence was low.  With sackyak/scott/chris’s coaching from the land (rocks), I followed and landed dry. It was great relief. Thank a ton. Every other met different challenges. Hope they chime in and share their stories. Hint: Most of us took swimming, except one guy.
 
It was the 1st of fishing with Chris and Scott. Nice of meeting you.

Tips: The place is not recommended when there are south swells. Buddy system is needed to help each other. It would not be a good idea to try out alone in the condition like today. Devices (GPS, VHF radio, depth finder) are your friends.

Please restrain this thread just as fishing report. Use the other two threads to talk about the more important things.

The condition at Bean Hollow was glassy today, although there was a little breezy, but better than last Saturday. We had ~17 kayakers out today. I did not see anyone had a problem with landing and launching. Fishing was good too. I had a good day. I landed a 34” Halibut (16#), 26” Vermillion(11#) and a Cab. This Halibut was the 2nd one I got at Bean Hollow. One last year was bigger (42”). I was mostly fishing next to Gary. He took some pictures on the water and wait for him to post. Thanks, Gary.

The battle was fun. I kept the tension on Hali all the time (no slack). Drag was not so tight, but not loose. It took line a few times. My net (to be upgraded) was too small to net the Halibut. After I saw the color and noticed the Halibut. I got excited. I tried to net it from tail - 1st time. It jumped out and dove down. I patiently pulled it up and net it again, failed.  It went down again. I was looking for Gary's assistance. But he was busy with landing his ling. Garr … 

I was afraid of losing it. At the 3rd  attempt, I pulled it up and netted its head first. But, One section of its body remained outside the net.  I yanked it out of the water and onto the deck. The jig just popped out. Hew … Lucky me!  Immediately put it into sleep with punisher.

It was good to meet old fellows. Also great chat with others such as Marmite and Ark.

Early this week I had pinged a few folks fishing on this Saturday. We hooked up. Sackyak and I launched around 7am. Swells and winds were small. Launching was a cake.  It was the 1st time in this area, so we were exploring here and there. Nice structures were displayed while paddling along.

Fshing was slow for me. I was targeting lings and reds, dodging blues and blacks. One highlight was I pulled a “heavy” fish, but, it got unbuttoned at the middle. A black was still on hook, however, a huge bitten mark on its shoulder. The “heavy” fish was hitchhiker. A nice and big canary was caught and released. See pics. I only kept a 25” ling, 1 oliver and 1 black for dinner. Sackyak had a string of RFs for dinner too.

Swells and breeze got bigger around 10AM – start fishing early. The conditions became rough. We wasted more time on snags and decided to call off the day. We met PK and his friend on the way back. Nice of meeting you, PK. Wait for him to chime in.

A great day on water! Kayak fishing is a great way to get away from hectic work and to rebalance myself. Maybe this is one of the reasons that I am lured to fishing. Good fishing with you, Sackyak. I can’t wait to go out again.

Eric

If you did not go to ocean for fishing today, I think that you made a good call (IMO). Today’s ocean was gnarly. Wind came up from nowhere. Swells were bigger than that forecasted. 

Nomad and I went to Garrapata SP today. Nomad, good fishing with you!

Early morning was no wind, but swells were pretty big and choppy. We launched ok. We paddled out and started fishing. Fishing was active and as usual we returned most of rockfish. Wind came up suddenly after fishing for 1 hour.  It was a little too big and scary. So we decided to come back to the shore w/ a few fish. Uphill paddling against the wind = exhausted (no fun).

When we finally made back ~10AM, the wind and swells died down a bit. Since we had a few fish at our hands (most were returned ), we decided to go out again.  We fished for another hour and half. The wind came back howling. White caps were at the left and the right. In a couple of times, kayaks were at tips of white caps.  Also, the swells made us felt seasick. Paddling back was tough especially when sick.

Results - 1 Ling (25”), 2 Reds (20”), 2 Olivers (19”) and 1 black for me. Nomad had a string of rockfish. The red is good size. See pictures.

Be aware - the ocean condition at the early season is less predictable.

Eric

A late report, but, better than no report.

I did with Ron (Sail Fisk) on Thursday. Good fishing with you, Ron. It was no wind, sunny and good ocean condition day for fishing. Ling fishing season is approaching to end. I wanted to catch this rare opportunity.

We went out to the stone beach. With ropes, it is not too difficult to lower down and pull up kayaks with a buddy system. I did 2 trips to get all gears down and 3 trips to get up all gears + a string of fish. Since the distance is short, one trip takes ~6 minutes. It was relatively quick to get things ready to launch. The swells were 2-4ft. The cove was relatively protected. Launching was easier. We had a flat ocean whole day. We had no wind either.

When I just were out of the cove, I saw that a school of dolphins (30+) swimming around kelp beds. I stopped paddling and pulled out my camera. See pictures below. I had a few sunset shots too. They looked beautiful.

I had 1 ling + 1 cab + 3 reds + RFs - not impressive, so no pics. It was a kindof slow day in Garrapata. But, the spot was promising. Since it was the 1st time for me to go out there, I did not know good spots beforehand. Ron had no fishfiner and did dive too. I tried out here and there. Bites were sparse. 

The biggest drawback was the landing at the cove. Mentally I had less confidence in landing at stone beach. I keep thinking of what if my yak is rolled. I was lucked out and the surf pushed me in and did not roll. Ron’s surf landing skill was superior. It looked easy for him.

In summary, if your landing skill is good, the cove is a good choice, given the short walk and paddling. Otherwise, you would have to pick a flat-ocean day.

Eric