Garrapata Solo 11-9-07 (Friday)

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

A string of fish - ling (28"), reds, olivers

A decent red with 22".
Next picture showed "sweet" condition after rain and wind. I should have taken a picture of rain. When raining, motivation of shooting was gone.

Cool report, Eric. 

Great report, the water looks so nice

With salmon season kaput it might be time to load up the freezer with rockies

WTG Eric,

Sorry I couldn't join you but I'm glad to see that you did get out on the water.  The stringer of fish looks good and it sounds like they were well earned considering the conditions.  You, ChuckE and Freddie remind us that there are still fish to be caught.

Thanks for the great report!

Gary
 

eric, I thought you were going all stealth and secret there for a bit.

looks like you took your old boat out for a spin that day?

John

looks like you took your old boat out for a spin that day?

John - I was kind of waiting for that question. You impressed me once again on your sharp observation skills.  Here is the scoop.

Garrapata is a challenging place with known steep cliffs and bluffs. It almost requires buddy system. when I say "almost", last trip kind of proved it could be done by myself, but not recommended. My old kayak(sidekick) is lighter than P15 and easier for me to haul. I did not want to venture farther out since I was alone. In fact, I was fishing near shore, as seen in the pictures.Therefore, I picked the old boat for the solo trip.  It worked out good for me.

No, I was not in "stealth" fishing. I had not posted for awhile.

More picture: Ling (28") and others

I've scouted Garrapata for launching a couple of times so I gotta ask, did you launch at the north end at the protected little cove, or the south end accross the beach.  Both looked do-able (for two) with the cove being a better launch but both places would require allot of huffing to get it done. If you did either alone, all I can say is WOW.  Your catch confirms the area's potential.  Great post and pics.

Cool Report Eric, and may I say,
(especially for this time o' year)
 well done!
OK, so going solo isn't the recommended M of O, but in this crazy life, the real name of the game is that we yakfisherfolk gotta be ready to git while the gittin' is good, so to speak. Thanks for the report!

I think all totaled I end up going alone more often than not, I hope to meet some of you all someday, but opportunities for fishing haven't allowed me to hook-up with any NCKAs yet.  I hope it didn't sound like I was disapproving of going alone, on the contrary, I was just impressed at the physical effort it would take to do Garrapata North or South without some help.

Way to bring them in, Eric.  Nice work!!

-- Dave

Nice work, Eric.  You're making me feel ashamed for staying in the freshwater lately.