Moss Landing Sandabs

Fish Master1, and Monster Guppy graciously invited me to my maiden voyage in the T160i that I purchased Wed.

We left Moss Landing and headed out the mouth around 8:30 a.m. We just went out to the buoys in about 200-250 ft. of water to try our luck.
This was my first trip in the new yak and my first trip ever on big blue in a yak.

What an awesome ride. The weather was great in the morning with 3' swells.
We each caught around a dozen little dabs.
Around Noon, the wind picked up and the water got a little rougher. probably 6' swells.
We headed back in around that time, and I got to see what they are talking about when they mention the washing machine. It was a good workout.

The wife loved the sandabs, so I get permission to go again. I can't wait till the hailbut comes around, and rockfish opens.

I am totally hooked!

Thanks again to Fish Master1 and Monster Guppy for the invite and good company.


Stoggie

Great report, Stoggie.  Once you experience the ocean on a yak it's hard to go back...  Now you gotta just start runnin' with a camera!   

Your T160i should be ideal for chasing salmon around Moss ...  if we have a season.

     It was a great time out there. We also ran into Fishing Mike out there all the way from Oakland. conditions out there were perfect. all in all Stogie,Fishmaster and I had a great time out there and I hope we will set up another trip here sometime soon, I hope to see a few more members out there. Fishmaster has uploaded some pics in  the hookups section. so check them out.

Hey, it was great to see you guys out there. I had an even dozen dabs in the bag when I decided to head back to the harbor. I launched from the north jetty parking and as someone said when I asked about it on another thread, there was a short haul from the parking area to the water, but with wheels it was no problem. The worst thing about the day was that the tide was against me in both directions getting through the channel between the jetties. Once I was outside, the water was a beautiful clear green color, the sun was shining and the wind was light. I had no problem finding the sand dabs, just went straight out til I was past the 200' depth. I found I did a little better in water between 250' and 290', more fish out there and they seemed a little bigger.
The other guys arrived soon after I had caught my first sand dab, a pleasant surprise since I thought anyone else who was going to be there would probably get there before me.
I had never fished for dabs before, but they went over well at home. Easy to clean and cook and very tasty. The dozen was just about right for dinner for two.
Also saw otters in several places on the way back into the harbor. There was a group of 10 or so floating around right in front of the north jetty parking area. I was a little surprised to see them mixing so closely with the sea gulls until I noticed that the sea gulls were waiting to try to steal food from the otters. I couldn't tell what they were eating but every so often the gulls would pounce on one of the otters and sometimes got away with a prize.
I caught one fish that was not a dab, one of you other guys out there suggested it might be a croaker. After looking at pictures I think that's right, though I couldn't find any croaker pictures that match my picture exactly.

Yup Mike, that looks like a kingfish aka croaker.
Thanks for the report guys. Looks like you all had beautiful weather out there.

I heard about a 30lb halibut that was caught off the S jetty last wknd, casting frozen 'chovies out over the sand (sotuhwards from the jetty). So it might be worth a try next time out there. Although, I did notice in the Hookup pics that somebody had a hair raiser jig rigged up, so maybe somebody did try.

Did anybody see bait on the FF while drifting for dabs? That would be encouraging news on the salmon front.
PK

Aye, I think that's a croaker.

How far out are you guys going for the dabs?

I didn't see any sign of bait on the FF, though I admit I wasn't really paying attention all the time. And I didn't try for halibut, though I certainly will the next time I'm there.
We didn't have to go very far for the dabs, I think less than a mile, maybe much less but I'm not sure without looking at a chart. I was starting my drift by finding a place about 270' deep on a line between the two buoys that I saw out there. Sorry about the lack of actual data but it didn't take very long to get out there so I think it must have been much less than a mile.

Now that mention of a halibut might just get me out there!   
White Croaker.  Here's some pages from a fun (and informative) book: