Elk 5/30

Got there pretty early and geared up for the ride, there were assorted NCKA brothers in the parking lot Noodlin, Tailwalk, elongatus and family with the sweet hobbie rides, DaveW who headed out north to cuddy cove...hope ya made it back Dave...Dr H's radio died and I forgot mine...see how we are...

Wind was up...and if u didn't have a hobbie life iwas ruff...  paddled out and made numerous drifts that were just to fast, underling was the only fish for me...  DaveW paddled up and intro'd himself and said he was heading 1 1/2 north and I was so beat from the day before and the drifts I had already made I said "thank u much" but "i'm good"  

Tailwalk caught a ling that was oh so close on his hand line...I helped Him measure it and it was just shy of legal...  

Well the wind was howling and Dr H was headed up with DaveW, I finally catch up with him on the west side of Wharf Rock...out of the wind,  big sigh of relief...Jimbo wants to head north and I tell him I'm spent...so he decides to hang with me and do some ab diving instead...we skinny through the arch around the northside and we see a Dead Beached Whale and I say lets go check it out... He's got AB On the mind...Jimbo opens up his hatch and realizes that he is 3/4 full of water...so we head to the beach and dry him out and he says "man if I would've followed Dave I'd a been in trouble...but I'll let Him chime in...and tell his story...My camera is supposed to be in tomorrow so no pics from me...great times with great bros...I'm getting ready to head out this morning for some salmon/rockfish!!! Using the Dr laptop in camp to make a report!!!  he has some pics I hope he will post!!!  and the journy continues!!!   BloodBath where were U???

Go get 'em, Beast!   

You're maxing your kayak life, Mike - well done!   

Great report Mike!!!

A dead beached whale??!!! That is gonna get ripe quick!!!!

Hope you have good luck catching them today!!

Wish I could've been up there with you guys!!

Thanks for sharing!!!!!

Sincerely,

Jim

Man, the wind made for some tuff fishing.  I did OK up in cuffy cove, but not great.  I farmed 2 (I think) legal lings at the boat, and caught 4 underlings....I can't seem to keep em hooked these days.  I took home 5 big blacks and a gopher.

Glad to meet you all.

Dave

Nice report guys, wind sucks, I hide behind rocks which means I havnt won a Hobie yet....
Way to go with the handline Tailwalk, I think thats way cool, got to be fun having a ling take it down on a run!
No mention of the little stroll down to the beach?? You guys must have some leg-meat, I had to stop halfway and drink a beer.

WTG on the abs and Dave on the fish!

It was rough out there and I was close to joining Dave, but didn't want to push my luck.

BTW - thanks REI for not overnighting my wheeleez when you said you would.  Good thing there isn't a time limit for going up the hill.

Wind was up...and if u didn't have a hobbie life iwas ruff... :

Hobie's my ride and it was still tough... first time I kayaked that kinda leery, brutal condition. Swell was okay but the WIND!!! It was a really a workout. Not to mention the hike back to the trailhead.

Way to go with the handline Tailwalk, I think thats way cool, got to be fun having a ling take it down on a run!

I was excited on my first takedown. It fought pretty good for a 23.75 inch-ling. Yep, 1/4inch
shy. But it was fun pulling it in. Got 4 juvenile lings. I was surprised I did not get any RF. There were 2 other takedowns that got unbuttoned. One took me about 10 minutes. It was a game of patience... I guess the slimy creatures won... ended up with sore arms and hands.

WTG on the abs and Dave on the fish!

It was rough out there and I was close to joining Dave, but didn't want to push my luck.

BTW - thanks REI for not overnighting my wheeleez when you said you would.  Good thing there isn't a time limit for going up the hill.

Hai, you're one tough dude. Freakin' REI failed you this time. Thanks for driving bud.



Thanks for the hookup, DrH. It was good meeting old names-new faces, fellow kayak anglers.

LL

We woke up bright and early hoping to get a big Lings but was not what was happening today. It was great fishing with everyone who showed up. Tough fishing getting blown off the drift all day. Was only able to get 2 fish(15.5 greenling and a china) but diving was great got a very nice limit with one 9 inch. My buddies also dove and were able to pull 3 plus 9's. Had some issues with my kayak filling up so I need to baton down the hatches better from now on. Rough chop showed my vulnerable spots so good thing didn't venture out with DaveW. Sledge and I had a great time paddling up to the dead whale. I tell you one thing that hill really sucks with little wheels. Good thing Tailwalk had some rolled spam for some extra energy heading up the hill. Noodling powered that hill quickly but I took my time ( note to self after getting done with this post order new wheels).
 

dead whale

Way to give it a try guys.  Too bad the wind was not laid down!  Thank you for the reports guys.

Oh man i bet that whale stinks!!

Thanks for the report fellas. Jimbo, when you mentioned 9 incher abs I got all
excited. I hope to find one of those next time.

Jedmo

The swell forecast looked good, however at one point prior to departing for Elk I did see a 19 knot forecast for wind.  Regardless, my mom was in town from Montana, and my oldest daughter wanted to go.  So we left Chico at about 2 am, making to Elk by about 6 or so.  We brought the Hobies, tandem and adventure with turbo fins.  After I don't know how many trips up and down that hill we finally launched.  Did the others happen to mention that it was a bit windy.  If they did not, then I would be somewhat less than honest not to mention that is was windy. 

I hated to isolate either my Mom or daughter in the single Adventure, so we put them both in the tandem.  Both have been out many times in the kayaks before, and in much rougher water out of Trinidad, CA.  One of the reasons we bought the Hobies was to make powering around in rough and windy conditions a little "safer", meaning my Mom and daughters with leg power rather than arm power are much more proficient on the water.  We actually had a great time on the water in wind.  With the turbo's I could go 5 mph straight into the wind and swell with relatively easy effort, something I could manage for quite a while.  I was going fast enough against the swell that the adventure's bow was driving through the waves and the water would come crashing over the front of the deck and over my fishfinder and over my lap.  My daughter, once it was her turn at the rear of the tandem and grandma in front, was having equally as much fun punching the tandem through waves and getting grandma a lapfull of wave each time.  In the Adventure, even with the turbo fins I was not able to run down the tandem (oasis if I did not say it before), its very fast.

I think we spent more time smashing around in the rough water than actually fishing.  We found the archway, the quiet water behind rocks, and the dead whale the others mentioned.  While I was playing around in the rocks near the dead whale I stumbled onto two very live whales.  They let me get very close, they stuck their heads and flippers out of the water, it was way cool.  I tried fumbling around with my camera in a plastic bag, but only managed to get one crappy photo to share (below).  The whales were in a very tight place among big rocks and wind, it was somewhat difficult to stay positioned even in the hobie because the rocks were so numerous and spaces tight.  The whales were just in 20 feet of water, right where Dr. H and other were ab diving on the west side of the arch. 

We did fish some, I caught 2 gophers, 1 tinyling, and 1 descent sized black (black or blue I'm not sure I can tell).  My Mom caught the ling, 24 or so inches.  The ling and the large black were just 100 feet or so from shore in front of the dead whale in about 10 ft of water.  The fish were on the ring just so my daughter could control them until I snapped the photo, then we let them go. 

Just 3 more round trips up that hill brought all the gear up, and after 5 or so hours drive we were back in Chico by 10:30 pm. 

Cant wait to go again. Where and when are we going?

Sounds like another great NCKA hookup! Way to tough out the sloppy conditions and log some memorable time otw.

( note to self after getting done with this post order new wheels). 

Did the same thing myself after getting back from GS4!