sunday SALMON

Got up at what I thought was 7. Ate a hearty breakfast with the woman. Get down to the harbor at 8, or at least what I thought was 8, time change = 9am. Look out on the cliff for any kayakers, nobody out there. Tried for 15 minutes to hail joel and allen and got no response. Girlfriend complains that it looks rough and windy out there ( light breeze, little to no swell ). I am dying to get on the water so we agree to head back to New Brighton and paddle to the reef. We paddle from the corner of the cove towards the cement ship in 20 ft of water pulling a plug with a sabik. No bait.

Paddle back to the reef in 30 ft of water, jigged a purple and silver swim bait.  Nothing...nothing....snag? Then my snag slowly stars to come to the surface, starts to fight and releaze its a nice fish. See something dark in the water below, enough to see it was a good size fish then it takes off for a 30-40 yard run right underneath my kayak and through the kelp and tangles me up in the kelp and comes unbuttoned. What kind of fish is unknown. I'll be back next weekend to test my theory with some squid.

On the way in the swell had picked up some some, kathy mistimes the landing and gets turned sidewides to the waves. She then proceeds to surf a wave in sideways! perfect landing other than some slop from the wave crashing about. That's my girl!  

-Brian

2005 big fish scorecard: Fish 1   Brian 0

Be carefull If a warden saw you he would have probly ticketed you for rockfishing out of season.  witch is probley better than salmon fishing with a barbed hook.  The only thing you could be fishing for is hailbut but you need a sandy botom for that.  Unless i misread and you were near the reef fishing over sand in that case it was probly a big hali  but from what you described it was a big ling.

Maybe a flattie, but the shadow of what I saw not a flattie, plus no head shaking. Just a solid run. This wasn't a run towards the bottom either. Makes me wonder.

I wonder if a ticket would really stick if there were no fish on board and I stated my experience with catching flatties in the area.

-Brian

Brian - sorry I could not join you - (hope you got my phone message)
Anyway - glad you still got the chance to fish / thanks for the report!

Tell Kathy I need lessons on how to land a Kayak SIDEWAYS!  

Brian,

It would be up to the DFG agent but it is illegal to target or harass species that are out of season. Since you where fishing next to kelp and reefs one could argue that you where targeting RCG complex fish since it was not likely you where going to catch halibut or Salmon in that are with that setup. I am not trying to be a dick, just want to save you a little money  

I guess the easist solution to those worries is put a flattie on board! No insult taken. Just never thought of it before.