Carmel 8/31

And the Lord said,

"So...you wanna fish on a weekday, do you?"

"So be it.  But first, I will provide clear, fogless skies all along the coast, and have the weather reports notify you of this.  Of course, I will forget to mention that the coast along Carmel Beach will nonetheless remain foggy, cold and windy, because that is where you shall fish."

"In addition, I will provide you with large, bumpy surges to keep you entertained while you are not catching fish.  Oh, did I forget to mention that?  Yes, it is true...you will not catch fish.  Well, maybe I'll tease you by letting you catch one or two small rockies, which you shall return to the sea in hopes of catching something larger.  Which will not happen.  To ensure this I will send you my creation known as the harbor seal, who will keep you company during your entire time on the water, and who will gladly eat any fish you are lucky enough to bring up from the deep."

"Eventually you will grow tire of the cold, and the taunting of the harbor seal.  You will return to the beach, where I will be kind enough to let you retain all of your belongings when the small sneaker wave overturns your kayak.  As you drive home, thinking "That could have gone better...", I will hear you, and as punishment I will SMITE DOWN a big rig trucker, who will overturn his truck full of chile peppers and block both lanes of Hwy 156, backing up traffic for hours.  As your 90 minute drive home suddenly becomes a 3 hour trip you will have ample time to contemplate your choice of fishing on a weekday."

And so it was...

 

 


sorry your trip sucked, but that was funny 

I guess you could consider yourself lucky...there were no lightning bolts and he didn't cast you into the furnace of fire...all that weeping and gnashing of teeth....

HA HA HA!! Well said PJ. I met up with pj today, (nice again to meet ya and sorry again for the Google map mixup) and had a.. ahem.. memorable day. As he mentioned the habor seal wasn't giving us any slack. Basically went like this for me. I caught a med blue RF and let em go, then 20 min later a small ling.. MY FIRST!!  Wasn't legal so had to let em go. (Still was cool to catch the JAR JAR fish.)

Then for some reason my fish finder showed all the fish gone. We moved until I found a good group and 5 min later... gone. I fianlly got a double hookup of blue RFs and when I was just getting them to the surface I saw the seal going for the fish. I just pulled em in in time.. so I thought. One had his tail bitten off. Threw him back since he was seal food already. But was rootin' for the second to make it. I got the little guy ready and when I threw him back he stalled at the surface for a second.. then bolted quickly followed by the seal... but didn't make it.

The sea was a rough one like PJ said. About 5 foot swells that occasionally would really stack up and give you a real roller coaster ride. I got a bit queasy after all those hours on the water. And the paddle back was not fun.

PJ too bad about the accident, thank god you weren't in it eh! And don't worry, weekday fishing wil be better!

Will have to go back when it really is Still-water and get a big JAR JAR FISH!!

Seabreeze: About the gauntlet... um well, it wasn't actually thrown down.. It was kinda wet and slipped outta my hand.. I swear!  maybe I need some more time to get these lings goin.. I'll get back to this one! The secret parking lot was awesome, as was the iceplant!!! (thanks to sin coast too for the 411!!) It looks really tough to lug the kayak up but those plants save ya!! Thanks again!

A very godly report
Too bad you guys didnt catch much. I know all about those harbor seals. One of em snatched my lingcod when I had it almost to the surface.
Glad you didn't fall asleep going back home with all the unwanted traffic. I always have a hard time keeping my eyes open and usually park my car for a 15 minute doze.

It did look a little like that on Wednesday when I checked it out.  I am hoping for better conditions tomorrow.

Still better than working.

jason

Very entertaining report, PJ!
Too bad the fishing wasn't as good as anticipated. Did you guys paddle north or south or straight out? Just curious...never kayak fished there before but planning to hit it tomorrow.

And at least you weren't involved in the traffic accident! The 156 sucks, big time!

Thanks for the report guys, you'll get em next time (totally building up karma points),
PK

Yes, I too am glad about missing the accident itself, although moving at 1-2 mph for an hour and a half was probably almost as painful.  Caltrans had plowed all of the long chili peppers into piles after moving the big rig, and I was tempted to grab a bagfull just so the entire day wasn't a loss.  But by the time I rolled by the accident I had to use the bathroom bad enough to nix that idea...    At least my lovely wife was kind enough to swing by the Japanese market and perpare some sushi for dinner, so I got to eat fish despite everything.

We fished the area out in front of Carmel Beach, north of CRSB.  I'd never launched in Carmel other than at Stillwater, so due to confusion on my part I launched at the south end of Carmel beach, carrying my yak down the stairs and dragging it across the sand to launch.  (I have Roleez, but not the sand tires...gotta get some of those!)  Bryce/Zeelander launched at CRSB, so he was south of me...I thought he was north, so I paddled to the north end of the beach, just south of Stillwater Cove.  Fished there a bit without luck before realizing Zeelander was south of me, so I headed back.

In all, a disappointing day on the water (and road).  And I was looking forward to fish tacos so much.  And, I still have yet to catch a legal sized ling, or a halibut of any size...one of these days!

Entertaining report. Who says kayak fishers are only creative about the size of their catches and the 'one that got away' (eh Mooch? Soory about Lingzilla at Bean-o but you get one and you are the man with Halibut). I have yet to get a Ling or Halibut myself--of course fishing instead of pimping the boat helps  Zeelander, Unagi_PJ, going out anywhere this weekend? I am up for Sun or Mon.

Entertaining report. Who says kayak fishers are only creative about the size of their catches and the 'one that got away' (eh Mooch? Soory about Lingzilla at Bean-o but you get one and you are the man with Halibut). I have yet to get a Ling or Halibut myself--of course fishing instead of pimping the boat helps  Zeelander, Unagi_PJ, going out anywhere this weekend? I am up for Sun or Mon.

Ooh...the wife isworking Monday...   The kids are off school though, so I'll have to see about dumping, er, letting them visit with their friends.  Sunday's out (family BBQ at a friend's house).  I'll get back to you!

The harbor seals in carmel bay have been well trained by spearfishermen and kayak-anglers.  Most other places they aren't that bold.  Also if you fish farther off the kelp, the pinipeds are much fewer, especially in the red triangle.

....I wonder how the seals would react if you towed a big plastic blow-up white shark behind your yak 

Entertaining report. Who says kayak fishers are only creative about the size of their catches and the 'one that got away' (eh Mooch? Soory about Lingzilla at Bean-o but you get one and you are the man with Halibut). I have yet to get a Ling or Halibut myself--of course fishing instead of pimping the boat helps  Zeelander, Unagi_PJ, going out anywhere this weekend? I am up for Sun or Mon.

I'll have to check my WAF points, I might be running low...... 

Hey Marmot, I may be good for Sunday. How about fishing MBK? I heard there are some flatties out there and recently a lot of Sand dabs. Still more I haven't caught! After the last crazy launch at CRSB , a really mellow one sounds good.. Anywhere else sound good to you? Open to suggestions.