paddlin' out with a hope and a prayer... of salmon

I bought an OK Prowler 13 about a year ago. Since then it has had a lot of fish blood on it, but 99% of those fish had a spearshaft in them, not a hook in their mouth.

Rumor has it that the salmon bite is red hot up at Noyo. Some buddies and I were planning to dive Mendo and now we're thinking to try to kayak fish the morning bite for salmon, then shift gears if that's just not happening and dive... problem is, I'm a bit clueless when it comes to salmon fishing from my yak. I've done it from a boat plenty of times, but that has always been with downriggers and flashers and the whole enchillada.

Can anyone offer recommendations on gearing up for salmon fishing from a kayak? I've got a decent rod and reel spooled with 40# spectra base and 20# mono topshot, a rather thinly filled tackle box, a large salmon net (from fishing the klamath last year), and a whole lot of enthusiasm. What else do I need? Descender balls? Deep Sixes? Flashers? Frozen 'Chovies?

My other question is, the weather forecast for Saturday looks great. Word is the salmon are in close. What do you reckon my chances are? Which would likely work better mooching or trolling?

The last point is- who wants to come!?

Thanks, guys!

Carter,

First of all, good luck!!

Second, if he doesn't respond here send a PM to LoletaEric (Eric Stockwell)...he has a lot of experience catching salmon off his yak, and has even done some youtube vids of how to set up bait and rigging etc.

Hope you guys get some!!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

ps...I can't give you any advice cuz I have never fished for em off my yak! 

Tomorrow and Saturday look great. The fog has been around in am and usually burns off in afternoon.  Because of the good waves and weather there will be a lot of folks on the water the next couple days so if you have a flag or strobe bring them so boats have a little time to see you before hitting you. Usually if wind is good it's not to hard to see kayaks, but that can change quickly with wind and waves.  But fog is worse.
 
I may go off a boat the next couple of days, so bring and use vhf in case of trouble so you can get help quickly.  Last week a boat sank and they were in the water for 20 min before another boat saved them.   They had no time to call coast guard. Hypothermia started to take a toll real quick so be dressed for cold water.

As for tackle hopefully others jump in with more experience from kayaks.  Salmon are still hot out here so you have a good chance of hooking up mooching or using lures. 

I'll be launching out of Van Damme early Saturday morning, trolling with the ghetto downrigger. Ch. 69

Thx, Jim, for the nod.   

Carter - I use a DeepSix with a dodger and straight bait, but that's more than $25 worth of gear.  You can go more simple by just using a banana weight (8 ounce or more) with a mooching rig and chovies or herring behind it as long as you're trolling, or run a watermelon Apex or Coyote Spoon or Brad's Cutplug behind it if you don't want to mess with bait.  I wouldn't mooch without doing lots more research about the legal rigging and expecting to spend more time finding a concentration of fish you could do it on (where you might as well have been trolling anyway as you looked).

FWIW, the bite was red hot a few days ago, but I saw word on Humboldt Tuna Club that yesterday it cooled a bit for some.  Not that it won't be back on hot when you go... 

Best of luck to you.   

I just talked to a couple guys who were out yesterday and today and they said they were catching them in 100' of water at 40' down.  They are still in deeper water but 100' is pretty close to shore. 

I will be out Friday and will update you with any additional last min info and if they are still killing it I don't see how I could pass up Saturday with those conditions.

I nailed two off noyo in 60' of water on 30-40 pulls

Thanks for the intel Slaughter!

Thanks so much for all the info and recommendations. I'll be headed to Hi's tomorrow to gear up. I'm thinking a deep-six, dodger, some leader, some circle hooks, a banana weight or two, an FBR or 2, and maybe a watermelon lure will all be coming home with me. I don't plan to go out there under-geared  .

I appreciate the offer of a report on Friday. That'd be a big help. If it suddenly shuts down, we'll fall back on diving-only, but at this point I am extremely excited to give it a shot. Catching a salmon off my yak has been a major goal of mine since last year when I saw a guy out off bodega in a Hobie hooked up.  We're hoping to paddle out of Noyo around 8am or so.

I nailed two off noyo in 60' of water on 30-40 pulls

Sorry for my ignorance, but what does a "pull" refer to? How long were you on the water for your 2?

Oh, and congrats!!

Carter,

Check out this vid of Eric's:



And if you scroll through his channel you will find a LOT of Salmon porn to get you even more excited. 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

I nailed two off noyo in 60' of water on 30-40 pulls

Sorry for my ignorance, but what does a "pull" refer to? How long were you on the water for your 2?

Oh, and congrats!!

When you let out your line, you don't just freespool drop it. That makes a tangled mess. You instead make sure you are in motion and pull on the line from the reel to the first eye. That's one pull. Do that 40 times, making sure you are in motion, and you are out 40 pulls.

Ah! That makes perfect sense. Thank you.

Thanks, I was only out for 3 hours. Tried posting a report earlier but its not working for whatever reason. I'll try again later