Report: Santa Cruz Mile Buoy - Rockfishing - 9/13

Took a new kayak fisherman out with me yesterday.  Launched from Santa Cruz harbor.  It was pretty foggy in the morning, so we cruised over to Soquel point and fished the kelp a little with swimbaits.  Nibbles, but no bites.  As it started to clear, we paddled out along the structure towards the mile buoy.  Switched to shrimp flies with squid bait.  Got a few bites, but not much action until after we got to the mile buoy.  There we found a good crop of blues, mostly keepers.  Several others were drifting for halibut, but didn't hear any reporting success though apparently the bite was on the day before (Saturday) and someone landed a 30lber.

We headed off the water when the sailboats started getting going, around 1:30pm.  Water was glass until then - really nice.  Air quality (smoke) seemed good.  Newbie had a lot of fun and took home a lot of fish (8 blues - one red) and a strand of bullwhip kelp for pickles.

Nice report. Glad to see that you're staring the experience with new fisherman.

I've been seeing a lot of shiny new boats on the water. Many of which are too new and shiny + doing the YOLO SOLO w/o safety gear type of adventures. I send them over to NCKA for schooling =D.

I recently tried the bull whip kelp pickles. We're now using them as a pickle replacement for hotdog relish & Tartar Sauce. Way better crunch.

Again good on you

Thanks for the Report

Nice report. Glad to see that you're staring the experience with new fisherman.

I've been seeing a lot of shiny new boats on the water. Many of which are too new and shiny + doing the YOLO SOLO w/o safety gear type of adventures. I send them over to NCKA for schooling =D.

I recently tried the bull whip kelp pickles. We're now using them as a pickle replacement for hotdog relish & Tartar Sauce. Way better crunch.

Again good on you

Make the pickles yourself?

Nice... might have to try that bull kelp relish thing..

Is there a recipe for the pickles?  Best size to harvest?  That sounds great, I pickle my garden veggies and bull kelp is a cool "plant."

Is there a recipe for the pickles?  Best size to harvest?  That sounds great, I pickle my garden veggies and bull kelp is a cool "plant."

https://www.foragesf.com/blog/2019/1/22/bullwhip-kelp-the-seaweed-you-can-pickle

Awesome, thx!  I'm gonna try it.