northern big sur 7/12

fished with sin coast (great to meet you!  ) and the stalwart of the southern range, sackyak today.

I hooked only 3 gophers  with my gopher prevention program of keeping a bigger lure moving and not tipping with squid. I picked up a "buddy" at some point tho, a harbor seal that stole a blue and my patented big olive killer, a 1-hooked jointed 4.5" rebel fastrac,  with custom lead tape weighting to make it float flat, 3-d eyes and a nicely tied spectra "tail", . I should not have put that white fly teaser ahead of the plug, it was attracting the blues and smaller olives. Same seal follows me down (like 1/2 a mile!) to where the other guys are fishing and steals my second vermillion of the day, but gives me a very exciting tug of war (thought I had a 150lb ling on there!  ) before he pops up in front of me with the vermillion,  . I lost my vermillion-killer swimbait on that one, 

Later I lose an 8" berkey power grub on an 6oz head to a snag and also lose a 4oz diamond jig with proven ling-killing properties. that is more tackle lost than on all my prior trips this season combined. oh well, that giant pile of tackle in my garage is for fishing after all. well, everything that was lost got to catch a fish first. no lure was snagged in vain! that is a noble death for a lure.

hmm, I also lost my 2 slidos and ball bearing swivels I have had tied on my rods since the beginning of the season. but my albright to rod-length leader holds, that is maybe the best albright I have ever tied.

I kept a few super fat blues from a foray in to the kelp for repeated double hookups with olives and blues, but sackyak was right I think they were spawning, so then I felt a little bad. I thought they were just obese from chowing on whatever they eat, 

no legal lings today fo any of us, even ling cod god sin coast.

J

Cool - can't wait for some pics!   

Sounds like a good get together.   

I do wish I had a pic of that seal with the vermillion in his mouth like it was a lab with the sunday paper.

damn J, now you have to go buy more tackle! thats about the only kind of shopping I enjoy

Eugene

Great to meet you to John. Always great to fish with you Etienne.
The weather was perfect. The best weather I've ever had down there.
We fished from 7:30 to 2. But the first hour plus was spent paddling way outside to find some isolated structure we saw on a nice bathymetry map. We never did locate the structure we sought but it was a nice paddle regardless. I couldn't keep up with sackyak and j as they charged out there because I had fishfinder issues. Had to climb out to the hatch and check the battery connections in the hull. Turns out the head unit connections weren't snug. Note to self: check the head unit before going into the hull...D'OH!
Anyways, we eventually headed back toward the shoreline to fish the kelp+rocks. On the way back in, Etienne radioed me that a pod of "big dolphins" were haeded right toward me. And, umm, these "dolphins" had HUGE dorsal fins, liuke 3 feet tall. So I thought they were orcas and booked it back toward the kelp. Etienne and John both confirmed they were dolphins, just really big weird ones.
After returning to the comfort of the kelp and catching a few more fish, I'm paddling towards Etienne.....when IT happens. I was watching him from about 50 feet away when this huge explosion of water erupts about 10 feet from his boat. It all happened in a split second, but it produced two big splashes that send water a couple feet into the air. It was either a very big sea lion or a shark. But, it looked a lot like a fish attacking something on the surface, then pulling back at the last second and turning a 180. Just like a bass would attack a surface popper. Needless to say, we paddled back into the kelp. THAT was weird.
The fishing was good. Not great. But I caught about 15 fish, including all the regular blues,blacks, olives, verms, gophers, coppers. No lings but I did hook up with two large fish that took me into the kelp. And one lost hitchhiker that let go about 10 feet below the yak. Hot lures were 3oz head w/6" green scampi, 7" purple swimbait, and megabait kudako, and a small 3/4oz SPRO bucktail. I brought a bass rod+reel and could've caught 50 blues+olives with that light setup if I wanted. It was a lot of fun!
But man, I am STILL sore from pulling our kayaks up a 30 foot rock cliff. We need to install a water slide or soemthing.

Pic 1 = Big Sur is never this flat!
Pic 2 = sackyak with a fish
Pic 3 = the wounds from a hitchhiker
Pic 4 = rough landing
Pic 5 = icechest shot

I think those dolphins are known as risso's dolphins. they end up kind of white/pale and scarred from supposedly sparring with each other. they can be over 10 feet long. they came by me as that dive boat came in, then I heard etienne on the radio, so we all got to see those guys. having seen the orca on 6/21, well, big as they were, they were a heck of a lot smaller than the orca that was for sure. the orca was a bit over 20 feet, but less than 30 feet. the rissos are bigger than 10, but less than 20. pretty unmistakeable difference when you've seen the orca first.

I did see some swirls from some big sea lions that day. they were kind of skittish. unlike the harbor seal that ate two of my fish.

that large fish that pulled you into the kelp might have been my "buddy" the harbor seal. that was his MO. pull the fish into the kelp. kind of like pulling on a rope with a doberman on the other end.

damn J, now you have to go buy more tackle! thats about the only kind of shopping I enjoy

Eugene

sadly, I have been buying tackle, just in case I lose tackle and I think my inventory is still going up,  .

btw, these "KK" 7" swimbaits they have at bayside are very good on a 4oz shad head. it takes a really big gopher to get to the hook but the verms and coppers and lings can eat it just fine. I did trim the tail down on mine a little so that the 4oz head can get them a little deeper.

KK 7" swimbait? I have been looking for them. Do you have a picture? Thanks for the report.

Can't argue about the conditions, but where in the heck are all the Lings? 
Great detail in the stuff used fellas!...that's what is needed to find out what's hittin who!
Seeing that "weird" action from afar would be, well? kinda weird!....i was jiggin near a kelpline once, I just happened to be looking at the same spot that a seal had surfaced in it....as soon as it saw me, it shot right back down and left a wake&sound that would have had me leaking some pee, if I hadn't seen what it actually was.
...oneOFtheseDAYS...thoseLINGSwillGEThungry....hopeIT'SstillOPENbyTHEN! 

Hey Jmairey,

Great report ! I love the way you discrive your fishing trips but if you add some pictures will definitely make it
better. please do not get offended. You are one of the most experienced kayak/fishermans you should have a video camera or at list just a photo camera....   just my opinion.... adventures should be better documented for "Us" the ones that don't get out much... fishing reports keep me alive.
We should have some kind of prize for the best report of the year. that way everybody will be more into it.

~ramon~

Hey Jmairey,

Great report ! I love the way you discrive your fishing trips but if you add some pictures will definitely make it
better. please do not get offended. You are one of the most experienced kayak/fishermans you should have a video camera or at list just a photo camera....   just my opinion.... adventures should be better documented for "Us" the ones that don't get out much... fishing reports keep me alive.
We should have some kind of prize for the best report of the year. that way everybody will be more into it.

~ramon~

ramon, I am really not that experienced compared to these guys that can take pictures and fish. I try here and there, but it takes a lot of skill to take pics and catch fish at the same time! You have to be really comfortable out there, and I am not quite there yet. I do have a special camera for fishing, but it is just that little bit extra of effort that seems too much for me right now. ramon, I am always looking for young guys to fish with that can help me carry my kayak,   , we got to fish sometime!

eric, I got those 7" KK's at bayside marine in santa cruz, I don't know where they get them and have not seen them anywhere else. bayside charges a lot of money for their tackle as they are right there by the harbour, but those swimbaits are probably worth a couple bucks each. I bought 6 when they had a 6 for 5 "sale" (finally tally was still around $12 for them after tax etc,  )

one tip for rigging a big swimbait so it lasts a bit longer is to put a cut in front of the hook exit point so that the hook will pull up in the middle of the bait when a fish grabs only the tail and you are in a gentle tug of war trying to get that darn gopher to let go.  This will let the hook move and not break out the side of the bait, requiring soldering iron surgery later. anyways those baits are soft, yet pretty durable.  I would buy them again.

I think they might be the same as these:

http://www.charkbait.com/cs/csc6c.htm 

but charkbait is not identifying who makes those. (they do the same with fishtrap).

If you go to the big hammer swimbait site, you can order 6.5" big hammer overstocks and discontinued colors. Those work great too, but again I trim down the big tail a little to stop them getting bitten off so easily and also to reduce the drag a bit and let them get deeper with less weight. Also they are thinner where the hook exits and this means the hook can bust out of the swimbait to the side. as noted, a soldering iron will repair them, but it's a hassle.

best to use these things before the wind comes up or with a drift sock out to really slow your drift. but the big rockfish like them for sure and it takes a really determined gopher to get hooked on one.

Damn Mr Airey, you've been puttin some time in lately.  Good report even though you lost some tackle.  I might be ready for another ocean beach surf yak attack here real soon.  I need to get a paddle though,  , I seem to have lost track of it last time we were fishing.  JTF..

Hey Jmairey,
you otta check out the new repair adhesive that's been developed for repairing soft plastics. It won't glue your fingers, stays flexible and they claim it's as strong as the original. Not cheap, but it's worth it to save the lures. Apparently only takes a minute to dry. You can perform repairs on board and keep fishin....

Yeah, I've heard good things about this Mend-It product: http://www.basstackledepot.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=B&Product_Code=MendIt&Category_Code=