After work Cape escape - 6/1/09 - video added

The weekend weather was interesting.  Here's how I saw it:  Dom and I of course had light winds and confused seas Friday - very fishable.  Saturday, which had been forecasted at "5 knots" most of the week, I was ready to cry from seeing awesome buoy reports because I was doing family stuff all day!  I was so pleased for myself when I saw a 15 knot south wind on the Eel River buoy mid morning.  I wasn't missing out, I told myself...  Then Sunday, family stuff again, but at the beach at least!  We boogie boarded at Trinidad and all early afternoon I watched as countless boats headed in from where they'd gone rock and ling fishing miles from port - I imagined the fish they had, and I scanned the horizon for kayaks.  We headed home and I was tempted to jam over to the Cape because the buoy was good and it was so still here.  I've seen it many times though; it'll be still here - "5 knot" wind forecast, and I get over there to see something way beyond "sheep" on the water.  More like buffaloes the size of brontosaurus!  When the truck door practically blows off the hinges you aren't going out...  Turned out I couldn't have gone out last night - I could feel the drain from a few hours in the sun and boogie boarding with my little guy, and I can't be going out there with anything but my best energy.  After near comatose Friday from pushing through a crappy night's sleep (yeah, I can't say enough about it and the chocolate cake that about killed me!), I need to focus on making sure I'm absolutely ready to face what the Cape has to offer.  So I decided to get out there today.  The forecast was 5-10 knots today, and 5 tonight, and I know it's pushing it to ever go out there with more than a 5 knot forecast - especially in the afternoon.  It's a busy week though, and tonight was my window.  Domenic couldn't go, so I got ahold of a few other local NCKA-types (Swellrider, harputmanuki, and spedrcr) and one of them bit.  It would be me and spedrcr - Greg.  We'd been meaning to get together for a long time, and GS3 was great, but today was right on, being able to get some 1 on 1 time (with another Man I met on the internet!   ).  We met at my place at 5PM and there was a breeze...  not a good sign.  I mentioned it, but I quickly gathered that Greg had the same mind as me:  we were going.  I'd already mentioned to him earlier on the phone that the Cape comes with no guarantees, and, specifically, you need to be ready to get over there and see something so far from yakkable that it's not even a consideration.  He agreed to that, and I was off the hook - he knew what he was getting in to.  We got over the hill and saw only minor whitecaps at the Cape, so it looked good.  Once we got to what I thought would be our launch I was not so thrilled.  Rough, windy, windy, and windy.  But at least the swell was tiny!  So we moved on to the better launch and it was do-able.  The wind was heavy NW right up onto shore, but the swell was so small it fulfilled my requirement of "I could always bail out to the beach to the southeast if it gets too heavy..."  I asked Greg if he was comfortable going out in the conditions and he was fine with it.  We geared up and launched, heading into the NW wind right off the bat so we could establish that it was even feasible to be out there.  It was no problem, and Greg, in his 12 foot something Prowler Big Game was leaving me in the dust - that boat handled nicely in the wind and seas all day.  After we'd gained a couple hundred yards against the wind I motioned to Greg, let's head outside.  We paddled out through the mess and tacking across the wind wasn't too bad.  We got out to the fishing grounds in about 10-15 minutes and proceeded to drop lines and paddle the ENTIRE time!  There was no let up in the wind - easy 15-20 knots sustained.  With no swell it was one joke of a wind wave after another.  There was nothing that even turned my boat, but it was a mess!  I didn't get the GPS out since there was no fog, but we must've been moving an easy 6-8 knots if you stopped paddling.  We hung together paddling into the wind with our lines out for a while - lifting the rod with my leg in conjunction with a swell in order to jig my offering because I couldn't stop paddling...  I ran a 10 ounce leadhead with a big white Berkley tail.  I think Greg had a 6 ounce leadhead with a shrimpfly above it.  I started paddling slowly into the wind to get about 300 yards north to a little rock that I like.  Greg was following but his shrimpfly was catching blacks, so each time he caught one he'd lose a couple hundred yards.  I kept looking back and he'd be farther back.  Soon he was what seemed like a half mile away and was probably a quarter.  I got to my little reef and proceeded to not get a single bite.  I did pretty good to keep my line up and down by paddling constantly, but the leg-jig wasn't getting much travel and I was thinking, "these conditions are actually too windy to fish in."  It was true, sort of.  I'm out there trying to get a big ling.  I don't want any blacks, blues, chinas...  I'm trophy hunting, and it was too windy for trophy hunting.  It didn't matter though, because I was having a blast, and I actually did have a chance at a trophy by just having a jig down in that water.  Being out there today was awesome.  Greg finally got up to me and told me how he kept catching blacks and couldn't get up there sooner.  I'd gone the entire time (almost 2 hours) with no bite on my solo giant jig offering, and, just then, I hooked up!  Brought a 27" blue ling to my hand, got video and dropped him back in.  It was time to leave with the sun about 5 minutes from the horizon, and, just then, I swear, the wind went down 5 knots.  We paddled in and it was down 10 knots 2/3 of the way.  By the time we were loading the truck it was calm, and dusk was on us.  We secured all the gear, cracked beers, hit the road and enjoyed more 1 on 1 time on the drive home.  I had said yesterday that tonight's schedule would be leave my place around 5 and get back here around 9:30...  Well it was 10:30, and I don't think Greg minded too much.  Thanks for accompanying me today, Greg.  

I picked up and released a black trolling the way in with my second rod with a Dom jig and shrimpfly.  "Slow day" at the Cape, but Greg tells me Trinidad was horrible the other day - a water issue apparently.  Maybe this is the same krill or bloom issue that is happening down around Mendocino where the bite went dead...  Many powerboats got skunked or did poorly off Trinidad when it was calm and flat.  I'm wondering how beenfishin did.  Ben, you out there?  

I just reviewed the video and there's some pretty good footage.  Maybe tomorrow night!  

Great report Abking and something tells me you really enjoyed the adrenaline rush out there. Your reports are always entertaining. My honey do list is shrinking so I will be able to start reporting myself soon.

Ray

Great report Abking and something tells me you really enjoyed the adrenaline rush out there. Your reports are always entertaining. My honey do list is shrinking so I will be able to start reporting myself soon.

Ray

Thanks, Ray.  I'm looking forward to your first ocean report.  Take your time and do it right.   

Yep, I'm here.  What a weekend...a few fish, lots of crabs, and a sea lion that jumped in my lap!  I'm not going to thread-jack, so I'll throw on a Trinidad thread for the others to chime in. 

Keep at the Cape, that mega-ling is still out there!

-beenfishin

That was one fun ride! I paddled the whole time trying to get back up with Eric and every time I would make ground my shrimpfly would pick up a black. I ended up taking off the shrimpfly and going from my 8 ounce lead head to one of the irons from Matts without a shrimpfly and started to catchup with eric and then I started to get bigger blacks.  The paddle was one hell of a workout but it was a blast. It was very funnny like Eric said about the wind dying when we went back in. Conditions like that make me glad I have a very wide boat. The prowler big game and x factor handled like champs out there.

Thanks again for a great evening excursion.
Hopefully next time more people will be able to join us.

 Spedrcr/greg

Good recap Abby. And sounds like you had a good time too, Greg. Nice job guys.
Not easy to paddle a Prowler BG on the ocean in wind, even with a rudder....I know from experience haha. You've gotta be feelin it today.

We popped open our hatches when we got back on the beach.  My boat had maybe a quart of water in it, and Greg's probably had 3 quarts.  I had dozens of waves wash right over my gator hatch, so it was really nice to see that it didn't leak much in those conditions.

Good Times in the wind, and the sunset will make the video a little different than the usual.   

Awesome story AK!  Love it!!!

Some video:

Wow, what a great post.  Really appreciate the time you put into these posts and sharing 'em.  thanks 'king!

Wow, what a great post.  Really appreciate the time you put into these posts and sharing 'em.  thanks 'king!

Thank you, Martin - it's my pleasure, really.   

    Wow, you guys have big cajones!  That's a tough day for a 5 mph weather report, way to squeeze the most out of it.  Cudos to you for being able to video tape yourself with all of that going on!