Santa Cruz North 5/23

Finally made it out along the questionable frontier that is the coastline north of Santa Cruz. With a reggae version of Dylan's "got to serve somebody" ambiently grooving in the snug cab of my truck I made it to the put in by 6am. A quick glance at the sea showed that conditions were ...pretty good, considering what we've had to work with the past few weekends.

OTW by 6:30, and loving the Sand Tire cart I got for my birthday. Never has the beach portage been so easy! A nod to the torn NCKA sticker among the surf decals next to the RR tracks & I'm on way.
Fished the incoming tide with big white swimbaits. My FF refused to power up even though its only a year old, so I fished somewhat blind along the outer edges of the kelp line.
7am, Bam! Fish On!....wait, no fish off.
next hit at 8am, a 22" lingcod, followed by two black and yellow RF around 9am. Finally at 9:30, just as the wind was starting to pick up, BAM! again, and fish on!....for about 5 seconds.
Last fish of the day was soon after, an 18" underling.

I did see a huge bull sea lion swim-strutting his stuff like superfly, and also a resting gray whale about 200ft away in the kelp bed. Off the water & on my way to Farrel's for an apple turnover at 10:30am.
So, all in all not a bad time. The souvenirs from my two lost fish are humbly presented....tailless swimbaits.

"Slayer of edible Seabeasts"
Thanx for the report. Nice customized tackle box
Those tailess swimbaits haunt my dreams.

Thanks for the report, did you launch from the harbor and paddle north or do you launch farther up the coast? I've been curious how the fishing is up that way. Isn't there an MLPA around there

Sounds like a great day to me, glad your were able to get out,,

Thanks for the report. I had to work so I wasn't able to get out:smt013. It's always nice to see how others are doing.

WTGetSalty,Bro!! your port&pic got me checking my cracks for a grain of sand!!(whichIdidNOTfind!) at least you got out and got your pole pulled. I'm soooooo dry and waiting for such a SalineHydrating!!
See you in a few and what abitch&waste of perfectly good swimbaits!