Got my exercise in Capitola Saturday

With my foot almost normal I thought I'd take the kayak out of Capitola.   Got there around 12 and pulled the yak off the truck down to the beach.  It helps having the handicap parking sticker still. Once I was in the water things moved much better.  The water was a warm 62 degrees with schools of sardines all over.  Earlier I had dropped my kids off at Sea Cliff beach and saw a bunch of bird action so I decided to make the long hall and paddle over to the cement ship.  The wind was blowing in my face from the south so it made my headway very slow.  In fact as I was looking at people walking on the beach I noticed there were walking faster than my headway.    Well, about an hour later I get there and see the action was still going.  What I didn't like was that there were sea lions working the bait not fish.    I also noticed a lot of dead bait just rolling in the surf zone.  I'm not sure what's up with that but it looks like there was a major die off of bait and all the sea lions and birds were there taking advantage of the situation.  I caught some live bait and put it down and drifted for a while. No takers.   Around 3:30 I decided to head back to Capitola, so I put out a rebel lure and trolled it back. You never know when you’re going to bump into a Thresher Shark. No luck with that.      Drifted live bait in Capitola for a while till the wind became a bigger problem.  Nothing wanted to bite.  I guess everyone was full?  The one thing I did get was a major sun burn and sore muscles!  It’s nice to be on the water again and it beats working! 

Excellent detailed report.  It's the kind we need more of around here.  It doesn't matter if fish were caught or not.  Thanks!

I know you'll get'em next time.

A few weeks ago when a lot of dead bait fish were washing up in that general area, the SC Sentinel paper said authorities blamed it on a commercial sardine net that had gotten loose in some way, spilling the fish.  They said the commercials only have a short time to reach the tonnage quota, so hopefully that crap will stop soon. 

Glad you could get back on the water but I'll bet you frosted some butts when you pulled into a Handicap space and offloaded a kayak. Lots of "WTF's" must have been said.......

grilled sardines with cumin is pretty good, you may want to try it.