SoCal Newbie

I’ve been reading & lurking on this board for months now, after my first time in a kayak on a Humboldt Bay on a tour with “Hawk” Martin.   I live in LA but have Humboldt in my blood.

I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on, and have demoed a few boats down here with an outfit called www.xstreamline.com that’s near my home in San Pedro.

I went fishing today in a kayak for the first time and I'm just stoked!

For reasons too difficult to explain, I’ve been unable to buy a kayak but on Saturday mornings Extremeline demo’s or rent’s them in LA Harbor at Cabrillo Beach.  I’ve demoed a few different boats, and liked the Hobie Sport.  They contacted me this week, saying they would be there today, so I decided to rent a Hobie for 2 hours to “play around,” in the harbor, this time with fishing gear! 

I decided to take my junk gear (a Target $20 no-name rod with 8lb test) and some miscellaneous small lures, some spinners, small “crappie jigs” and one green scampi that I often use for Calico Bass on the party boats.  I have an old but usable net, so I was legal.  My thought was to piddle around with the light tackle and maybe find some spotted bay bass around the kelp and the rocks, or possibly mackerel, bonito, or short barracuda – if they were around.

It was great fun, just being in the boat, seeing how to use it to set up a drift so I could fish the kelp line or rocks.  I stayed "on the inside" at Cabrillo Beach. It was great just being out. I saw some schooling bait fish and birds here and there but had no action for about the first hour as I fished the jetties and kelp.  So I decided to switch to the green scampi and bounce it along the bottom around the jetties – I hadn’t been doing that for a minute when BAM!  I caught my first fish – a short halibut.  Now that’s nothing to get excited about except I really wasn’t planning to catch fish – just play, and it was really light tackle .. so it was cool.  Then – Bam – lost another – What FUN! In the end, I caught two short halibut in my last hour, lost a few more, and had a total blast.

I am totally stoked on this – what fun!  I have to figure out how to buy a boat!

I peddle/paddle a Hobie Sport . I love the hand-free advantage and ease of transporting this little yak.  Hope you'll get your Hobie soon.

I have been lurking for a while also.(got alot of customizing ideas, thanks guys)  My only surf launch was alot iffy! But still made it.  I mostly fish the delta in my revo.  I really like the hands free bass fishing. Can't recommend a Hobie enough!  You have to get one, you won't be sorry