Southern California

Well I just got back from my trip to Southern California to visit the in laws and to show them how to fish.    Actually, I am convinced there are no fish in them there waters…or I don’t know how to catch them…probably the latter is true. We hit Silverwood Lake on Monday the 6th by 6:30 AM.  It was four of my brother in laws and me. The plan was to get to the lake early and rent kayaks there for three of the guys that did not have one. I used my Prowler 15 and let one of the guys use my Prowler 13. The kayaks they had at the lake looked hysterical and unfortunately, the place did not open until 10:00 AM. Plan B…the three guys without a kayak rented a boat. We paddled about a mile to the dam. The water is deep. On average it is about 75 FT deep and up to 160 FT deep at the dam. The water was also warm at around 72 to 75 degrees and full of algae. The fish were holding deep around 60-100 FT. I threw everything at them, cut anchovies, swimbaits, hair raisers, and even crank bait in the shallower areas. Not a bite between us all day. The surrounding boats were not doing anything either. My brother in law James kept me amused with his frequent commotion in the kayak he borrowed from me. He about fell out several times and kept saying, “You can’t reach out that far, I should know better by now!”. We did practice self rescue the day before in my wife’s parent’s pool. I even got an opportunity to practice standing in the yak, not bad. The wind really comes up in the afternoon making for a tough paddle back to the marina. It was a great day none the less full of plenty of laughs.

The following day we headed down to Dana Point to try our luck in the southern seas. I called Karen from Hook1 to ask about the local Intel. She gave me plenty of pointers. We got a late start to keep the wives and kids happy as they were tagging along to enjoy the surf and sand while we tried our luck out in big blue. We were minus one guy today and the other two guys were able to rent real kayaks in the harbor. We paddled to the bait receiver, paid our $10 and received about 15 large lively sardines. I though this was great, just paddle up to the dock and the guy loads up your bait bucket, can’t get any simpler than this. The guys were a bit nervous as this was their first time fishing in the ocean especially from a kayak. The immediately fell into the groove and were having a blast. I got one small Calico bass, barely bigger than the sardine. I did not take a picture as its mouth was torn and I wanted to get it back in the water. Honors went to my brother in law Rowdy as he hooked into about a 32” sand shark. James about came out of the kayak again.    I was next to him and grabbed the kayak as it was tipping and saved him a dunk in the ocean. He was the one scared of sharks too, so I think he would have walked on water to get back in.

It was a great two days fishing with the guys and I was happy I got to share my passion of the sport with them. They really enjoyed the kayaks and want to go back. I think the highlight was fishing in the ocean, so much better than fishing in a lake, in my opinion and theirs as well.

Take Care,
Ray

Here are the pictures from Dana Point. Sorry for the double post but I was having problems posting a report. I kept getting the you don't have access issue and it would delete everything.

Good Karma for you to introduve kayak fishing to the in-laws.  Thank you for the report and pictures.

great report raydog, way to spread the madness, looks like you had great weather both days on the water, even if the catching was a little slow, thanks for the report, cameron

Those pics of Silverwood bring back memories. I used to go there with my family to ski. I always brought fishing gear and had more fun with that. I've heard stories of huge stripers coming out of there but never caught any. Your pics of the beach bring back other memories. Mainly surfing and drinking. Kinda miss that area, but would never move back. Headed down there in a few weeks to visit. May have to bring the yaks.

Yeah, I heard the same stories of the monster stripers caught in that lake and was hopeful I could manage something of decent size. I was even further fooled by the fact that there is no size limit on stripers and the daily bag limit is 10. I figured with those regulations, there must be plenty of fish to go around. Boy was I wrong. It looked more like a skiing lake than a fishing lake to me. It got crowded during the week. I can only imagine what the weekends are like.

I remember being told to fish in the dark with surface lures to get them fired up. Reel in as fast as you could and hope for the best.
 When we went there on weekends to ski we left well before the sun came up to get in line. Must be a lot worse now.

Ray

Thanks for the report. Dude you should've told me you were going down to Dana Point. I would have told you to take a right out of the harbor mouth and head north to the point. Kelp beds there hold some big WSB's.

Ray

Thanks for the report. Dude you should've told me you were going down to Dana Point. I would have told you to take a right out of the harbor mouth and head north to the point. Kelp beds there hold some big WSB's.

In hindsight, I do wish I would have asked for fishing advice for that area. It was too late when I spoke to Karen. I had the wrong fishing tackle for the area and had to wing it. We did head out to the right of the harbor in the afternoon but the wind was up and I did not want to chance the paddle to the headlands with three new guys. The ocean was already tossing us around pretty good. All in all we had a great time and I did learn some lessons about the area. I will definitely be back there some day. In the meantime, I NEED TO CATCH SOME FISH. The wife is starting to add up the cost of gas, tackle, and gear and figuring out the return for the money with no fish in sight and I am getting the LOOK, you know the LOOK  The lingcod was a teaser for her and now she is expecting more.

Thanks guys for the comments,
Ray