Doheny SB tournament report - Mar 11

Friday morning, Chuck and I loaded up the truck and headed south to the OC.  We were greated by cold weather, rain, wind, and LA traffic.  Not a good sign for things to come...

Saturday morning, we had an easy launch and made a bee line to the bait receiver.  Rec'd a huge scoop of sardines for $5 (spoke with the bait guy the next day - they sold $300 of bait at $5 per scoop).  Chuck and I drifted along the lobster pots.  I had a short bite on a lure, than a small Sand Bass (released) on my live bait set up. 

We continued to drift north along the rock jetty right into some dark clouds.  It proceeded to POUR on us for what seemed like forever.  Ice cold rain with a bone chilling wind.  Miserable.  I paddled back south to fish the inside looking for sand.  Chuck continued north along the wall.  He landed a Sculpin (released).

I made my way inside toward the river.  My high point was when my rod bent next the 1:30 deadline.  I'm thinking halibut, I see it go airborne, get it along the boat - a small ray (released).  What a let down...  Landed shortly after and got ready for the bbq.

At the bbq, the prizes were set up for the winners and for the raffles.  The big fish winner was a Hobie Adventured loaded with bladder style internal bait tank.  That boat looks fast.  1st place landed a ~9lb halibut.  2nd place was a Daiwa Saltiga.  Other prizes included a Werner carbon fiber paddle and Okuma rod reel.  Great job on landing sponsors (Scotty, hook1, Hobie, Cobra, WS, to name a few)...  The raffle included 3 more kayaks (Cobra Maurader, Adv Elements inflatible, and WS Tarpon 160i with a cool looking carbon fiber paddle). 

After breaking camp Sunday morning, we launched at what looked like much better conditions.  Hit the bait receiver for another mega scoop and drifted the inside for nothing.  Conditions varied from partly cloudy with sun to arctic cold rain and wind.  The big strike of the day was a pelican flying into Chuck's rod...  I never seen anything like that... 

Despite the miserable conditions, we had a good time.  Everyone was very friendly and met some familar faces.  If you are in the area, check out Hogan's tackle for local info and advice.  Hopefully we'll get better weather next year.

HUGE CUDOS to you guys for going down and toughing it out in the miserable weather.
I was really hoping someone from NCKA would walk away with the big prize.
Despite the bad weather, how was the water? How were the camping accomodations?
What did the winner catch the Halibut on?
I think we should find out early next year when it is scheduled so we can go with a LARGE group.

I think its just cool that you guys pioneered the event for us nortenos.  Next year, we should try and go in mass, I was definitely jonesing that I couldn't go.  Sorry the weather sucked, its been that way everytime I went south...doh!

Kevin, thanks again for planning the trip, driving, and of course.... bringing your pop-up camper.  It sure came in handy in the cold, wind, and hard rain.  Despite the lousy fishing conditions, I still had a blast seeing so many kayak fisherman all in one place have a great time.

The weather and ocean conditions were very likey the blame for the crappy fishing.  Imagine.... 200 kayak fisherman and the winner of the Big Fish Catergory is a halibut weighing less than 9 lbs.  That's sad considering that so many of the SoCal's best and well know fishermen were in the competition.

The kamikaze pelican was the highlight of my trip.  There I was... on the water chatting with Kevin... when a low flying pelican approaches me from behind and tries to fly between the "goal post" formed by my two rods.  Well... that crazy bird missed and smacked my one of my rods so hard, he tumbled out of control, brushed the top of my head, and crash landed in the water just in front of my yak.  Neither of us could believe what we just saw.  My heart sunk watching this usually graceful bird in the water struggling to get up.  I thought it had broke a wing, but happily, the bird was able to shake itself off and get back in the air.
 

Sorry the weather sucked, its been that way everytime I went south...doh!

Me too.  Chris "Holy Mackeral" from San Diego jokingly said that this was the second time in a row that I brought the cold rainy weather down with me.  The only other time I've fished south was a few weeks ago in La Jolla when I fished with Chris.  The weather was bad then too.

Besides the pelican incident, I had one other close encounter with feathered creatures.  This aggressive little egret was one of many that jumped on my kayak when I pulled up to the bait barge.  This guy scored one of the sardines that flopped out of the bait scoop and onto my deck.

I was really bummed to not make it. Sounds like I didn't miss much in the fishing department, but I would have dug the the trip. Next year we will need to get a large group to go for sure. When the yt run happens I want to get down there also.

-Brian G

I was really bummed to not make it. Sounds like I didn't miss much in the fishing department, but I would have dug the the trip. Next year we will need to get a large group to go for sure. When the yt run happens I want to get down there also.

-Brian G

Brian, I was wondering where you were.   I didn't see Ricky "paddleandflies" there either.   However, I did see Patrick "GoldenArrow" at the awards ceremony.

I was at my grandfather's funneral. Rickey was at site 111. (i think)


-Brian G

I was at my grandfather's funneral. Rickey was at site 111. (i think)
-Brian G

Brian... my sincere condolences.  I didn't know.

Chuck and Kevin, glad you guys made it down!  You ought to make it down, this summer, now if it rains, and is cold then, you are no longer welcome in San Diego!!  (just kidding! ) I like what Sean said, hope to see more Norcalers here during Socal tourneys...  Bigwatersedge.com usually has a fun summer tourney, might be your chance to experience beautiful sunny SD, and even get a yellowtail, or WSB to pull on your line!  Well, hope to make it to Norcal late summer to see my cousin in Santa Rosa, you know my kayaks will be on my rack!!

Chris 

I made it down there for the first year and it was the same thing besides the weather was  lot better. days before they had huge schoolls of bait come thought that really made fishing hard been wanting to do again timing has not beenon my side
steve

Hey Kevin and Chuck I tried find you guys Friday night while I was looking for Toto. I wasn't sure what your camp site was. Sorry I missed you. I felt kinda silly putting my report in the tournament section. so I put it here.








Got a call from Eric Kara Friday morning letting me know there were snow flurries on the Grapevine.  Eric was headed for the tournament along with golden arrow and his dad Glen. I think it was about 2 pm when I reached the Grapevine, just in time to do something I hadn’t done in over thirty years, drive through a snow blizzard. I was in that situation for as long as it took to drive over the Grapevine. When I wasn’t getting covered by snow I was getting hammered by hale.  There were a few moments where I lost visibility altogether and then the sun came shinning through. I spent the next several minutes thanking GOD--it was that scary.
With the exception of some rain the rest of the drive was uneventful--thank GOD--again.
Drove to Oceanside picked up the Hobies and then drove back down five to Doheny Beach. I found my campsite without a problem. I called the guys on the cell, they were out on the water hooping for lobters, a couple of small bugs and two crabs I believe.
That night while the guys were on the water by the jetting some one drove a truck off the jetty into the water. The guys were almost ran over by coastguard boats on route to the scene of the accident.  Found out the next day it was a fellow using his girlfriends truck to commit suicide.
On a more cheerful note after talking to Eric and making dinner plans for later, I sat up camp. Shortly after that I met my neighbors behind me, Kent his wife Jean and their daughter McKenna. After exchanging formalities I went about the business of unwrapping my kayak from the shipping wrapping it was in. I had a foot of the kayak showing when I heard Kent swear, he sounded upset so I asked what was wrong. He said his dog had just run off. He’d opened the door to his crate to feed him and he took off. 
Being a dog lover and an owner of four dashounds. I offered to help, Kent told me the dogs name was Toto, I didn’t think twice about that--a fact I would regret. So there I am about ten minutes later walking around the camp yelling Toto—here—Toto. I can hear Kent in the distance he was yelling the same thing only he was doing it through clenched teeth, if you can imagine that. I asked a couple that were out for a walk if they had seen a little dog running around. They were very polite when they told me no and how sorry they were. It was when they were walking away and I heard the woman said in a low voice “ sorry Dorothy” as she was trying not to giggle, that I realized the humor of my situation. I was walking around camp yelling for a dog-named Toto.  Although everyone seemed a bit leery of me they were very polite. I’d probably covered a good half of the camp walking around yelling Toto when I came up to this one site with a big group of people and asked them had they seen a little dog.  A woman in the group asked rather seriously and somewhat annoyed--your serious, your actually looking for a dog named Toto? She finished up with nope haven’t seen him. As I was walking away this time--I heard this woman say “ My-my Dorothy hasn’t aged well and her beard doesn’t help much” which was followed by a round of hysterical group laughter.
That was it--Toto was on his own after that.  After maybe an hour or more of Kent and I walking around camp yelling Toto, Kent’s wife Jean opened their trailer door and called. Toto wasn’t more than five feet away hiding under a bush.

Spent that night lying in bed very depressed listening to the thunder and rain as well as watching the lightning, all the time thinking there’s no way that the tournament will happen now. I called Eric about 6 am who had just woken up in a puddle of water in his tent. We drove down to the launch site expecting to see an empty parking lot.
What we didn’t see when we got there was any parking places. What we did see was close to 200 yakfishermen setting up their yaks to go fishing. About an hour later we were standing on the beach ready to do a surf launch. By the way this surf launch was the christening of my Hobie adventure which handled the surf just fine. Picking up my yak the night before there was no time to really rig up a fish finder. So once on the water I was fishing blind. I worked the area between a huge rock and the jetting. I casted and trolled a flie that was a mackerel imitation. I was getting short hits that jerked my 9 wt back but no hook ups. Then the rain came.

Now the only thing that will get me off the water once I’m fishing is—lightning. As far as I’m concerned handling rough water conditions and fishing while your doing it is all part of kayak fishing. I was doing OK on the water pedaling or paddling but when the rain started coming down, because of all the lightning the night before, it was a bit unnerving. Because of that along with some frustrations of not having my kayak rigged properly, when I saw about half a dozen others going in I followed. I would regret that decision more than I did running around the camp yelling Toto!
After putting my yak up I came back to the beach and saw that the few of us that pulled out were the only ones that pulled out. The water was covered with yakfishermen that were braving the elements “ No spoiled brothers here”.
Eventually the rained stopped and the decent weather held, the tournament was most definitely on. I thought about going back out but remembered the frustrations I’d dealt with and decided against it.
 
I then wandered over too where they were setting up for the festivities. Folks were cooking for the barbeque, setting up tents, getting ready for the raffle. Big or small raffles are hard work and this one was big. There were about five different yaks, who knows how many smaller prizes, imagine rounding all those prizes up.
 As the day went by fishermen brought in their fish to be weighed. When the deadline of 1:30 drew near fishermen started coming off the water, by 2:30 the area where the festivities were to be held was fill with kayak fishermen and friends. I believe the limit of entrants allowed for the tournament reach its max. Somewhere around 3:00 they started feeding a small army of hungry yak fishermen and fed them well I might add. The raffle followed, excellent prizes were won. That small army of yak fishermen got to enjoy each others company. Bottom Line? You wanna see kayak fishing at its finest come to a tournament like this one.
 On the water or off this whole experience was excellent.
Well done Jason and friends.

That night while the guys were on the water by the jetting some one drove a truck off the jetty into the water. The guys were almost ran over by coastguard boats on route to the scene of the accident.  Found out the next day it was a fellow using his girlfriends truck to commit suicide.

We were in camp getting our BBQ fired up when we heard the awful crash.  Kevin first thought it was thunder, but to me, it sounded like a car crash.  A few minutes later we hear constant sirens heading to the marina and that's about when our campsite neighbor told us a car had driven off the end of the marina.  Later in the evening, I confirmed it with a ranger in the campground.  He told me that they still hadn't found the body in the water.  He ask me to let me know if I see or find anything out there.  He wasn't joking either.

When they pulled the truck out of the water the poor man's body floated up with it.