Stillwater Cove (Sonoma County) Nov. 26, 2013

I'm hooked!  I did my first saltwater kayak fishing yesterday and today at Stillwater Cove in Sonoma County.  The weather and water were beautiful both days.  Yesterday I caught  and released a black and yellow rock fish (I was using a barbless single hook on a 3" holographic Krocodile).  I switched to a 4 oz. jighead with a 6" white curlytail and a squid and caught a lingcod.  My luck today was mixed.  Using a barbless hook on a 3 1/2" Krokodile with a squid I hooked another lingcod.  Just as I started reeling it in a screw holding the bail on my almost new Quantum Boca Big PT Game PTs 80 Saltwater spinning reel came loose and the bail came halfway off.  I put it back in place and started reeling again, expecting that the fish had thrown the hook with a slack line.  To my surprise it was still on.  I was trying to be careful to keep the bail in place but it slipped out again, this time throwing the screw.  Again I put the bail in place and held it there as I rotated the reel by hand (not using the handle).  I was amazed that the ling was still on the line.  It thrashed about several times but didn't lose the barbless hook and I finally netted it and got it into thee kayak.  I didn't have a camera with me so I took a picture of it when I got home (sorry it's blurry; it was after dark).  I tried fishing some more with the impaired reel but not surprisingly didn't catch reanything else.  However there were just enough clouds for a beautiful sunset.  Just a couple of days ago I received an Abu Garcia 6500 cs mag conventional reel that I bought online and now I am motivated to spool on some line and start jigging with it. 

Nice work, YaknFish.  You're in deep now.   

I see that you're in western Sonoma County. Hope to see you on the water. Using barbless to catch your first saltwater fish from the yak, I love it.-Amos

Awesome job and thanks for the report. That's my favorite kayak launch site. Easy and somewhat protected. Close to great fishing. I hope to see you out there.