MBK 8/3

SurfingMarmot and I took a late launch (8:45) @ MBK. It was flat as a lake and a little brown. Must be the algae. Anyway paddled to the kelp and dropped the Jetty Worm. took a while but I got a decent copper and popped em on the stringer. We fished the same spot for a while more with nothing. We decided to try at the red can for some Hali's but no matter what we did we couldn't even get a little nibble. We both wanted a stringer full to bring home so decided to go for rockfish back in the kelp.  I landed another good copper on the Jetty worm (thanks again Mol, gonna order up some more!!) and them Marmot really got into the swing of things. He rigged his shrimp flies with some squid and worked the kelp for some blacks. He was really smokin so got some squid from him and set up my shrimp fly rig. Soon enough both of us we're pullin em in. I got 3 more blacks and one more copper for a total of 6 and marmot continued to a total of 7 of blacks and coppers I think.

It was a good productive day of Rock fish and camraderie. We gotta go out there and do this again Marmot! Would love to get some lings or Hali's next time. Gonna do some serious studying and see if I can get my game up!

Cool report, that is basically what the Marmot told me today at LL.

My buddy will apreciate the business, thanks.  Those jigs kick arse.

MolBasser

So you guys were getting the blacks inside the kelp???  Potholing?  Outside edge, inside, or in the middle?

Allen

Allen,
Yes we were potholing in the kelp. Most of my blacks were near the edge of the bed, just a cluster or two of kelp from the edge of the bed, the Coppers were farther in. I also caught one good-sized Olive farther inside.

I had an _interesting_ experience while there. I was in 47 feet of water, paddling along a line of kelp but in the small channel between clusters--those irregular channels the wave action cuts through the beds. My side sonar (I have a quad-tranducer) on the right marks a big fish--nothing unusual. I am in clear water watching the bottom looking for fish schools and suddenly my sonar reads 4 feet and is flashing with very faint marks--not typical bottom reflection. "What the ___?" I am thinking. This continued for about 10 seconds even as I paddled and then just as suddenly returns to registering 47 feet and the normal bottom pattern. Then the right side sonar beeps on a big fish again and in about 15 seconds I am looking at a flashing 4 feet signal again. Now, I may not be a quicky study, but this adds up to say I am being examined and all I can think of is 1) seal or 2) the Man in Gray Suit. While we had been seeing a seal around off and on hours before, they usually surface to periscope us from the kelp. No seal sightings for quite a while so I discounted that explanation. Def Con 2. Yellow alert. At this point the 'Jaws' theme begins to crescendo in my head and I start looking around for signs of a big animal in the kelp although the 'voice of reason' whispered in my ear that a Great White would not bother dealing with kelp--kind of like driving a semi-truck in downtown SF in rush hour and trying to parallel park. But fear is not reason and I ignored the voice. Nothing...an awkward silence...jsut the wind whistling in my ears and the steady beat of the wind waves on the hull rocking up and down...my adrenaline starts flowing...my imagination starts picturing a Great White rocketign from the depth with jaws wide oepn...and then suddenly...

Suddenly Zeelander shouts out, breaking my concentration on defensive kayaking, "Did you see that? Over there" pointing over to my 5 'oclock. With great repidation I look and see nothing. I am thinking "Ohmygod!, I am going to be a statistic--and I haven't even gotten my first legal Ling yet". Then he says: "A baby whale just surfaced and spouted". Whew. It was probably just an inquisitive juvenile checking me out. Or a big Sea Lion. Hard to ID it from a distance from a kayak so low to the water. But it was definitely air-breathing. Whew. Back to fishing.

thanks for the response.  I have a clinic there soon, and am gathering intelligence.

what a riot, your story about the big fish!  glad it had a happy ending.

Allen