Cape Mendocino - 6/30

Last day to grab an ab until August, so I picked a farmer I'd found and left a couple of times in the past since the water was very muddy today.  Then I paddled around and tried my luck with the rod, hoping a monster cab would sniff out the ab guts and squid.  I tied myself off to a piece of kelp using a longboard leash that I scored at a garage sale for a buck.  It was pretty boring sitting on my yak in 7' of mud water waiting for a bite, and I could see the blue line a few hundred yards offshore, but the wind was way too hectic today to head outside for the always productive jigging.  Ended up picking up a decent grassy rockfish then called it a morning and headed back over the hill.  As usual it was glassy calm offshore of Eureka - another day on the long list of days when it's beautiful most places, but blown out at the Cape.

Your northcoast muddy water looks to be quite the bother........but still lovely to see the pics.

you have a serious fishing drive abking! no way to drift sock it and rodeo ride it out there?

I have done that a few times. surf leash to drift sock off the bow.

it sucks when you get snagged. other than that, it works okay. maybe a light breakable leader
would be a good idea for that. hmm...

J
 

no way to drift sock it and rodeo ride it out there?

The pic looks nice, John, but the whitecaps were extremely brutal - somehow I can't get them to show up nicely in my shots from shore.  Yesterday's 20-25 knot breeze had lots of north and even a little east in it, so there's very little margin for error out at the farthest western fishing grounds on a day like that - screw up and you're out to sea in a big way.  Little baby whitecap 'rifflers' like I photo'd on my Crescent City trip 12 days ago are kind of fun and not really a bother, but the action out at the Cape when I drove home yesterday was like Chevy Silverado sized breakers every 20-30'...  I was tempted, but it would've been way past "foolish".     Today on the other hand is sounding awesome, with the forecast dropping to 5-10 this afternoon and 2-3' swell.  Family and housework day though...  Someday I'll kick this obsession!  

right, that does sound way too sketchers, especially the being washed to hawaii part,  .

I have been out when the wind swell is 10' or so and it's 15 to 20,
you can't see over the top of the waves.
but then the wind was quartering onshore, so the drift was basically along shore down the reefs.
I think next time I do that tho, I will use a 15lb leader and just lose a few fish, but at least
I'll be able to break off (fairly) easily if I snag. fighting a snag in those conditions is what
generally sends me in.

I like that you find a way to have fun and fish even when the conditions are against you.
you seem to have a quiver of techniques that you can try in a lot of situations.
hanging in there for the grassy was a great example. If you got the day off, and need
a break from work and home but the conditions are against you, a great way to spend the time.

It's a different story, but that is what I try to do with fishing spots closer to home but
where the 'catching' may not be spectacular. so your whole ab guts and shallow water
thing is interesting, I could do some kind of squid drift in windy conditions with my MP3
player, that might be pretty fun overall.

J

The water always looks nice when you're standing on the shore

It always cracks me up when I land Muir or someplace after getting the crap slapped out of me outside and somebody walks past and says Well you sure picked a great day for it!

Still Abking you've definitely got the life  When my ship finally comes in you'll be bumping into me up there