Santa Cruz Mile Buoy 10-8-20

So I went Kayak fishing with a couple friends this morning. We decided to launch at Cowell beach in Santa Cruz. We fished the Kelp beds to the west, when that wasn't producing we decided to make the paddle out to the mile buoy. No luck there either. There were other boats out, big and small, in the vicinity of the mile buoy. I never saw any of them produce anything either. It was a slow day with no fish. Has anyone else had a similar experience in Santa Cruz recently? One of the locals speculated that some recent large waves may have caused the fish to move elsewhere. Thoughts?

I was in SC on Wednesday, not fishing, but I did stop by the harbor looking for some intel. I talked to a couple of kayakers, and they hadn't had much luck at all.

If the swell is up, the rockfish don't move, but they do hunker down and get very tight-lipped. In Santa Cruz, a long period south swell indicates that you might want to stay home and do some mods on your kayak instead of fishing.

Today, the swell looked to be OK, so maybe that's not it. It has seemed unusually slow the last few times I've been out too, so maybe things have just slowed down in general...

Thanks for the tips. I'll keep that in mind as we look at Santa Cruz in the future. In general I feel Santa Cruz is overfished, and it's not that convenient of a drive for me. I think I would rather go elsewhere anyhow. None the less it was a great experience, it's always fun to get out on the water and see some wildlife.

I was out there today fishing in the same spots you were from 6-10ish and also got skunked (skunked so bad I made a separate post about it to see if I was messing up with my rig). My friends also hypothesized that the swell had something to do with it.

Hope you saw some good wildlife! I got chased by a pod of common dolphins when I was out, really magical.

I went out there last Saturday (10/3) from 8 am to 2 pm and got no decent bites except two tiny rockfish. I have a skiff rental reservation for 10/17 to take my family out and am getting worried.

Bite's been weird/way off up north too.

So it's not just me. The white croaker bite was huge last Sunday . Couldn't keep the bait on. 

Well it is somewhat comforting to know it wasn't just us. It sounds like no one has been having much luck recently! We did at least get to see a small pod of dolphins, plenty of sea lions, seals and a sea otter that surfaced next to us and paddled around on his back while snacking on something. Any day on the water is a good day!

Any day on the water is a good day!

Exactly!

Thanks for the fishing report Taylor.

Any day on the water is a good day!

Agreed. I've been trying to focus a lot more on the paddling and wildlife and ocean when I've been out lately. Good to take the focus off just "did i get a limit?" type thinking and the disappointment that can come with a long day on the water with not much in the way of catching.

Yes sirs! great reminder