Wild and Wooly @ Cape Mendo 9/21

With rockfish season coming to a close here soon I looked at my schedule and realized Friday would be my last chance. I picked up my bro Graham and loaded up some burly X-factors for a wild time at Cape Mendocino. I based my decision for the Cape due to the fact it was a sure thing but also it was the only pocket of wind free water for the last week. The swell report was a different story but not enough to deter me.
Coming down a near vertical hill some cyclist refer to as "The Wall" my heart sank as I saw powerful ocean swells rolling in from way out creating huge tubing surf. At the put in it wasn't much better but I could see a clear path to the outer reef if we could make it through the first wave set. We scurried our boats down the rocks to the water. This was Graham's Fourth time out on the ocean in a yak and he had no idea what I was getting him into. I timed his launch so he left during a lull in the sets and still barely made it out between the rocks. Now it was my turn and the lull was over. I jumped aboard and blasted through the first wave. The next one was no problem but the last one in the set had my name all over it. It was peaking so steep I could see light through the other side of the wave. There's a time when you have to make a split second decision to charge a wave or back off and let it break in front of you. I charged it! The wave was already starting to break on the right shoulder so I paddled diagonally left and flew off the lip of the wave with such force that I literally lifted out of my seat and came down with a thud on the backside of the wave.
I caught up to a wide eyed Graham and gave him the dime store clinic on balance and bracing. We set off through a minefield of waves breaking across surface level rocks. Waves crossed the reef in every direction creating clapotis. The swells forced us to stay on the reefs periphery and out of the prime Ling territory.  It didn't matter though because as soon as we found a spot we both had hookups on the the first drop. We were fishing lead-headed scampis and megabait on 20lb test. There was some current but not enough that we needed a lot of weight. Over the next hour we pulled up and released over 40 blacks and blues keeping only the choicest for winter time fish tacos.We whipped those rockies into a frenzy. They were jumping out of the water to bite our lures. They were even slamming themselves again the hull of my kayak. We moved from there and I switched from plastic to iron and landed a nice 20" red
We made it to the far side of the reef into some deeper water only to be chased away by the Landlord who made a half circle swim around us before diving  away with a lot of splash. We paddled like bats outta hell to get out of there. We unfortunatly paddled around the other side of the reef and were now in a very risky proximity to a seamless set of waves. Between a wave and a shark I'll take the wave any day so we continued on. Mother ocean let us pass through safely but not without exacting her pound of flesh. I looked over and could see that Graham was turning threes shades of green and fun had long left the building. I just hooked up on a Ling when he announced forthrightly that he was out of there. I couldn't let him try to land in that state by himself so I netted the small but legal ling, gave him a wood shampoo and raced off to catch up with Graham who was busy leaving a long chum slick trailing behind his kayak. He was really in a bad way and nearly got sucked into a vortex of churning water pouring over an exposed reef. I turned into drill seargent hawk and moved him by force of will into the safety of the rocks near shore. We timed the landing but with a higher tide we had little trouble with the waves. I wanted to go try for some cabezon near shore but graham was looking at me like I better get out of that f***in boat and give him the car keys or bad things were gonna happen. All in all it was an awesome fishing day and the landlords presence made it scary cool. I can't wait till next season but for now I'm switching over to river mode, tackle and all.

Now THAT is a crazy adventire!

What, no pics of the landlord?! J/K! Thats awesome.

Thanks for the reoprt, story, and pics Hawk!
PK

Sounds like a fun day...  I guess...     Glad no one got hurt, man.   

Great writing! What an adventure to close out the season on.

wow ... with jaw open wide when reading it through. Good to stay put.

Good times..... I'm sure your brother was very thankful for the special memories... So are you guys booked for the opener next year?  Great writing, so how do your river adventures measure up?  Did you get a good look at the brand of landlord? Are we talking Mr. White?

I almost wet myself just reading that thread. Nucking Futs   

FF

Way to end the clossure with a HOOK! even if it was just legit. Chumin already and not alot of ocean experience is a bad combo(i know). You did GOOD by pullin the plug and getting him in safely.

Good reading and great pics too!  it looked nasty!