Late Report Cambria 5/1-2, Mill Creek 5/3-4

Sorry for the tardiness of this report, I just have not had time to sit down and put it together until now.

5/1 Leffingwell landing, Cambria-  OTW @6:15am to a decent swell, but hardly any wind if at all.  Not a lot of kelp out there yet but still plenty to work around.  started off slow, but it ended up being a great day.  found a nice little red triangle between thre little kelp patches where I pulled up Three nice reds in about twenty minutes, the biggest going 20" probably 4-5 lbs.  Also had 2 underlings 21" and 23",
a nice black rockfish, a fourth red towards the end, and two little gopher cod.  I also like P.J. and Littoral saw the wardens out there, on a little inflatable skiff, just out on opening day, looking at licenses and inside hatches, they were both cool.   I was off the water by noon, the wind had started to pick up and I had not had a bite or fish since about 11:00 am. Ended up kepping the four reds and the black, I Forgot my camera in the truck , so only got a shore shot but better than nothing. 

 5/2 John Hog Came down to my house late thurs nite, we went out of leffingwell @ the crack of 10:00 am on Fri fished for about two and a half hours w/ not so much as a bite and called it a day. Saw the same two wardens out there again.
much more windy at around noon than on thurs.  after we loaded up, we headed up to big sur, and camped at Nacimiento campground over the hill off nacimiento rd just north of Milll Creek.  Plaskett and Kirk were full.   

 

5/3  Launched from Mill Creek, only two other yakers already out. John Hog and I were OTW @7:15, A decent swell but no wind and sunny. Visibility was awesome, could see 15 ft at least.  Started off with a couple decent grass rockfish, then John Hog gets a couple little rockies and then a  24" Ling all in 25-28 ft of water in front of the big wash rock just north of the launch.  Shortly after hog's ling I get one on the way up, Just short so a pic and back he went.,  I ended up cathcing a few more little balck and yellows and gopher cod, and a nice Olive.  ended up taking home three grassy's and the nice olive.  John ended up with his ling and a couple other little rockies. While we were out there I Had A juvenile gray whale swim 4-6' right under me.  Un-Freaking Believeable!  I heard what I thought was a seal breaching behind me, John Hog whowas about 15 ft away behind me yells: Did you see that? I think it was a  Whale! he saw the ridged back roll up and out of the water.  I did not see it. then I look down and see a slow moving grey and whitespeckled mass moving slowly under my boat., then the tail which was easily 5' across slowly appears, I was yelling it's right under my boat, and about ten feet in front of me it rolls it's back up and out again.  That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen and probably will ever see out there,  we were talking about it all day and the next.  I wish I was wearing a head cam.  we were off the water by 12:30 and the weather was still holding out pretty good.   Pics:  John Hogs Ling, My short Ling, My take for the day, and the launch after we came in.

 Sun 5/4- We launched out of mill Creek again, OTW @ 8:15 am ( had to pack up camp first),  Not much wind, :Little bit bigger swell and foggy and overcast. after one mis-timed attempt that got us soaked, we were out.  Caught a grass rock fish right off the bat and then didn't have much else for a couple hours, John Hog had a few little rockies.  We were fishing our way in and I hooked up a 15.5" cabbie that turned out top be the best fish of the day.  I ended up taking the Cabbie and a decent Black and yellow , and John hog took four Decent rockies a couple grassy's and some balck and yellow's.  Swell had picked up a little on the way in, John got rolled up pretty good on the way in made a few donations to davey jones.  I'll let him elaborate if he wants to.  I made it in ok by the skin of my teeth, got turned sideways as I hit the beach and was able to scramble my boat out of harms way.   Some pics: my cabbie, some various scenery from Sat and Sun.   Sorry for the lenght of the post, But I had an awesome time and feel very fortunate to have gotten out there for four days, any fish were just a bonus.

Thanks for the report, some of the best fishing days I've had in a kayak have been at Mill Creek..
the Whales are a great treat.

Craigh

Awesome report!  Love the landscape in those last shots.

I can't wait to get out for my first rockies and lings of the year.   

Awesome report DP. Thanks man! Hope to hit Mill Ck soon.
PK

dogpound, way to go!  i can't believe you pulled 3 nice reds in 20 minutes when hardly anyone else caught anything anywhere, YOUR THE MAN!

you kicked everyones a!@.  great report.

thanks,
pj

I've had a couple close encounters with grey whales in Bodega Bay.  One time I had a momma and two calfs come right up next to me.  I made eye contact with one of them.  It is definetly one of the coolest things you could every experience.  Good  job on the rockfish, way to stick it out with the swell.

Jim

enjoy viewing Big Sur scenery! Thanks for the report.
Cool - eye contact with whales. How did you do that?

SWEET port&pics~ thanks DP! love that backdrop! You guys were on a mission of madness! 
I too can't wait to jig up something....your getin me through it though.

Yeah baby!!!  What an epic weekend you guys had!  Hog dropped by the office on his way home, showed the damage to his yak from the "garage sale" he had.  Looks totally fixable, just that flush mount rod holder popped out on his P13.  Thanks for the pics, love the report!  Gonna have to head down there and see you some time DP!

Al-

Wow, what an experience with the whale!

  We were fishing our way in and I hooked up a 15.5" cabbie that turned out top be the best fish of the day.  I ended up taking the Cabbie and a decent Black and yellow , and John hog took four Decent rockies a couple grassy's and some balck and yellow's.  Swell had picked up a little on the way in, John got rolled up pretty good on the way in made a few donations to davey jones.  I'll let him elaborate if he wants to.  I made it in ok by the skin of my teeth, got turned sideways as I hit the beach and was able to scramble my boat out of harms way.   


We had an absolutely fantastic weekend although on Sunday Davy sure have his way with me.  He got a home made milk create with PVC rod holders, net, 1 rod and reel (not sure how i saw it, but my other rod was saved on a diving stab as I somehow saw it rolling back in after getting crushed by the water), a game clip with 4 decent sized rockies on it and where my net was in a rod holder on the boat it popped the rod holder out and I'll have to fix that before I get back in.  All in all an epic weekend!!     

Great report guys.  Big Sur is one of my favorite places on the planet.  Thanks for including the pics with your report. jtf

Hey DP -

Nice report and pics. Does the Cambria MLPA boundary go all the way to Leffingwell? I assumed you have to head north out of Leffingwell around the point to clear the MLPA but it wasn't clear where the border is.

scott