L-K Trip

After four days of waiting for Saturday, the day finally came , I was anxious of catching some fish. Woke up at 3:30 and left San Lorenzo around 4am right after a big cup of coffee. Headed down south
unsure of where to go. My two options were Still Water or LK. Still Water or LK ? Finally decided to go to LK with the south crew. After 168 mile trip I meet with ??? NCKA members, buenos amigos.
( forgot your names ). When I got there at 7:10 some of the NCKA guys were in the water already, I took
my dose of Dramamin, got my wet suit on, my sombrero, my weapons and went after some fish. The water was a little rough at the launch, inside was just fine. I headed out north
like I was told way after the caves, I was so far that on my way back I felt like I was going backwards but after all I made it safely with two fat reds, two blues, one black and one ling cod with beautiful lips. Not bad for a rookie uh?
Overall, Was a nice trip, meet good people and had a lot of fun.

nice meeting you kayakito and all.

Those of you who know sackyak know that he doesnt freak out too much about rough conditions.  So when he goes in first and radios back,"it a tough landing, Im going to get the camera to document the carnage," you know its bad.

Summary, quality fish including a 22 inch ocean whitefish.  Went swimming on launch and landing.  The launch was just bad timing, a stumble and reload.  No big deal.  On the landing lost my paddle, hat, sunglasses, bat, empty game bag, bilge pump, pliers, tackle tray that wet dreams are made of, gaff and what little pride I had.  Did I mention all that crap was under a net and bungies?  The shore dumps were huge, and unpredictable, and I could see all the stuff floating, away but never coming to shore.  Luckily PJ went out again and retrieved my paddle and gaff.  Bilge pump washed up and sackyak retrieved that.  Thanks again PJ, that was above the call.

Others lost more important cargo, Ill let them tell it themselves.  Sackyak should have some great pics of Scott doing a new drop in technique.  Thanks for the good eats, by the way.  You probably learned to cook that way in the submarine fleet?

nice meeting you kayakito and all.

Those of you who know sackyak know that he doesnt freak out too much about rough conditions.  So when he goes in first and radios back,"it a tough landing, Im going to get the camera to document the carnage," you know its bad.

Summary, quality fish including a 22 inch ocean whitefish.  Went swimming on launch and landing.  The launch was just bad timing, a stumble and reload.  No big deal.  On the landing lost my paddle, hat, sunglasses, bat, empty game bag, bilge pump, pliers, tackle tray that wet dreams are made of, gaff and what little pride I had.  Did I mention all that crap was under a net and bungies?  The shore dumps were huge, and unpredictable, and I could see all the stuff floating, away but never coming to shore.  Luckily PJ went out again and retrieved my paddle and gaff.  Bilge pump washed up and sackyak retrieved that.  Thanks again PJ, that was above the call.

Others lost more important cargo, Ill let them tell it themselves.  Sackyak should have some great pics of Scott doing a new drop in technique.  Thanks for the good eats, by the way.  You probably learned to cook that way in the submarine fleet?

.............................Snaps!!!! That sounds like A bad dream I had last night.

Great report - nice stringer, kayakito.   

Too bad about the major yardsale, e2g.   

Way to go Kayakito, nice looking fish.  How was the weather, was it hot again?

sounds exciting...  looking forward the the wipeout/carnage/crash-n-burn stories (as long as nobody got hurt).

I knew today was a surf day not a fishing day based on that west swell, but I was actually a little ill and did not surf either, 

sounds like kayakito toughed it out for some fish, good work.

I did end up fishing for 20 minutes at the end of the day when I felt a little better. as it was getting dark I caught a walleye and bsp on a grub from shore with a couple token first-day-in-SC-house casts. I'll take it as a good omen. high tide/full moon maybe somebody will be catching some stripers tonight?

J

As a LK newbie I couldn't get over how good the fishing was.  I had a hook up on every drop and sometimes doubles.  Lots of quality fish especially the reds.  Didn't see a lot of legal sized lings caught today but I did release a 24" ling.  I was using a 3" swim bait (wild eye shad) tipped with squid as the top lure.  The bottom rig was a double hook bait set up so I could use up the frozen anchovies in the freezer...WAF points there.

LK is good fishing but the price you pay is the long drive (3 hours for me), kick you in the face launches and landings, a manual portage over big rocks on the beach, 2 mile paddle to the honey hole and limited parking.  Since I landed late I missed out on the stories about how much gear was lost on the launches and landing.  Scott (GB2) saved me a man dawg (Thanks!) and told me first hand about his "oh shit" landing.  But did I mention that its quality fishing?

Ramon (kayakito) and I were at the locked gate (open at at 7 and a friendly stranger let us in as long as we locked the gate.  PM me if you want the combo.  Since there was no available parking left in the camp ground Ramon and I parked just outside the gate on the side of the road.  

The ranger who checked our licenses and fish was cool.  He even let us drive into the camp grounds to load up our kayaks without charging us.

My launch and landing were uneventful although I got pushed around by the wash water a bit on my launch and landing.  Right after Kayakito and I landed a huge set of waves pounded the shore.  Ramon and I lucked out when we paddled in because those waves would have eaten us up and split us out in little pieces.  

Conditions were great other than the shore break.  Good to see old friends (GB2, Sackyak, Ark, James, Dan (sharkman), Eric GTO19 (?) and meet new NCKA Bros (kayakito, e2g, PJ.  My score: 5 reds, 4 blues and 1 brown.  I must have thrown back at least 30 fish so the nonstop fishing made it well worth the drive.

Tight lines,

Gary

Yeow!! The wife and I just dorve by LK about 7pm this eve, and it looked dicey.  I'm not going tomorrow, due to Small craft advisories.  I'm bummed! I was in Monterey, after gorging on seafood @ the sustainable fisheries gala @ the Monterey BAy Aquarium.  It was a kayakless weekend- but patience come to those who wait!!! 

Rustic Andy

nice report kayakito beautiful fishes...always good to hear that the long trip paid off

Oh and sorry to hear about the donation to nature

Ramon and I lucked out when we paddled in because those waves would have eaten us up and split us out in little pieces.

cool stories!

if you know it is big, best to wait till you see a big set. then go in after.  there is almost always a good gap after a big set. btw, you might count the hooks on your rigs, you are allowed 2 total...  a treble counts as one hook.

kayakito welcome to the yard sale team.  I have made my fare share of donations to old Davey Jones. 

J

sounds exciting...  looking forward the the wipeout/carnage/crash-n-burn stories (as long as nobody got hurt).

J

John -

First I will yell you the good stuff and then the Eugene and Scott surf competition. I used to surf when I lived in SCAL and I agree that the westerly swells created some good waves at LK with some in the 6ft plus category. The photo I took was one of the smaller waves. The one right behind it was a monster.

I arrived first at 6AM and rigged my boat on the beach. The conditions were kind of sketchy but there were some windows through the swells. Etienne and SCXfactor showed up next. I lent Etienne a Lamiglas rod I just finished building to get his opinion on how it handles swimbaits. I will let Etienne post his rod review. I was mainly targeting lings with heavy iron so was using one of my Calstar rods. Made a clean launch and waited for the gang to show up and then headed out to the "Flemish Reef". Hooked a 29 inch ling on a wacky rigged 10oz hex bar and got to break in my new Kunz gaff.  Thanks Eric for the finest gaff made.  Lots of guys working the middle of the reef so I went to the north end and bagged 6 nice verms on a pimped green thrasher.

Now for the surf competition...
Decided to head in around 1030 and Etienne said the landing was pretty nasty. If Etienne says it is bad, I knew there was a good chance I was going to swim, I took off my hat and sunglasses, put on my helmet and paddled in with Eugene and PJ. As we entered the cove, a huge set of wave rolled in and I was thinking, wow, looks like Mavericks.  PJ was in the point position with Eugene and I on either side. PJ made the call and made a clean landing. I was a minute behind and about 10 ft from  the beach I look back and a large wave is right behind me. I lean back to brace and execute a reverse sweep to turn the bow but I only had time to turn the bow about 10 degrees before the wave hit the stern. The next thing I know my P15 is verticle and I am looking straight down at the beach. It was a really wierd feeling, like when your surfing and you first get on a big wave and your surfing down the face except your on a 15ft yak and looking at sand.  About this time I hit the ejection seat to put some distance between me and my yak. I end up swimming in the surf and I finally stand up thinking that wasn't so bad. Etienne is right next to me holding my yak and then I hear him say oh s**t!!!. I turn around and see this 8ft wave face and we start hauling ass up the beach only to get knocked down again. Ended up losing my game clip and fish because the plastic clip which was holding it to the yak snapped. Watched my fish float out to sea as the seagulls pecked at them. By the time the surf laid down and PJ paddled out to get the fish they had sunk. PJ thanks for giving it a try, I owe you one. As they say, the sea giveth and the sea taketh away this is particularly true at LK. Any way, Eugene only turtle rolled where I hung 10 on a P15 so I think I won the surf competition. 

Then we had a pleasant man dawg shore lunch and SCXfactor cooked some really good spicy sausages in beer. Had a cold one and followed Eric home. All in all another great NCKA outing. It was nice to meet PJ, Dogpound and Ramon.

Scott

As a LK newbie I couldn't get over how good the fishing was.  I had a hook up on every drop and sometimes doubles.  Lots of quality fish especially the reds.  Didn't see a lot of legal sized lings caught today but I did release a 24" ling.  I was using a 3" swim bait (wild eye shad) tipped with squid as the top lure.  The bottom rig was a double hook bait set up so I could use up the frozen anchovies in the freezer...WAF points there.

LK is good fishing but the price you pay is the long drive (3 hours for me), kick you in the face launches and landings, a manual portage over big rocks on the beach, 2 mile paddle to the honey hole and limited parking.  Since I landed late I missed out on the stories about how much gear was lost on the launches and landing.  Scott (GB2) saved me a man dawg (Thanks!) and told me first hand about his "oh shit" landing.  But did I mention that its quality fishing?

Ramon (kayakito) and I were at the locked gate (open at at 7 and a friendly stranger let us in as long as we locked the gate.  PM me if you want the combo.  Since there was no available parking left in the camp ground Ramon and I parked just outside the gate on the side of the road.  

The ranger who checked our licenses and fish was cool.  He even let us drive into the camp grounds to load up our kayaks without charging us.

My launch and landing were uneventful although I got pushed around by the wash water a bit on my launch and landing.  Right after Kayakito and I landed a huge set of waves pounded the shore.  Ramon and I lucked out when we paddled in because those waves would have eaten us up and split us out in little pieces.  

Conditions were great other than the shore break.  Good to see old friends (GB2, Sackyak, Ark, James, Dan (sharkman), Eric GTO19 (?) and meet new NCKA Bros (kayakito, e2g, PJ.  My score: 5 reds, 4 blues and 1 brown.  I must have thrown back at least 30 fish so the nonstop fishing made it well worth the drive.

That is totally true Gary, if we wait two more minutes to land, We would have a different story. I glad everybody got out safe.

Hey I have a question. The ling cod I got when I opened to clean it out the meet was green. Look like antifreeze color, is that normal ?




 

I opened to clean it out the meet was green. Look like antifreeze color, is that normal ?

Yep it will turn white when you cook it