Stillwater Cove

Finally got my feet wet, saltwater that is.  Met up with Otobepelagic, Tote, Rory, ( Nice to meet you guys) at Stillwater.  Frustrated the first couple of hours since I did not really know what I was doing + my FF died out.  I went closer to the kelps and started picking off some blues for dinner and that was about it.  Divers in the area said they did not se any reds, cabs, or lings.   Couldn't tell if the drift was fast since I had no reference yet being a newbie in the ocean.  All in all A good day.  Stopped by Doran Park on the way home and limited out on the rock crabs in 1 hr.  (brought my rings just in case...didn't want to zero...wife would not like that) So easy to catch crabs at Doran with a yak

dinner will be sweeeet!  If you have problems touching bottom and you line is scoping out the drift is fast.  Personally, I love catching blues, they are feisty

Hey Hightide, sorry I couldn't make it this time around. I'm glad you were able to
at least catch some blues not to mention some red crabs. Good going and congrats. Great pictures too. One quick question. How did you like your first
ocean kayak adventure? Did you wear a patch for motion sickness?

Thanks,
Jed

Nice catch Hightide. those crabs look juice....

 Is it hard to pull a ring from the Yak ? what about balance?
I use to do Pier crabbing and some times was not easy to pull.

Jed, I did not use anything for seasickness but I should have.  Tying lines in the water sure makes you feel queezy. 
kayakito...at Doran the rings go in only about 12 feet in the water so they are easy to pull out.  No problem with balance too...

Great job, hightide.  Looks like you got some blacks too.   

Hightide we saw you out there saturday and our catch was about the same. Nothing much the first two hours and then blues and a couple of china's.My friend Will managed a 23" underling. Friday afternoon wasn't any better, but today looked much better and there was a lot more boats. Unfortunately we had to get back so we left after a quick ab grab this morning. What kind of net/trap do you use to catch those crabs with from the kayak? Jim/redyak

I just uded the regulsr hoop nets about four of them.  yes I did it from the yak. 

It was nice meeting some new faces out there.
Otobepelagic and I stayed out for about 7 hours OTW. My 2 biggest were a 21'' underling and a 24.5'' ling. The legal one was photoed and released.
LOTS of gophers and a few chinas. Did I mention there were LOTS of gophers??
I did manage 2 small verms. Everything was released.
Allen gave me one of those fish release clips to send a fish back down to the bottom. Works like a charm. Thanks Allen!
The wind conditions got progressively better. They were from the south which made for a weird drift. Not too fast, just weird.
LOTS of kelp claimed a lot of jigs.
Today looked MUCH better OTW. Flat glass and zero wind. Didn't kayak. Just did an ab grab and came home.

    Woke up at 2:30 and glanced at the current buoy reports and and double timed it out the door. I was traveling on my own this weekend as HOLY TOLEDO headed out to Lake Mendo with is buds for a weekend of camping.   
     The drive out river road was just as challenging as the prior weekend. Just about to the fork in road to Jenner I dodged a sow and her four young'ns, then proceeded to miss another deer, and finally a jackrabbit. Got to Timber cove inn and witnessed someone else's carnage.....three raccoons in the road, not a pretty site.
    Noting I had arrived earlier than needed at Stillwater (sonoma county) I then proceeded  to Salt Point and  raided  the fish cleaning station of a few ab trimmings.............free bait! Made it back to Stillwater where the launch was dark and deserted so I donned a headlamp and shuttled myself to the beach. Rory and Tote arrived moments later and we launched in a wicked south swell, if you look real close you can see the two inch breakers. Out on the water we met up with "redyak", "hightide" and a few others I didn't catch their handles..sorry guys. The southern current was fickle and made for some interesting drifts. The bite near the kelp was all you could ask for if you were targeting chinas, gophers and blacks......all stuffed with tiny bait fish (tiny anchovies?).
     I made the move out to 90-110 fow and tried to fish some pinnacles without much action. Tote scooted north to  Ocean Cove and fished the shallow in search of cabs (his story to tell) and I followed only to catch more gophers, chinas and blacks with the occasional blue thrown in.  All the fish caught in the shallows were easily released. The kelp is soooooo thick it was difficult to find an open spot in the shallows.
     Ended up heading back to deeper water to search for vermilion and managed to catch and release two (thanks to my Sheldon fish release). I'm still not sure of the mortality rate but it beats the options. It seems if you could locate a pinnacle without clouds of bait the fish were on the bite. Finished up back in shallower water to have a couple really big hookups but they didn't stick for long. Around two o'clock called it a day and made a tough landing as the breaking surf had risen to about four inches, basically glide up to the beach and step off the kayak. Another beautiful day on the water.........

having trouble w/picts

Well it seems like the reports are pretty similar everywhere for the ocean.  I fished last night in front of my house for a couple hours and bagged a couple gophers and a barely legal ling.  Water temps are coming up so hopefully it will heat up soon.  Glad you guys had a good day on the water.  It has been wicked warm on the coast

Jim