Garrapata Adventure Sunday 5/3

Met up with Sakyak and friend and fellow MBK guide Bennett at the spot, geared up and teamed up to get our boats down the steep cliffs.Launched at around 7 under mostly cloudy skies with some fog and even some light rain.The wind was calm in the AM picking up out of the SW to 10kts.The tide was pretty high when we launched and there was some swell, which made for some set timing and a quick sprint to avoid the cobble dumpers.Sakyak made it out first and while Bennett and I lined up and waited for the next lull, he lands the first fish of the day a fat toad of a cabby. I'd post a pick of the cab, but I got fish slime on the lens just before the pick.



From that point we fished various bottom structure and the edges of the kelp as we headed south, thinking the wind, swell and current would push us north and back to the launch. This proved to be a good move because the drift was pretty fast and it did get choppy out there, especially close to the boiler rocks and surge channels.For the first hour we caught and (mostly) released a nice mix of blues, blacks, coppers, kelps, and olives.All of our fish were caught on artificial lures...mostly irons and swimbaits.We released WAY more fish than we kept and mostly kept the "bycatch" that could not be released unharmed.

We even got a clear vhf signal of Mooch hailing all NCKA from Stillwater!

When the wind and swell picked up mid-morning the drift was fast and we kept getting hung up on the bottom.We tried to fish deeper, and although we were marking fish all over it seemed like the bite just turned off for the next fortyfive minutes.We were also being stalked by an annoying group of sea lion that would approach inquisitively and somewhat aggressively if we hooked fish near them.

After getting bounced around and paddling hard against a steady drift, we decided to work the kelp and boilers closer to shore.I rounded out my limit with some chunky blues and a kelp (who forgot to decomp) and called it a day.




Low tide at the landing was a mine field of ankle breaking, slick cobbles, but we all exited dry.



Then came the exciting (and by exciting I mean hazardous and exhausting) challenge of getting the yaks back up the cliff and back to the trucks.Got home with plenty of fish in the cooler, reunited with old friends and had an amazing catching adventure!

Good job thanks.

Thanks for sharing the 1st adventure of the season to Garrapata. The place is full of challenge, especially when wind comes up, plus other factors. The structure beneath is the most amazing and depth changes constantly. Glad to know you had plenty of fish to clean up.

Hey Aaron,

Awesome report and nice stringer of fish. Thanks for the pics.

Great report Aaron--your efforts were rewarded handsomely! That spot is pretty sharky.

Great report Aaron--your efforts were rewarded handsomely! That spot is pretty sharky.

Been waiting to see a report from there, the place just looks fishy, getting the yaks down looks to be a challenge, but sounds like you all did well and were rewarded.

On another note, I've thought about freedving that spot but wondered why I don't hear of more people doing it. For a shore enrty it looks hard to beat, perhaps I have part of my answer now.


WTG on the adventure.

Right on Aaron!  My buddy and I hit Garapata opening morning.  The water was beautiful and calm, but the fishing was a bit slow compared to my trip there last fall.  Good to see you going commando in Big Sur for your first day of the season.  Thanks for the pics!

big sur commandos!  good work and nice report

Nice report and pics - those ankle breaking, slick cobbles look treachorous for sure. 

Wow....

 RockFish....  and a Knarly adventure too....  WTG Guys!!!!

Thanks for the great report and pictures Aaron. Congrats on the nice stringer of
rockfish.

Jedmo

I'm looking at the rocks and the cliff and thinking, "Wow, that's dedication!".

Congrats! 

Ben

Aaron-

Nice report and pics. I wear light wading boots with neoprene socks for Big Sur and it really helps with the landings and cliff scrambling. You can swim short distance with boots and if you have to make a long swim, you can take them off.

Scott

Additional fun facts about the adventure I left out....

This one is HUGE: Not only was this my first rf session of the year,but it was the maiden voyage for my commando sunrise T13.I'm very stoked with the yak's performance and fishability.

I need to streamline my tackle.I brought way too much shizz.Even after losing three megabaits I still had enough iron for most of the season with me I think.Which equaled heavy dry bag schlepping on the cliff scramble.

Sin, yep that place is both very fishy and sharky.On the backside of one of the boiler rocks it dropped off FAST to 140+fow. I felt like I was in a seal trap between a rock and a hard place.If a landlord or even one of the aggressive sea lion would have hit we would have been in trouble in that fast drift and swell.

Bennett had a blast fishing shallow with a bass flippin' stick and 8-10# test.Way cool.Especially since the blues and olives were thick in places.

Both Sackyak and I were fishing for "THE ONE"...We were throwing some huge bait presentations to keep from hooking more schoolies and to find a lingzilla.I did get some hard take downs and something big broke me off in it's cave.I also felt a little trigger happy, as it was my first time out for rf this season and missed some fish because of poor hook set timing.

Ideally we should have launched a bit earlier and hit the incoming high tide.One of the reasons we didn't fish farther south was that the extra hour of travel time would have made us miss the first hour of fishing which proved to be the best of the day.

We saw a commercial guy checking live fish traps in the creek cove...Another good reason to keep some of our Sur spots hush hush.I don't want to see too many more rf on display in the local Asian markets.

When we arrived we met an old hippy from SC sleeping in his van at the turnout with yaks and dive gear.He said he freedives there sometimes, but never thought abot kayaking there because of the steep cliffs.His best quote was,"You guys must be some enthusiastic fishermen."    Enthusiastic indeed!

Thanks for all the support NCKA and for a flawless team effort commandos.

Right on, fellas. That last pic is sick!

I took my T13 out for it's maiden voyage this wek-end, too. That thing moves.