Santa Cruz Sunday 6.7.09 w/ pics

My uncle in law wanted to try out kayakfishing.  So i had to pick a safe launch.  Cowells it was.  OTW by 0700.  Off by 1230.  Really really nice in the morning.  By noon blown out like a hurricane with 2-3 foot windwaves.  Real easy launch and landing.  Covered about 9 miles of water.  

Float plan was to round the Lane, then paddle north 2 miles to the Long Aquarium.  Lots of early morning surfers in the lineup.  Jmairey, were you in there?    

I fished artificials all day, really pared it down to light tackle.  Caught all my fish on 4" anchovy fishtrap in 30 to 40' water.  Uncle picked his up on the shrimp fly.  We had a school of blues breeze through and it was pretty good action on fish to ~2lbs.  Nothing special but sure beats a skunk.  

Saw couple PBrs bag some hallies and rockies.  Lots of jumbo smelts in the water, but i just didn't want to tangle with a sabiki.  I think I heard Mendohead call in a some chinas near the lighthouse?  Was that you Ernie?

Good thing we headed north b/c we had a FAT tailwind in the paddle home.  All told I trolled about 4 miles today, no hits on the broken back rap.

Nice, the water looks flat, even greazy at some times. 
Glad to hear you got into some fish.

Great pics.  That's some nice water.  Way to get the uncle out OTW and catching some fish.   

Great looking Hobie.  Good thing you don't have NCKA Stickers on the side, otherwise I could not tell it was mine.  It was tough this weekend that I had my Kids visiting this weekend and had to view the action from the shore rather than being out there.  However, in the great scheme of things, Kids visiting are hugely more important than another "Fish Taco".  Fish Flogger, I appreciate your priorities!

good report, Martin.  Water looks great.    Way to get them.

Lawrence

Hi Yakuza:

          I was fishing SW of you and had a Great time fighting the Wind/Current and Snags. I used a ThreeWay setup and a 2Ft. stinger Leader. I used Ranch 99 Mkt. Squid (food grade).
          It's mostly about trying to get Setup to drift between Kelp Fingers, making sure your line stays in the clear water Channel.
          Most of the time I Tooch execpt, when I allow the Wind to blow me back to the West Harbor. It's a lot of work in the Kelp Beds but, I C&R 4 RF and 1 Ling. I lost the Ling when his weight turned the Gaff while I was puttting the SS Stringer thru his Gills.
          I caught all my Fish before 10:00 and spend the last 2 Hrs. Sight seeing
and riding the Wind!
                                                                        Sea-ya Next Week-end
                                                                        Ernie
   
           

WTG hooking-up your uncle-in-law with kayak fishing.  Thanks for the report and pictures.

Martin solid work. I was out there in my PB (16ft Klamath) with a buddy. I am sure we cruised by you. We did OK by he mile bouy even bagged an underling

Nice report!
 I was out there yesterday as well. That was some mirror-like water in the am. I was OTW from 6-9:30 so I missed the wind. I fished a scampi for one hit, which turned out to be a 25" ling. Saw a PB nearby bring something good aboard (probably a nice ling) they were using live finbait.
Just a gorgeous morning out there.

the wind really started to howl around 12:30. We were over near capitola so the run back was wet and rough happy to not be paddling

that is one smooth waters you guys were on.  thanks for the pics.

Thanks all. It was really nice day.  One thing to add about Cowell.  Launching there is great in the early AM when its deserted.  BUT watch where you land after the crowds come out.  Harbor Master put me on 100 dB blast for all of Santa Cruz to hear. 

"Attention Orange Kayak.  Attention Orange Kayak... Divert your course north of the swim area...."   
Pretty funny, highly embarrassing. 

  I was out there in my PB (16ft Klamath) with a buddy. I am sure we cruised by you.

Tried hailing you on 69 before we launched.  Did you guys go north of the mile buoy first, then hit Cap?  We were up and out there aways, mixing it up with the PB fleet.  Soooo glad we didn't go South.  It would have been an insane paddle back after noon.

I was fishing SW of you and had a Great time fighting the Wind/Current and Snags.  I lost the Ling when his weight turned the Gaff while I was puttting the SS Stringer thru his Gills.   I caught all my Fish before 10:00 and spend the last 2 Hrs.             

Thanks for calling in your chinas, and the heartbreaker ling.  It was slooooooow going for us (as predicted), but then we got your call so we stuck around, and ended up wiping the SC skunk off our boats.  You are a brave guy trying working the kelp with a 3 way!

Yeah we did a troll by the SC pier then over to the light house. After not being able to raise bait or get a hook up we went to the mile bouy and nailed 6 browns. We tried another troll in front of the harbor jaws then made a run top the kelp in Capitola. We then moved to the outside of the kelp and got another brown. The the wind started to blow and we noticed white caps. So we slowly motored back in. We were off the water just before 2pm. I must have been making a run when you called and didn't hear the radio. If so we would have cruised over and offered you guys a beer. Short of a hard as paddle I would have liked to have been on my yak vs the PB but my buddy is much of an 'work out' kinda guy

North of the swim area?  Isnt that under the wharf?

Thanks for the report!. Don't mean to be the buzzkill, but you guys were fishing in one of the marine reserves up by the Longs Tanks. The area from Natural Bridges beach north to around 3 mile beach is now closed. Be careful, as tickets have been issued for fishing in these areas.
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/pdfs/ccmpas/natbridge_chart.pdf