MBK 6-16, lots of fish, brought a girl, got her on the rockfish, lots of pics!

Nichole and I headed to SF Sunday morning, did our shopping and stuff then headed to our hotel in Monterey that evening. We stayed at the Portola Hotel, very nice. We got up around 10 and headed down to the kayak rental place to get Nichole on her first kayak ever. The weather was nice, a little breeze but it was nice. We paddled along the kelp beds and ran into notuna and he gave me the rest of the squid he had. We paddled out to the one mile buoy trying to find the reef but no avail so we headed back to the kelp beds. I tied on a 2oz jigging spoon and tipped it with squid. First drop, BAM! I get hit but the fish pops off. We worked one spot for a few hours witth fish after fish. Got some variety. The big fish in the pics put up a good fight, I had no idea what fish we caught so they all went back. This was Nicholes first time kayaking and she caught some rockfish to boot. We will be back in two weeks to do it again!

Jeff

Nichole and I in SF



Our hotel room view of Monterey











At the launch







On the water















At the one mile buoy











Heading back to the kelp beds from the buoy





Our first rockfish!






The big fish, can anyone ID it for me?







More fish action

Looks like a nice day OTW.  Thanks for the report and beautiful pictures!

Nice calico. 

Jeff, you are the man!! Way to get out there and get your friend on the water and into some fish. And to say you were jealous of my ling, I think I am the jealous one. Your catch is far better than mine was. It is good to see you had a great time. Gabe and I are going out there this Friday. I will PM you for some intel.

Take Care,
Ray

Holy crap - that's a big Calico.  That's a really neato and somewhat rare catch for Monterey.  Nice fishin!

agree on the ID.  nice calico jeff!  that fish must be lost.  minimum size is 12" but I would release any calico caught this far north.  they are not normally from around here so i'd hope they would establish some sort of population!

I'm smelling the Salt instead of pine trees...WTG looks like you both had a great time OTW...so who out fished who??? 

Thanks for the report and numerous pics of your adventure...salt water regs have some pretty good pics in them...first couple of yrs I would rip them out put um in a ziplock baggie for ref....

I'm smelling the Salt instead of pine trees...WTG looks like you both had a great time OTW...so who out fished who??? 

Thanks for the report and numerous pics of your adventure...salt water regs have some pretty good pics in them...first couple of yrs I would rip them out put um in a ziplock baggie for ref....

I had a paper I printed out of all the size regs and IDs but I left them in the car. I'm sure it'll be a few more trips before I bring any home, I want to get comfortable on the IDing

Jeff

Good report and pictures!! nice to hear you had fun!!

  Great report, and she looks like a keeper!  Does the mirage drive get tangled in the kelp? 

Welcome to the salt Jeff! Monterey Bay is a great place to start.

Your first rockfish ever is a gopher. The king of all rockfish. Despite what everyone else says.

The rest look like blue's, apart from the big one which is indeed a calico.

Congrats!

Welcome to the salt Jeff! Monterey Bay is a great place to start.

Your first rockfish ever is a gopher. The king of all rockfish. Despite what everyone else says.

The rest look like blue's, apart from the big one which is indeed a calico.

Congrats!

I kinda thought that's what that first fish was, here is a better picture of it

holy jeesus, nice calico bass (kelp bass) that thing is open year round and that one in particular is a trophy. was that one around 21-22 inches. that seems to be the going size when i go spearfishing for them in that area. easy to recognize, remember the checkerboard pattern on its sides.

i bet it put up a good fight when you hooked into it. even on a spear they keep running.

i think those are the best eating fish in all of monterey bay.

that is also one of the prime fish catches in so cal.

water must be warming up again, time to go out spearfishing.

thanks for the report!

 That first little fish looks to be a copper. I notice your girl seems to be holding up most of the bigger fish, right on. Those calicos' are more fun to catch than eat in my book. Though the ones I tried were from dirty old socal.

Dude Jeff! That's a great time out in the Bay. Welcome to the salty-side. Hit me up when you return--I'll try to make it out there w/you guys and maybe even talk my wife into going (girls only go somewhere if there are going to be other girls there).
That calico is a gem. Native to SoCal, they have established themselves in a few areas around the Monterey peninsula. I have not caught one yet. And I'm very jealous of that trophy you got there! What did you catch it on?
PK