Monterey 10/9

A nice group fishing today including BigRed, TaulPaul, Dolphin, Mooch, Alex, Seebreaze, Randy,  and SCAllen and client.

We all headed out around sunrise after meeting in the dead of night at 6AM.  Why did we listen to Mooch?  We could have slept in another hour, well, maybe another 1/2 hour.

TaulPaul, BigRed, and I went out in the first wave and dropped 'em in at the edge of the first kelp bed.  BigRed proceeded to hook a seal and was actually able to get it to the boat to cut the line!

I hooked a gopher, but looked over to the buoy off the hotel and saw a kayaker (Alex) heading that way and a bunch of birds working.  I headed that way and dropped 'em in around the buoy.  I hooked an underling and a small red.  I also got mobbed by a huge school of 18" jacksmelt and hooked 4 on the sabiki and lost all 4.     It was quite the site seeing that school breeze under my yak.

Worked the area a bit and hooked another underling before coming shallower towards Mooch.  More gophers and blues.  About this time Alex comes paddling  back and has a limit of blues.  He had gone in towards the hotel as I drifted out.  So Mooch and I head back over towards the hotel and drop them in.  We begin to hook lots of blues.  Joel got a couple reds too.  I filled my bait tank with jacksmelt and kept a couple blues as well.  My last 2 drops produced another 2 underlings before I drifter off the reed.  I put a jackie on the hook.  About 15 minutes later I had a good takedown and had it on the hook for all of 10 seconds.  I don't know what it was, but I suspect halibut because it felt big and I'm pretty sure I was on the sand.

What a beautiful day on the water!  Nice and sunny and very little breeze if at all.

Oh, I found my leak.  While pumping out the hole I noticed it on one of my scupper hold supports.  It looks like a pinprick hole, as if someone  poked IN though the scupper hole.  I'm not sure how that happened.  I asked at Monterey Bay Kayaks for advice on fixing and they told me it is very hard to fix a hole there.  Anyone have any ideas?

Total for me was 4 kept blues, countless blues and gophers released, ~5-6 underlings (biggest one maybe 20"), and the one small red released.  I also kept a few of the jacksmelt out of curiousity.  I must have caught about a dozen of them.  I fried them up tonight for dinner.  Not bad, but the lateral line dark meet was a bit strong.

-Allen

Mmmm.  Harbor seal, the other white meat.

SCAllen's client, Mike, was really hammering those blues out by buoy#7.  I must have seen him land 15-20 of the things himself, most small but a few of considerable size.  I'll have to remember that buoy.

SCAllen tells me that most of the sea floor there is stone (slate?).  In his experience, Mooch's halibut was a fluke, maybe over some patch of sand.   Well, I haven't managed to catch any in the places they're *supposed* to be...  and then Mooch catches one where they're not supposed to be, anyway.

Anyway,  a darn good time was had by me, despite my needing to paddle in at 10:00.   I'll definitely be launching there again in the very near future.  

I sure wish I could have added a nice fat halibut to my score:

1 Harbor seal (hooked, battled, brought to boat)
1 Brown RF (good size, caught on a baby smelt)
Many jacksmelt (from sub-anchovy size to monster)
Many many blue RF (small to mid-size, caught on squid in midwater)

Glad you guys had a good time.   Sorry I ended up bailing and missing out on the good company, but I wasn't up for the long commute alone when my carpoolers canceled.

How was the wind and swell?  Was it as rough as forecasted?

Wow very little breeze at all huh?  Thats great, the forecast looked nasty.

Compared to yesterday's weather, we really lucked out!  I fished the big boat with my daughter in SC yesterday. It was blowing 20 kt at 7am, and only got worse all day.  (Ema caught 18 of our 20 fish limit, then got 10 for the boat limits....she's bragging today!)

this morning, I was prepared to hop the hill and go to stillwater if the NW was howling again, but it was actually glassy (on top of a leftover bump) till about 9:30am, then the wind swung around and gradually increased up till 11:30 or so when we got out of the water.  It was very nice all morning.

Lotsa fun today catching the blues in that same litle corner by the 2d red can, 60 ft of water. GREAT to see Ed and Jim  out there (I know you guys are lurking....). It was so cool to pull up and see eight yaks or so rigged and ready to launch,  My companion today is from Houston where he fishes a Tarpon 160 in the flats for redfish where it's only 1-2 feet deep.  The mighty Pacific was a challenge  he stood up to well, pulling in fish after fish and releasing them all.  He was also impressed with our teamwork out there, with everyone giving tips and spot reports on 69.

I guess I caught about 6-8 blues altogether, mostly using the glow-in-the-dark hairraiser with a whole squid pinned on, and hanging generally at the bottom hoping for the errant halibut.  No joy.

So far, Big Red and I are tied for the year.   Perversely, I almost DON'T want to catch a halibut this year, just to say I got skunked for the whole season.

One sad note for the day........I said goodbye to my blue scupper pro and watched Mooch drive off into the sunset with it strapped on his truck.....(sniff)....lotta good times on that boat.  Hope to see it out once in a while still nailing big fish.

the first fish I caught....which I could not identify....looks like a half gecko / half fish......



tall paul with his stringer....



alex / aliens with his nice stringer of blues......and thanks for taking us to the fish - you da man!


this freak of nature had me thinking that it was a halibut at first...then, when I saw color, I thought it was a big vermillion.....the bastard got me all excited for nothing...sheesh...



henry / dolphin was at ease despite his fist time out kayak fishing in the ocean.....



pat/seabreeze and allen/pole pole hanging out by the kelp beds....



allen / pole pole was the undisputed "bait maker"......



henry / dolphin with his bag of goodies - he caught a mixed bag of rockfish - including a couple of greenlings (released one)- good going henry!!!



my catch - 7 blues and two reds. Caught some with the candlefish secret lure and some were caught using squid....released a lot of fish and just kept enough to barter with at my favorite sushi restaurant....




another great day at Monterey - great weather- great company - will be back again soon!!!

Wow! Mooch,

I haven't seen one of those fish in a long time. As a kid fishing with a drop line i used to catch those a lot (California Lizardfish) along with bullheads and sanddabs. Great job on the Photographs.

One sad note for the day........I said goodbye to my blue scupper pro and watched Mooch drive off into the sunset with it strapped on his truck.....(sniff)....lotta good times on that boat. Hope to see it out once in a while still nailing big fish.

Allen, in honor of you, I will name the scupper pro "Old Blue"  

As usual great fishing and photos. Mooch, you should be sponsored by the manufacturer of you camera, because I'm about to get myself one purely because of all your great photos.

Does a big swell get in there? I've wondered about this while staring over the rail @ the aquarium.  7 foot high tide and 20 foot swell, what happens? Well, the aquarium has been there for a while and we've had plenty big swells and high tides, so I'm sure the answer is nothing, but it would be nice to see it first hand.

thanks jmairey! I truly enjoy taking photos - especially among our small and friendly group of kayak fishermen! I wish everyone on this board could post pics with their reports  

Don't know much about the swell around Monterey but I'm sure Alex/Alien, Pat/seabreeze and steve/chefstano can give us more info.

on another subject - I looked up the Lizardfish on google:
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/mspcont7.html#lizardfish
- and if you look at the bottom of the page, under "other common names" you will see "candlefish" ...the same lure I've been using on my two trips to Monterey. The lure DOES look like lizard fish  
http://www.gofishin.com/index.cgi?cart_id=14244.26416&asid=78969&mgf=0100000000&show_details=52121&cat=203&keywords=candlefish&sort=&tb=&hmn=&sw=

Discussions with those who have launched at MB Kayaks before indicate that the 6"-12" break on the beach was the largest they'd seen...

So I'd assume the swell there is pretty low.

only 6", eh? Good to know. If I can find time I should look carefully at the coastline there and try to figure out the exposure for it. Why exactly is it so protected?

Even on sunday the swell was still decent size. I surfed saturday and recovered sunday (I guess I'm no spring chicken these days), but I looked at the buoys and knew there was some good surf out there Sunday too.  I also saw the wind died in the afternoon.

On Sunday my family and I often walk to the mountain view farmer's market and buy seafood from Pat of Mission Fish. broiled salmon and tempura shrimp for dinner last night Don't even have to fire up the vehicle to end up with killer seafood dinner...

Mooch,  I think the Candlefish refers to the Eulachon, which is a popular forage fish in more northern waters.  Still the the lure is indeed representative of the lizardfish in your photo.

-Allen

I was pumping out the hold while I was on the water.  I just happened to notice the squirt while I was pumping.  Got lucky I suppose.

-Allen

The beach there by MB Kayaks (Del Monte beach, maybe?) is very protected... both by the breakwaters of the Monterey marina and by the shape of the whole bay, with Monterey/Carmel blocking most of the stuff from the South and Santa Cruz blocking to the North.  I'll be launching there again as soon as I have the time.

As far as leaks go, I carry the $12 bilge pump I bought from REI outlet.   I'm glad to not have any leaks so far (and to never have gone over) but I'm sure I won't be lucky forever.

I'm still thinking about how glassy and nice it was Sunday down there.  I wish I had the time to go again tomorrow!  In related news, schools are in session so it's surfing season again here in Santa Cruz.  I can head out to the breaks at 9 or 10 and not find my fellow surfers littering the waves like ants.