Capitola 10/17

Had the morning free so rolled the yak down to Capitola Beach and went out to drink some beer and try and catch some fish. My wife's parents and grandparents were up from Bakersfield to watch my daughter while I went to SF to go see my wife run the Nike Women's Half Marathon, and they love RockFish so I figured I could earn some serious WAF by bringing them some fresh fish!!!

They have taken the floating dock off the wharf for the season so I guess it is time to start working on my beach launch/landing skills. The swell was pretty non-existent for the launch, so no problems there.

The sunrise was beautiful, as always, and I worked the edges of the kelp and probably caught and released about 10 little rockies and kept 4 that were worthy of the grease...no monsters, but still great eating!!

The bite died around the kelp around 10ish so I paddled out to the SpongeBob buoy and drifted for an hour bouncing a variety of lures along the bottom with no luck.

By the time I got back to the beach, the tide was pretty high and the swell had picked up enough to make me a little nervous of the landing...I don't have anywhere to stash my rods inside the BigYak so I was nervous about eating it and snapping a pole...the swells weren't that big, but the waves that were breaking up on the side of the beach on the rocks seemed to be kind of wrapping around and coming in sideways across the beach making it more difficult than just timing the one set of swells coming straight in...

Anyway, waited and watched and back paddled for quite awhile until I was able to find a break and zip on in with no worries!!

Walked back home, cleaned and bagged the fishies for the in-laws and then took off with my buddy Miguel to go meet the wives up in the city and support them while they ran.



http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/nikesf09/lorejel

Trust me fellas if you ever want to go watch a Marathon, the Nike Women's is THE one to watch...you get to cheer on 20,000 ladies and tell them they are "looking good" and they smile and say thank you instead of slapping you!!!
 

Turns out the in-laws forgot to take the fish back to Bakersfield, so I earned the WAF and got to keep the fish!!!
 

All in all, a great morning on the water and a modest harvest to share with the wife!!!

Here are some pics of the remains of my liquid breakfast, the 4 unlucky fishies, and tonight's dinner... 

Sincerely,

Jim


 

Looking good Jim.

You've got the Good Life going, Jim.  Well done.   

Nicely done as usual Jim!



-Eliot

Where are the pics of the running ladies?

Thanks guys!!

FishMaster1, I didn't get any pics of the running ladies because I was too busy cheering them on and enjoying the experience!!!

One of my teammate's family members took a few of her kicking ass, so here are two to give you an idea of what the day was like!!!

Sincerely,

Jim

BigJim, love your reports man!    I've see the cross wave action before coming in on the N side of the wharf.  Its like the swells bounce off the rockwall and come back at an angle crossing the normal swell making your yak feel like your hula-hooping!  Wonder if its easier to land on the south side, but doubt it since you might run into a few kids on the way in. 

Looks like you had a full day Jim. Great looking dinner as always.

Jedmo

The deep fried fish looks delicious!  Thanks for the report and pictures Jim.

Our friend ran it this year. Great lookin dinner too!

Fresh deep fried RF  MMMMMMMGoooood

Nice report and WTSupport the wife and inlaws

WTG On the second wave of pics!!!! LOL...

That's a great story.  I am sure you would have liked to add a few bigger fish, but you: a) got out there (this time of year) and b) caught a buzz and c) caught dinner and d) cheered your wife on.  Perfect day, in my book. 

Nice catch Jim! I cut my teeth on that reef when I bought my first fishing kayak back in 1998.Gotta love those Capitola rockies.