Long Day in Monterey - October 31, 2010

Arrived at lover's point just after 6 AM to find fishfarmer waiting for me.  While I was unpacking my gear, saltydog and ravensblack pull up and we exchange greetings since this is the first time we had met.  I hear from fishfarmer that lost anchovy is already down there and heading out.

Sunrise Launch at Lover's Point


I launch around 7:00 AM.  The ocean is relatively flat with little or no wind.  On the paddle out I see lots of seals and dolphins.  Some of the dolphins are so big, that they appear to be small whales.  I reach fishfarmer and start my drift.  I begin by drifting a frozen squid flylined on a trap hook setup with a four foot 20 lb flourocarbon leader.  I begin jigging squid.  I immediately get 2 and then another 3 and then 2 more.  The squid are thick!  I change out my frozen squid with a fresh dead squid with little luck.  A couple hours later and 20 or so squid later, I get a big take down which pulls out about 100 feet of line.  I get pretty excited, but the fish drops it and doesn't come back.  About a half hour later ravensblack hooks up and he's on a big one, unfortunately, it comes to a disappointing end but I will let him tell his story himself.

There are about 8 or 9 kayakers on the water.  At about 2 or 3 PM the wind begins to pick up a bit more and most of us continue to fish until about 4:00 PM.  As far as I know none of the kayakers off of lover's point caught any wsb.  I head back in and slow troll on the way in with a 1 1/2 sliding sinker attached to my fly line rig.  About a 1/4 mile from shore I get another big take down, but again the fish drops the bait.  By the time I'm packed it is almost 6:30 PM.  A very long day on the water.

Regardless, of the lack of fish, I had a great day on the water.  I had a great time fishing with fishfarmer, saltydog, ravensblack and lost anchovy.  There was a lot of ocean life all around us, I saw a huge mola moa (maybe 4 or 5 feet long) and lots of little ones, a lot of dolphins/porpoises and seals (I don't really like seals, they scare me a bit).  The weather was great, although we probably could have used a little bit more of a breeze.  We had almost no drift in the morning.  All that was missing was a wsb, but that was not that big of a disappoint, at least now that I have already caught one . There is a lot of squid in the water right now.  The squid boats were out in force and a couple of them got a little too close to some of us for comfort.  I ended up with about 2 gallon bags of squid. 


Dolphin Breaching


Dolphin Jumping


Big Mola Mola (just barely visible, circled in light blue under my rod)


In closing, it was a great day out on the water even without any wsb.  I heard that some of the pbs did really well, so the fish are out there.  If you have the time, I would definitely try to make a run down to monterey if you are still looking to catch a wsb.

Michael

Glad you enjoyed the day OTW with nice ocean condition and lots of wild life.  Thanks for the report and pictures Michael.

My brother and I were out there as well. No WSB for us, although I had three hard taps on my line throughout the day: not your typical WSB hit-and-run, so it's hard to say what it may have been.

We loaded up on sand dabs to fight the slow bite. Great dolphin show and a real cock-sucker squid boat - Sea Wave to be precise - that almost ran us over. No joke. Sea Wave slowly crept right into our space and if my brother hadn't paddled out of the way the boat would have run him down. Two guys on deck were watching, so it wasn't an accident. Just a big boat bullying a little boat.

Some entertaining radio chat too.

My brother and I were out there as well. No WSB for us, although I had three hard taps on my line throughout the day: not your typical WSB hit-and-run, so it's hard to say what it may have been.

We loaded up on sand dabs to fight the slow bite. Great dolphin show and a real cock-sucker squid boat - Sea Wave to be precise - that almost ran us over. No joke. Sea Wave slowly crept right into our space and if my brother hadn't paddled out of the way the boat would have run him down. Two guys on deck were watching, so it wasn't an accident. Just a big boat bullying a little boat.

Some entertaining radio chat too.

Anyone take a picture of this incidence?

Afraid not. Too busy paddling out of the way.

It wasn't exactly an aggressive charge. The boat was idling in pretty slowly, but a 60 foot squidder is nothing to take lightly at any speed. It was weird more than anything, but still a dick move.

What a beautiful day. Wildlife everywhere feasting on squid -- lots and lots of squid. You would think the WSB would be thick, wouldn't you?    At least Michael and Craig got a little action.  I was having fun loading up on squid until my Toro started this rattling and squeaking thing... I think  need to have Mr Tanni look at it   .

I watched the Sea Wave thing. There has to be a better way. This wasn't one of those "let's run down a kayaker" things. Like Andrew said, they kind of idled into the midst of things, and it looked like they just decided screw it and get from point A to point B in a hurry. If they had gone right, or left, someone would have been in the way regardless. I guess my criticism would be if they had just continued to idle through the crowd they would have gotten to their destination, at most, a couple minutes later.

Nonetheless, it was a great day to be on the water ...


Ben

Hi Michael,

Looks like you had a beautiful day otw. Had planned on making it out, but sinus infection sidelined me yesterday. Even though you didn't hook any wsb, 2 takedowns is definitely worth the price of admission.

Dean

Thanks for the reports.  With some luck finishing up a project at home, I'll get out tomorrow, if not, Wednesday, so your intel helps motivate me.  
Do you sabiki up the squid, or use a squid jig?

I had a squid jig, bink was using a Sabiki.

Couldn't understand why Michael was having more success than me with his Sakiki, until I realized I had it upside-down    You always tie the swivel to your mainline, right? LOL

Ben

Uh-oh!  Just checked the swell out - it's going to get huge beginning early Tues and continuing for a few days.  Hard to believe I probably shouldn't make the trip to Monterey in such perfect weather. Maybe Lover's Pt would provide some protection, but it could be a bronco ride on the outside?

GD it !

great pictures

Good report.  Nice pics.  Too bad the big ones got away, but it sure looked like a beautiful day regardless.

I don't mean to threadjack or go on a rant, but it's sad to see how the crazy WSB action over the last few months, and the selfishness of a few boaters (and a few kayakers too) have resulted in tensions around Monterey Bay.  My bit of advice to everyone when there's a hot bite and lots of boat traffic is to be extra considerate, lay low on the VHF chat, and do your best to stay out of everyone's way.  When there's a hot bite and power boaters are speeding to get into the middle of the action, I like to stay clear an fish on the outskirts of the fleet.  That way if I hook-up, I don't have to worry about getting dragged across anyone's line.  As a group, we should do what we can to protect our reputation.  Besides that, less boat traffic on the fringe often means better fishing.

Good report.  Nice pics.  Too bad the big ones got away, but it sure looked like a beautiful day regardless.

I don't mean to threadjack or go on a rant, but it's sad to see how the crazy WSB action over the last few months, and the selfishness of a few rookie boaters (and few kayakers too) have resulted in tensions around Monterey Bay.  My bit advice to everyone when there's a hot bite and lots of boat traffic is to be extra considerate, lay low on the VHF chat, and do your best to stay out of everyone's way.  When there's a hot bite and power boaters are speeding to get into the middle of the action, I like to stay clear an fish on the outskirts of the fleet.  That way if I hook-up, I don't have to worry about getting dragged across anyone's line.  As a group, we should do what we can to protect our reputation.

Thats the most refreshing, responsible thing on this whole topic I have read yet. THANK YOU!

oooooor do what we do and go where everyone is not to get away from it all

Awesome pics Bink!! Is it pretty easy to stock up on the squids to freeze?

Jim picked me up in Petaluma at 3 Am on Sunday and I slept like shit. Thinking about the possibility of a nice WSB to polish off October. Made good time down. We went Lovers Point and met Kieth( Lost Anchovy) Micheal( Bink) and Ben ( FF). What a great group of guys. Thanks so much for just being there. It was so cool talking to you guys that have caught one before. Its true about the sea life. It was just crazy cool. At one point two Rizzos swam right under my kayak about two feet under me. Awesome. Using Lucky squid( the store) I set up two rods. Flat calm , no wind. Tons of jellies. Around 11am the right rod goes off and starts peeling off lione. I grab the rod and tighten down just a touch, The kayak is moving nicely east and I am stoked. It get about 100 yard off and my reel starts with a bucking motion. By now the fish is starting to slow. Just a steady slow pull. I am thinking BIG FISH. I see whats causing the bucking and its about to reach a birds nest in the line. FUCK!  It grabs the line, the rod loads up and a splice in the line where I added more braid the night before parts. I have to tell you that sitting there they could have heard me say, above mentioned word, all the way to Santa Cruz. What a thrill though. I am so hooked now. Sharky you bastard, I have the disease now. I hadnt been to Monterey Bay since 1974 when I was scuba certified( old bastard). The view at first light at Lovers Point is just way nice. I had a great day and met some real nice guys. Thanks again you dudes for the day and Kieth for the fresh dead squid. I made a new contact # down there while we were loading to go home so now I have a person to call anytime to see about the bite. NICE! Top rate crew and Jim as always, Good to laugh and BS with you in the truck. To smooth the pain out the Giants Kicked some major ass on the way home. All in all a very pleasant and productive day.