Kayak Outing Day 1: La Jolla 10.3.12

About a year ago I introduced my cousin Steve to kayak fishing when I brought my 2 yaks down to So Cal to yak fish with him at Cabrillo Beach/San Pedro, “the windsurf capital of the world” (which he, his friend and I got to personally experience lol). Although that day had turned out to be more of an endurance workout rather than fishing lol, the “madness” of yak fishing took over and have been yak fishing ever since

A few weeks back, my cousin Steve took a guided tour with Jim Sammons to chase after some yellowtails outta La Jolla. This was the day after I had caught my double white sea bass outta Monterey and had sent him some text pix. Therefore, he had even more to prove to his lil cousin that he, too, can catch bigger fish like me. And boy, he made me proud!!!!! It was a very slow day for the entire guided crew, when they were about to call it a day my cousin saw the backs of some big fish swimming toward their direction: yellowtail!!

Jim threw out his surface iron, hoping to entice one of em while my cousin dropped his dropper loop rig tipped with live squid down. Steve was fortunate enough to see 3 YT swimming by underneath 3 feet below him. Just as quick as they saw the YT swim toward them, they disappeared. Thinking that they had missed their only opportunity of the day to catch some YT, Steve’s rod suddenly goes bendo and fight is on! 15 minutes after babying that YT while Jim was doing some playful smack-talking, Steve lands his first prized fish of his young yak fishing career, and I couldn’t be happier and proud of my cousin!!



My cousin and I had talked about yak fishing together at La Jolla for some time, but now that he had his YT I had to get mine and was determined to make my way down there During one of my yak fishing outing, MeatHunter had mentioned that he would love to fish La Jolla sometime in his life. Since I made arrangements of going down there, I asked if he’d like to join my cousin and me which he quickly accepted the invitation
My cousin, his buddy Andy, MeatHunter and I made it to La Jolla shores around 5am to some heavy foggy forecast. We unloaded out gear and launched out around 6am with the heavy fog still hanging over us. As soon as we passed the MLPA/SMR zone, the ocean surface came to life! Mackerels were chasing baitfish to the surface with occasional sea lions, porpoises and birds joining in on the action.

For several hours, we separated our ways in the fog and fished various areas in hopes of finding a school of YT. Our hopes of finding YT later changed to hopes of finding each other in that fog which wouldn’t burn off until 1pm!




While fishing alone in the fog, I was able to catch and release various species: numerous jack macs and big pacific macs, a sculpin, a gopher RF, a small vermilion, 2 barred sand bass up to 18”, a female sheephead, 4 ocean whitefish up to 22”, and a monster soupfin shark that was easily 6’ long!! I had that shark up next to my yak for some time where it snapped my leader after I made several attempts to board that beast on board to remove my hook Right after I had caught and released my shark, my cousin’s buddy Andy hooked onto a smaller soupfin or brown smoothhound shark which he caught and released after a short fight. Soon after Andy released his shark back, my cousin hooked up on a nice 4.5’ leopard shark!! As he brought it up to the surface, I was able to land/board that leo to remove the hook, give it a nice pat on the back and released it safely back It was really cool to see the 3 of us hook up on sharks back-to-back-to back!! Even MeatHunter had caught a shark earlier that day, a nice 6’ leo Although we did not succeed in our primary goal of catching some yellowtail, it was still a SUCCESSFUL day; I got to fish with my cousin and some buddies in beautiful La Jolla, while catching some various species I have never caught before. Can’t wait to go back again!!

Ocean Whitefish caught on Spro Abalone knife jig


Female Sheephead caught on dropper loop w/ whole squid

Hell yeah Dan!!! Stoked for you, Tim and the rest!!!

You're a slayer no matter where you are!

I saw a pic of you on FB that scared me... ...is that from Day 2?

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

very cool!

mmm ocean whitefish is tasty...

but yellowtail sashimi it better.  Next time brother

Sounds like a good trip Daniel so thanks for sharing the journey! jim

Great job buddie! Was sooo stoked Dan and I slammed A few pitchers at the pub last night... .. Puss didnt want to sing Kariokee ....

Thanks for the report, looks like you guys had a great time. Next time send the Mac's back down one on a dropper loop, and fly line the other on top.

Its always nice to catch some new species!  Looks like you had a great day 1.

Thanks for sharing your report with us Dan.


Won

And on Day 2....? 

Right on guys.  I can't wait for day 2.   Wish I was there!

Thanks for the great report Daniel!  I will have to put down La Jolla kayak fishing as part of my vacation plans for next year for sure.  So, is this the best time of the year to go down there for yellowtail and WSB?

Rey

Way stoked to go and fish with you Steve and Andy. Had a great time brother as always.

Kinda funny but the leo I caught ate 2 or 3 lizard fish of my sabiki in 105'. I felt the lizard on then BAM the leo would hit and just rip drag and pop off. So I tossed in a haibut rig with whole squid and right when it hit bottom I hooked up for a good 10 min sleigh ride. Was hoping to see a monster flattie but was stoked with my first leopard ever that I would guess was between 5 and 6 feet and about 30-35#. No pics = BS but I should be getting them soon.

As a side note I spent about 2 or 3 hours lost in the fog due to my lack of navigation tools among other things. Let me tell ya fishing in new areas is hard enough without being utterly lost in fog that had about 50-150yds of vis. Had to use my inner Les Stroud to find my bearings and not paddle in circles or out into the open ocean. From now on I will paddle with a compass.     

Good Times with family and cool exotics and sharks, Dan - thanks for the quality day 1 report.   

So cool to have you introduce your cousin into kayakfishing bro. I'm sure he's caught to bug big time specially living down south chasing after those YT.

Jedmo