Carmel - 9/9

Went to Carmel on Sat.  It took me almost an hour to find my fishing license so I got there later than I intended . . launched around 8.  Sin_Coast had already hooked and lost a halibut by the time I caught up with him.  We fished the kelp a bit towards Monestary Beach but it was dead slow so we paddled back towards Carmel Pt and fished the kelp over there.  Overall fishing was slow.  We found some schools of hungry blues and nabbed a few gophers and kelp rocksfish.  I got an underling and a pretty nice vermillion. That was it for me.

Last week there were tons of other yaks there, this week we were the only ones.  Didn't see any PB's either.  Launch and landing was cake and there was little wind.  Good size S swell, though.

Ya, it was pretty slow on Saturday. I only caught about 20-25 fish. I launched at about 7:30 and fished until 11am. Started off trolling a swimbait on a 3-way swivel with some squid strips above. I trolled all the way from the north corner down to Monastery and back. Had a hard time keeping my bait on the bottom because the biggest leadhead I had was only 2ozs. So as I trolled back toward the north end I would stop periodically to let my lure fall back down to the bottom. Just as I passed the kelpbeds in front of Carmel Meadows I felt a slow snag...felt like a loose strand of kelp had snagged on my line. So I stopped paddling and began cranking in to remove/unsnag the kelp...thats when I felt a headshake. I should've set the hook but I just kept reeling in, knowing it felt a lot like a halibut. I got it to color, about 10-15 feet below my yak when it made another run towards the bottom. In my excitement, I had to try to reach my net which was way behind me, reposition my yak, and play the fish to the surface. Well, I kinda played it easy---should've just horsed it in---and lost it. It felt awful to lose such a great fish but I was stoked to see him/her. It didn't look real big but it did look legal. Dropped back down and tried for a while longer to no avail.
Then MByakker showed up and we fished that area in front of the Meadows for a while longer with no bites so we paddled back out to the point. However, we did see something really weird while fishing the meadows...a huge fish was jumping around us. The first time it surfaced and splashed about 10 feet behind me, I figured it was an otter or seal. Then it jumped right next to MByakker and he yelled, "Did you see that fish jump?!" Just as I turned, I saw it jump again. Looked like it was chasing bait on the surface the way it was breaking. Well, I cast my swimbait out there a bunch of times but no dice. It had to be a salmon/steelhead, white sea bass, striper, or something else really special...but we never saw it again. Easily over 10lbs.
Paddled north to the point and commenced to catch fish after fish for a couple hours. Good grade of blues too, I got a couple over 15 inches. A couple doubles, the standard at Carmel Pt. And a bunch of other random RF species, including a beautiful underling for MByakker.
We were entertained by the huge whale that kept breaching and spouting a few hundred yards away from us. It was my first whale from a kayak---very cool!
All in all, a decent day of fishing. I went to the Monterey Beer Fest afterwards and had a great time. Then sat around watching football and recovering all day Sunday. Good weekend.

See ya,
PK

The other special fish to watch for down there is a giant black sea bass.  SteveS and I saw it one day.