Bean Hollow 10/14

Wow what an exhausting day!  I made my 1st launch and landing and I'm still alive!  HOORAY FOR ME!!   

I have to admit that while I was getting the Yak down to the "launch zone" I was really thinking about telling Sudmucker that I wanted to just wait in the car while he went out.  Something in me just really wimped out.  But not wanting to let anyone (aka sudmucker) down, I "sucked up the fear" and off I went, only to be met by a wave.  Well Flip went the kayak, out I went, along with my pride.  Getting up, sputtering, (so was Sudmucker    ) spitting out sand and salt water, I got things together and went to attempt the next one.  Here comes a breaker, so I backed up, Sudmucker and I waiting, him holding the kayak for me, me with my paddle, just then, the waves gave me a break, I was able to get in, and paddle for all I was worth.     HOORAY!! OUT I WENT!!   

Well what I didn't expect were the swells.  I thought that I could just "float" through the swells...WRONG!   I must have done something wrong because I went backwards. Well going back and then paddling forward, then back, then forward, then also going up and down, up and down at the same time...well    is all I have to say about that.

Sudmucker finally caught up to me and out farther we went.  All the time I'm looking for mr. sharkie    hoping that I don't fall out of the kayak and meet him face to face.     So we finally dropped our lines   and I wasn't having any luck at all.  Ed had more luck than I did.  After about an hour or so (I think) Ed said he was going to take me in so that I could get warm and then we could come back out.  Well, we started to head back to the beach and we didn't see our beach that we launched out at!  OH NO!  Where did it go?  Well, needless to say, we had drifted about 1/4 of a mile down from our launch point.  So back we went.  Getting to our launch point, Ed hollers back that he's going in first, that's good I thought because if I went in first he would definately be taking home a corpse.     Because I'd seen the landing done, but of course had never attempted it before.  Well I watched him go in and he did quite well.  A definate thumbs up!   He looked like a pro.  So, I started in attempting to time the waves, like I had seen others do. I paddled and waited, and paddled and waited.  I looked at Ed and he's giving me the sign to paddle till my arms fell off, so I did.  And In I went...  And spanked I got.    The first breaker nailed the yak with me in it, so out I went, under about what seemed like 4 feet of water (it was only like 3 inches I believe), and then by the yak, which came back and nailed me on top of my head as I was trying to get up.  Down I went again, drinking more salty water and eating more sand than any human being should ever think about consuming.

Ed helped me back to the car, and he went back out.  Then around 2:30 everone else started coming back in.

I'm so sore (almost 7 hours after we finally left the MIGHTY HOLLOW), but I only have one question...WHEN DO WE GO AGAIN?????

I wasn't able to catch anything today. I did however have two bites, but I lost them both.  Sudmucker and I spotted a mighty dorsal fin.     and I managed to lose the following:

my favorite pair of sun glasses ($12.00)
my breakfast ($2.00)
and my pride several times.(Priceless)

But I also managed to gain something that I haven't had a taste of before and that was humility.  Those mighty waves are great for that.  I didn't have any really "interesting news" to report   although I did witness a few amazing stories today, but those are for the other yakers that were there to tell them theirselves. 
 

Craig-

I really thought you were going to eat sand hard when I saw that paddle broke.  The way you pulled that off, I am truly in awe!  Way to go Man! 

Greg,

I saw you come in and end up sideways in the cove, it looked like you meant to do that from where I was standing.  I never would have known that you didn't plan on that.  I thought you went in there to escape the breakers that were coming in behind you.  Amazing!  Way to go! 

Today was a "Happy Hollow Day".  Easy launch and exit although the last 10 feet was where the waves were breaking.  It sounds like Greg had more of an adventure with his landing than the rest of us .  Lots of good quality fish and Craig continues to amaze us with his catches.  Greg was the hali slayer today in addition to his catches of a spectrum of BH's finest fish.

Lots of action today...many underlings, small cabbies and rockfish that were released to grow up or sent back down for a ling to latch onto.  I marked a few large schools of bait but I already had some live bait that I netted on Friday.  A side story...I ran into InsaneDuane on Friday while netting bait.  He netted some big bait so I'm not surprised he did so well at ARW.  The bait I used at BH worked pretty well until I ran out.  I caught mainly small blacks/blues but did manage to land a couple of good sized rock fish on live bait.  

The score for me was 6 rockfish 1 cabbie and a saltwater shower I got from a pissed off underling.  I lost 3 swim baits to bitten off tails.

I attached some pics that I took.  The first picture should be of the folks that showed up today (minus Greg who had left earlier).  There's one pic I'd like to add a caption to:  The focus is on Craig's ling but it looks like Ben is in the back scolding his ling and saying, "if you ate your cereal you could have been as large as Craig's bad boy".

I don't know about anyone else but I kept looking for the landlord's dorsal fin.  We all had a stack of dead and bleeding fish in our yaks so I would figure that our yaks would be hard to ignore.  Lucky for us that we didn't have to deal with that.

This trip closes out BH for me this year since I won't be able to get out on the water for the next 4 weeks.  This was a good way to end it for 06.  If we did a carnage photo it would have been very impressive.

Later,

Gary

Greg,

I saw you come in and end up sideways in the cove, it looked like you meant to do that from where I was standing.  I never would have known that you didn't plan on that.  I thought you went in there to escape the breakers that were coming in behind you.  Amazing!  Way to go! 

Ah yes, that is exactly what i was doing .  I was demonstrating my new 'run and hide' technique for everyone. 

Mary, your experience sounds a lot like my first surf launches/landings at Bolinas this summer.  You'll get the hang of it!  Yes, Greg is obviously good at putting on those clinics!  hehe

Gary, thanks for the pictures - nice!  Everyone had a great day, it seemed like.

Here is the video I was talking about.  I got an underwater housing for my Fuji F11 digicam, and tied a dropper loop onto the main line (not the leader, fortunately I was thinking ahead on that, otherwise my camera would be hanging out with my rod, reel, and Davey Jones).  It comes with an attachable weight.  Depth was about 50 ft.

Mooch and Chuck, this is why I wanted the housing instead of a W20....

This is the first time I dropped the rig, and after 30 seconds, a nice ling decided to hit my swimbait... Around 30 secs, you can see the back of it approach and, then out of sight it hits and the shaking begins. I ended up fighting it for a couple minutes, until it pulled out the knot on my leaderline and took everything below the main line.

I have another 2 1/2 minute clip, just of various fishies poking around the bottom.  But I think it's too big to post here.

Sorry for the bouncy effect.  Next time I'll try to just let the cam sit, and I won't be jigging at the same time (had a couple snags too, which scared me).

Damn.... where was I when the carnage was going down?   Oh... yeah... I had to work to Saturday morning.

At least I'm glad my buddies had a good time and slayed'em.

It's good to know that "the hollow" is far from being fished-out.

Hey Craig... I'd love to see more underwater footage.

Incredible haul!  Nice report.

Nice video, sound too

 I've gotta make it back there soon.

Craigh

 

Boy-howdy,did craig land a horse of a ling! I saw his pole go over the side but he was too buzy wrestling the sea-monster to notice, swearing up a storm! He was trying to subdue it with the billie, but I think he was just pissing it off. I swear that ling threw the bait and jumped in the net and hopped on board (knocking over the pole in the process!) and started going off! Damn, that was a funny site, we all saw it and cracked up!

  The bean rocked for everyone, I love that place. I harvested 7 rocks and a big fat ling, my 1st keeper from a yak. Forgot to measure, but Im thinking low 30s. Good to see 'yall out there, till next time, tight lines! Ben

Looks great! Congrats to everyone for pullng in all those nice fish!
I gotta get out there.. I may just join you guys next time out.

Z

Hey Ben... now that's a nice ling.  Congrats!

He was trying to subdue it with the billie, but I think he was just pissing it off.

We've heard this about CafeCraig before.  I think he either needs a lesson on swinging a club, or he needs to build himself one of these "Punishers".


Here's Erik's link on how to build one...
http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/bb/index.php?topic=2611.0

Now THATS a fish-whacker! Think I'll build one of them myself!
Craig, the video rocks dude! Keep it ready for the landlord.

Good Job, guys! It is amazing to see that BH still produces high quality of fish with continuouse attacks from skillful fishermen and fisherwomen.

Craig,  That's one monster of ling you caught.  41"  Wow!!!  How many pounds was it ?

Congratulations everyone on great day at BH. 

I went to Half Moon Bay today, lauched late.   I saw a fellow kayker, fishing by the kelps straight out (west) of the entrance.  His name is .... (hum, I forgot).  He is not on Norcal Kayak, but I told him about it.  He caught a nice ling and a few rockcods when I got to him..  We fished together right next to the kelp for a bit.  I hooked onto a underling on the 1st drop.  Later, I caught 2 smelts on bait (near the bottom.... surprisingly).  Gave one to him and one for myself to use as bait.  Within minutes of dropping the smelt down,  he hooked onto another ling, keeper, but it spit the hook on the surface. 

I didn't catch much there, so I went northwest, toward the buoy right outside of Maverickl.  Drifted over some reefs,  alot of small, medium size blues and some black there.  Caught and release alot of those and a few baby olives, using cut  up anchovy.  Didn't catch any other quality rockfish unfortunately. 

While there, a huge haystack of bait moved under my boat.   The bottom on my fish finder turned from 80 feet to 10 feet for a good 10-15 minutes.   The anchovies were jumping out of the water here and there. (blacks and blue and lings were likey attacking them from below).   I caught a few anchovies using my sabuki.  Send a couple straight down and hooked a couple blues.   The bait was moving out of the reef and I moved my boat to stay on top  of the bait (to get more).    While jiggling for more bait, my main pole went bendo...  I set hook, and felt my pole rattling and taking line out  (tat.. tat.. tat.......... tat... tat.. tat..).  I hardened the drag and tried to hull in the fish.   (shouldn't have done that; live and learn).   The fish kept on rattling and I played with it for a few seconds....then pop!  DAM!!   

I think it was a halibut from the way its shaking.  That would have been my 1st big halibut. 
The fish broke on a 25 lbs leader.   Not much happening afterwards.   
Looking foward to doing it again.


Gordon