Santa Cruz: Newbie scores!!

Had the pleasure of fishing with Zach, aka zjohnsonjc on the board for his first time kayak fishing. 

We went to Lighthouse Point area and immediately starting hooking RF, mostly blacks on white Farrolon Flies baited with chunks of February Monterey Mackerel.  Stuff works good! Zach has a quick learning curve, and outfished me with the shrimp flies.

We switched to 5" Big Hammer swimsuits, and went out front on 40-foot reef.  I caught a couple more blacks (already limited, so they went back in the water).  Meanwhile Zach hooked up a gorgeous Cabby and a Hail Mary Ling right before we headed back to harbor. Trifecta! I think this guy is hooked!!!!

Zach just moved to Monterey and is getting a boat soon, so I hope you Monterey boys will take care of him and give him  the NCKA BRO treatment, cause this guy is a BRO.

Bushy

ps:  If the fish look small it's only because this cat is LARGE.  Big Jim category large.  Look at the footpads on the Predator MX cockpit picture.

Nice stringer.  That's a great way to get started. Congrats!

Great first time out. 

Impressive.

Great first outing. plenty more to come. Just curious. I see a lot of people using that kind of oval stringer for the fish. Do you guys leave them hanging in the water? If so, has the thought of GWS come to mind? I fear if something is to grab it and the string don't break the yak will flipped. always on my mind.

Great first outing. plenty more to come. Just curious. I see a lot of people using that kind of oval stringer for the fish. Do you guys leave them hanging in the water? If so, has the thought of GWS come to mind? I fear if something is to grab it and the string don't break the yak will flipped. always on my mind.

Gws can happen but more than likely it'll be a seal/sealion

Great first outing. plenty more to come. Just curious. I see a lot of people using that kind of oval stringer for the fish. Do you guys leave them hanging in the water? If so, has the thought of GWS come to mind? I fear if something is to grab it and the string don't break the yak will flipped. always on my mind.

More worried about furbags.  Drop it in the tankwell, I mean, that's what I'd do, you know, if I ever caught anything 

Welcome to the madness Zach  thanks for the report and pictures Allen.

Yeah stringers stay OUT of the water, at least on the ocean..... Furbags can wreak havoc.  Can you imagine getting flipped by and 800 pound marine black bear with fins, and being in the water while he's slashing and grabbing at lis 'gimme' lunch?

Look at a sea lion skull sometime...No thanks.

Bushy

Nice fish! Hope to catch a few in Monterey tomorrow at the PIF. Will be my first too.

Question, did you launch at cowells?

No we paddled over from the harbor.  EZ.

Awesome!!

It was such a great day on the water!  and we caught fish! doesn't really get any better than that.  Now I just need to move in to my house so I can start cooking   Thanks for the hookup and thanks Bushy for the great day!
Zach

Nice job you guys. WTG Bushman. That Predator looks pretty good on the ocean. Hmmmm

This was friday?  My buddy and I were out in the same area and got completely skunked!