Pinos skunkos as well

  O.k., Now that I've had enough wine to qualify me to post: 5 of us Frank (Seawind?), Sackyak, Kevin, & Eugene(AKA, I can't remember, sorry) got going from Pt Pinos at 6:45  at minus tide (much better conditions than last Saturday, bright & some bumps, not bad from shore, a little mixed swell until we got past the point, turned calm and swell spaced out far enough to be comfortable 4.5 m from C St, a little wind at the end, sort of helping us get back, end parentheses, gasp) out to where several hundred PB's were-scattered all over.  We probably got down to Pt Joe in our wanderings.  The deepest I saw was 348.  Trolled everything I brought, FBR - w/ and w/o flasher, purple haze hoochie and flasher, apex and Lazer/sinker release, apex with 16 oz "trolling" (mooching) sinker, etc, way out, way deep, way slow, way fast.  I think the rest of the yakkers were trying what they had too.  Frank was using his Scotty Lake downrigger.
  I became the prey of a PB who snagged me and had me going about 3 K while I was yelling and blowing my whistle, then I got smart and told them on the radio they'd caught a kayak.  They were hauling up their downriggers hand over hand, and my line slipped loose and I didn't even lose the anchovy.  For a couple of seconds at first I thought I had a hog. 
   There were radio reports of fish from 60 to 200 ft deep on a variety of rigs, bait seemed to take the most, and sounded like some big ones, but there were a lot of boats catching nothing. 
  We saw one guy by himself in a skiff net a good-sized salmon 100 yds away, I think he said 120 ft, so we worked that area over.  Sackyak said he saw 3 salmon boated, it did help to keep us paddling.
  After about 9 miles of paddling, and at about 11:15, we started in, but we were still
3-4 miles out.  As we rounded Pinos, the swell jacked up and was confused, nothing terrible.  As we landed at maybe 1-1:30, the south wind seemed to increase to maybe 8-10.  My GPS read 12.9m on the beach, about 3 m too many for me.
Whales were seen by others. F&G came within 50yds of one of our number who only had the receipt for his license, but stopped at a skiff full of 5 guys instead.
   Thanks to all for the good company.  A good day, even if we didn't catch any fish.
       
   

That's a big post to read and I'm drinking the colheita port to keep madness at bay

From the few coastside reports it looked like fish were playing with the collective human psyche

Now it's gettting to be my style out there, elusive fish and godknowswhatsnext

Fish are tough enough I might not even try out the downrigger

Tom,
It was nice meeting you, Sackyak, Kevin, and Eugene. 

My GPS read the same as Tom's 12.9 miles and I was just a bit tired when I got back to the beach with zero Salmon, but it was a nice day on the water.  I did get to have another close encounter with a whale.  This time a Humpback and again not much of a picture.  Thanks guys for the good company and the help on the beach.

Frank

Well the story was told by Tom and that was about it.  There was zero wind for most of the day so the distance was not as bad as it could have been.  It was encouraging to see others boat fish right near by.  It seemed like one of us could have been hit any time but the strikes were few a far between.  It was great to get out there and paddle with you guys.  The ocean was everything I needed.  Good to see you again Tom and Eugene and nice to meet you Keven and Frank.  We will get them next time.  I was an hour late getting to the beach so ended burning some extra WAF but all was OK in the end.  Salmon would have been good for dinner but Thai take out did the trick.  I can't wait to go again.  I figure the numbers have got to be in my favor.  One of these days.............   

Thanks for the report guys!
At least the skunk can't be blamed on a lack of trying!

Hopefully somebody gets em next time,
PK

Great Reprot and Awesome Effort ..........Danglin

Excellent effort and report guys!

I saw pistolero on coastside theorizing there would be some smaller fish moving onto mulligans and soldiers
field next.

I wonder if that is going to be the case?

J

talk about dreamy water

as hfonda once said, "lordy lordy"

Excellent report detail, Fuzzy Tom, and Windrider, that whale shot looks like an awesome one for sure - nice fluke shot!  Too bad you guys didn't hook up with any salmon, but what a great paddle - way to log the miles, studs!  Be ready for next time - the bite could turn on quick, but will likely turn off again as quickly...   

When I catch a salmon a half mile out next trip my ratio will be 30:1, miles to fish.  And I promise to cut the B.S. to catch ratio by only posting: " "

It was good meeting you guys.  That was a long paddle! 

About a minute after I started trolling I got hit;  my clicker is going off and I grabbed my rod.  Fish on!!!  Something doesn't feel right, but there is definitely a fish on and it feels heavy.  It turns out to be an Olive RF.  It didn't trigger my weight to release so it seemed heavy... 

I didn't see the whale but it surfaced about 30yds behind me according to the PB I was trolling next to.  It sounded close!!! 

Solid effort boyz...next time!  Thanks for the report.

Forgot to add, DFG was out in their Zodiak checking boaters.  Frank got checked.  Make sure you are legal out there.

nice trip guys, hopefully next time the salmon oblige us by jumping on our lines.

In the last 200 or so trips I have faithfully dangled my license from my neck and never been close to having it checked while fishing.  So of course the one time I find myself without it, only the receipt part in my wallet, a DFG boat is checking us out.

I had my best, "just an honest fisherman, enjoying the day, smiling cuz I am so legal" look on my face and used pychic powers to send the DFG over to the other boat.

now if I my powers only had some influence over the salmon!

Eugene

Yeah, DFG did check on me.  I flashed my license and they made a quick check of my hook.  They were very nice, professional and mostly seemed interested in my yak and set up.  They were surprised to see kayaks out that far and asked if we were worried about the PB's running over us, but my experience was zero problems with other boats and there were a lot of them.  As Tom said, he did try to land one, but after a good battle, it threw his hook.