Santa Cruz 7/5 Ziltch, Zip, Nada

Lauched out of the harbor thinking that we might find some fish. A bit foggy like brain after a 4th of July celebration the night before. As we made our way out of the harbor we were greeted with a rather nasty shoulder high left peeling off the westside of the harbor-there is a sandspit there. I must admit I was surprised to see the SW mixed swells still coming in and sizable at that; I had heard it was supposed to drop. Anyhow made it out past the "surfzone" only to see some kayak fisherman waving his paddle back and forth in distress about 500 yards out while some power boat blazed right by him almost swamping him with the wake. I made my way over to see what was up and found him to be towing another kayak behind with swimmer in the water in tow as well. A rather ugly situation as the second yak was an enclosed cockpit touring kayak and the swimmer had no PFD on him . Paddler was exhausted and had never ocean fished before, and swimmer must have been hypothermic b/c telling me everything was fine and that he was going to swim to the beach with his kayak and had lost his PFD somewhere? In this situation I felt it better to advise from afar and warned my girlfriend to keep her boat at a distance. I pulled out my handheld and summed coast guard and vessel assist out of the SC harbor. With the harbor patrol boat in site I wished them well and went on my way. Big swells, no active fish, and a soon to be big wind on us, it was probably a better day to have pulled out my board and gone surfing. I fished the black point and buoy area for halibut and then the far side of the wind and sea kelp beds, a few tugs that's it

Kudos to you for the smart thinking and good deed.  I just wished you were rewarded with a fat stringer of fish.  Karma owes you one!

  Good Call on keeping your distance!!!!

  That situation does sound fishy.  It's very common in dangerous situations for people to become extremely unpredictable and dangerous, to you and themselves...

  A big part of all of my training is how to defend myself when rescuing people, seems ironic to have to inflict harm to help....But I must say I've witness some really Bizare behavior from people in Distress,

  Again, Good Job on handling that situation...........Danglin

I made my way over to see what was up and found him to be towing another kayak behind with swimmer in the water in tow as well. A rather ugly situation as the second yak was an enclosed cockpit touring kayak and the swimmer had no PFD on him . Paddler was exhausted and had never ocean fished before, and swimmer must have been hypothermic b/c telling me everything was fine and that he was going to swim to the beach with his kayak and had lost his PFD somewhere?

WTF?!  Totally sounds like you saved their asses from a Darwin award.  Good deed, but too bad about the slow bite.  I'm headed out tomorrow super early, when the dumbasses are still sleeping it off.

WTG MIke!

Did they object to your calling  help on the radio?  How long did it take for rescure boats, and who showed up 1st?

I'll bet it was the Harbor boys.  they're always itching to do something besides parking patrol.

Good job, you may have saved that dud'e life.

Allen

YEEAH BRADDAH! Karma's on your side!! Good job!

Z

I surfed, it was good,  .

good for those goofballs that you went fishing tho!

south swells kill the fishing in santa cruz.

J

south swells kill the fishing in santa cruz.

J

Why?

WTG MIke!

Did they object to your calling  help on the radio?  How long did it take for rescure boats, and who showed up 1st?

I'll bet it was the Harbor boys.  they're always itching to do something besides parking patrol.

Good job, you may have saved that dud'e life.

Allen

Hey Allen, ya the guy in the water objected-go figure. I don't think his worn out and bewildered friend did though. It took just a minute for the CG to patch me into the vessel assist/harbor patrol, and then about 5 minutes for them to be on-site. I was glad to help and that I had that radio.

You know what I always say:  "Be fun and have safe!"

Good Job mike.  Assume the guy's hypothermic and  not rational.

Allen

Martin, here is my hypothesis on WHY:

SC is south facing, shallow and with a flat bottom.

A south swell from 190 degrees or so will hit the whole town. 

a south swell like that is composed of long period waves that were once really tall (50 feet)
in the southern hemisphere where they were born in some mondo southern hemi winter storm.

when they get here, after a long trip of 10 days or so, so that every surfer in CA knows about them,
their amplitude has been attenuated by distance, headwinds, islands, etc, but not their period
(and therefore not their speed (or power!)).

long period (fast) waves reach deep even when their amplitude is attentuated. 

So basically the south swell sets up a surge on a flat and shallow bottom that makes the
fish hunker down or leave town or not feel like eating your lure.

That's my theory.  we need to send john guinea pig down as well, a guinea pig, to test the
surge theory, 

I'm sure you can still get fish, but look at polepole's experience. goes out after a flat period
with scallen, they both hook up. goes out 2 days after a south swell gets going and nothing.

So basically, if there's a south swell, go surfing or go fishing up north or in freshwater.

if there's a northwest windswell, fine, go fishing in santa cruz, it is protected from those.

-your friendly neighborhood surfer phd, 

J

-your friendly neighborhood surfer phd, 



LOL

So Dr Surfer 

in a south swell, anything facing south is bad, like carmel? 

If so I assume pacific grove and MBK are OK as the pinos protects it from the south?

your wave scholarship is appreciated!

careful, inappropriate application of my poorly tested hypothesis could be dangerous!

you are trying to simplify the hypothesis. that often leads to mistakes.

I don't really know how carmel behaves for fishing, or any spot south of moss landing really.
or north of lindamar. my area of knowledge goes from lindamar and stops at moss landing.

but note the hypothesis of sucky fishing during a south swell
requires not just good solid exposure on a great circle to antarctica but also
lack of structure or quick depth on the bottom so that surge becomes an issue.

does carmel have that? if not, all bets are off, you'll have to come up with your own theory
for why you didn't catch anything.

right now, I also believe in the clear night and full moon theory. sleep in on those days and fish
late.

also the "halibut only bite well after 3 or 4 days of real calm conditions".

J

  Wow... ...Keep it coming Dr. Surf


  Good Stuff..............Danglin