Moss report - Sunday - 6/19

Launched with Fred at around 5:30AM. Paddled 4 miles out into good conditions (a little fog but it burned out eventually). On our way out, at 250 feet of water, we encountered a whale that was beating the water with it's tail for about half an hour.   It was a sight to see    (wish I had a camera handy ) Fred and I were only about 50 feet away (had to back paddle a few times as were drifting even closer). Some numnuts boater wanted a closer look and motor's his way to almost bumping into it He had to put his boat in reverse - it was a close call   (another reason why boaters should pass a test before getting keys to a boat - just like a car drivers license = just my opinion)
The whale then spent another 20 minutes swimming away and slapping the water with one of his fins. He actually swam between Fred and I and it was UNREAL. This has been my first close encounter of the whale kind! VERY COOL  

The fishing was fishing...and not catching...not a scratch for me or Fred    When the boat chatter came down to a halt, I paddled close to shore and trolled for stripers - no luck there. Drifted for Halibut - after that  = NADA...and then met Fred making his way back from the deep = NADA. We called it a day and was out of the water by 10AM.

Forgot to mention that I got "boarded" by the DFG   . They were very polite and they asked to see my license and two rods. They gave me a thumbs up and went on their way. They were on a small gray zodiac.

The whale show salvaged the trip (I will have a camera next time) And Fred is always a fun guy to paddle with  

Joel,
that must have been one great show.  i'd paddle out there just to see the whale.  

" (another reason why boaters should pass a test before getting keys to a boat - just like a car drivers license = just my opinion)  "

i don't think a test or licsence would do any good, have you seen the way some people drive?

i don't think a test or licsence would do any good, have you seen the way some people drive?

A VERY GOOD POINT Pierre !  

I would definitley be interested in paddling out for a whale watching expedition (and bring my rod just in case no whales are to be found) I think Kayak Connection does a trip for this...if anyone is interested, I'll look into it.

That whale exposition would definitely make the paddle worth while.  

I still remember the one time last year I went out of Moss and had a whale come flying out of the water and breach about 100 yards in front of me... then the water all around me was fizzing like a can of soda from whale bubbles... no salmon that day either... but the whale action was an incredible experience.  

Moss is definietly one of the best "sea life" places to paddle.

Erik

Moss is definietly one of the best "sea life" places to paddle.

Last year, while fishing for salmon at Moss, I had 2 mola molas staring at my trolling flashers (that were dangling in the water when I was switching to a mooching set-up)    One was the size of a dinner plate and the other was a s big as a serving platter fom Dennys. They were so close that I could have scooped them with my net  

Oh ... little baby molas.  A few years back I came across a ~5 footer while scuba diving off Monestery.  The outline of the thing above us at first looked like whitey.  But it became apparent to me after a couple seconds that it was a mola.  I swam up to it and drifted with it for a few minutes before I turned to look for my dive partner, who thought it actually was a shark and took off like a bat out of hell.  Some dive partner ... left me for shark bait!!!  Oh well, he missed out on a great opportunity to swim with a giant mola.

Actually the sea lions probably thought it was whitey too.  As I recall we saw dozens of furbags porpoising out of the water scattering in all directions about 15 minutes before we saw the mola.  At that point we decided to go down, because we thought it safer to be on the bottom of the ocean than on the top.

-Allen

yeah, I had an "incident" last year at Linda Mar with a Mola Mola   .....just a week before, there was a white shark sighting (there was even a sign posted on the beach) and I was out there on my yak and I had both legs dangling in the water - setting up for a salmon mooch. At the corner of my eye, I saw a white triangular fin sticking out of the water....I instantly soiled myself   and prayed for a quick death   (I was ready to perform a hari kari on myself with my dive knife)...until I realized it was a mola mola just saying "hello"  


THE BASTARD  

Cool whale story.  What kind was it?  How deep?  Much cooler than just watching fog.
I am disappointed that you didn't land anything even though you got out on the water at a good time.  Is it hopeless?????

Pat

It was a humpback  - the lenght of a Sam Trans Bus and we spotted it at around 250 ft. of water.

Judging by the boat chatter - the fish were picked up close to the surface and every boat seemed to be trolling in the fog to get the job done. Some even reported getting hits as they were lowering their downriggers  

I'm not giving up......yet  

what did they want to see your rods for?

Probably confirming barbless hooks, eh?

They weren't looking at the rods! They were winking at Joel.

-Brian

what did they want to see your rods for?

Probably confirming barbless hooks, eh?

= you got it.

They weren't looking at the rods! They were winking at Joel.

= Brian, they were actually looking for you. They were asking me if I was from Lodi AKA "Al Queda strong hold"

Joel
 
I planned to head down that way yesterday but reports have been spotty so I made the 5 a.m. change of plans and headed north to Muir/Dux instead. From Coastside posts it looks like offshore from HMB is still the best bet.

Weather was less than optimal on the northside - I clocked only 15 miles for 8+ hours of solid grunt paddling but managed to land one legal fish and farmed some shakers and one good fish. It was pretty much a rollercoaster ride.

I followed a couple of whales(humpbacks or blue whales?)for about an hour and and managed to get a few snapshots. The waterproof disposable cameras aren't bad.

Still might be an offshore run from HMB in the cards but I'm not doing it unless it's solidly good weather. Sounds like it was nice out there yesterday but it's 10-12 miles s/w to the fish and I had my doubts about possibility of afternoon winds. I thought weather would be decent at Muir/Dux but my gut instincts were wrong.  

good luck

Thanks for that report - please keep me in mind when you paddle out off HMB for salmon - I'm still looking for my first one  

Hope to see those whale pics