Monestary Beach Monday, 8/20/07

Launched about 7:45 from south end, my first time to launch on that beach - it's steep, not only where it's dry, but toward the north end, I was about 100 yds from shore and a couple of hundred feet deep.  FF would go from 90 to 250 in 10 horiz. feet.  You have to watch the 240 ft limit closely there.  Did you know the views from the water, or for that matter, the beach, are gorgeous? 
   There was a little wind at launch, a little chop and some short period swell.  Rocketman and Slo Mo were a little behind me, and I went over to the spot they pointed out where the hitchhiker hali was seen the other day.  I got a couple of med olives and a med blue, as well as a big canary, all released.  I was over there by myself and a little wind had come up, so I got back over to the south. Shortly after I did, the wind began to increase, there was a billow of fog off of Cypress Pt, and it was hot inland.  I fished for a while there, but the drift was fast, and I guess I'm spoiled by many better days in the general area, and wasn't having fun, so I tried tying off to the kelp in shallow water, but no fish.
  Rocketman and SloMo by then had moved north and according to reports by the two women who came with them ( sorry I forget their names) who were using sleeker cruising yaks, they were getting fish out there. From where I was on the beach, they looked to be just at the point where the whitecaps settled some coming into shore, paddling back the same spot now and then.  I probably would have joined them if I was down to my last few days before heading back to work!   The ladies had tried to get out around Pt Lobos early, but said it was foggy and rough out there.
   When I pulled into the lot in the morning, I met Dave, who has yakked and PB fished the area a lot, didn't know about NCKA.  He fished the south side in the direction of the preserve boundaries and returned at the same time I did with one large blue. He said fishing was much slower than usual.

Fuzzy Tom has provided a very accurate description of the day, really like two different days for us. A sparkling,warm, and gorgeous start that turned bumpy and windy with fog rolling in by the end (we stayed out much longer than Tom, probably too long). All the same we had a fine time. SlowMo had his new FF working and we were having a kick with it trying to stay over the reef Sin Coast showed last week.
  We brought home enough fish for a couple of meals, the largest a 7lb olive. SlowMo late in the morning had a really hard hit, but lost it before we got to see what it was.He was fishing pretty intently after that.  At one point Gloria (wife & mom) paddled over to check out how we were doing and when she saw what I had on the stringer, told me it would be really nice if I would let SlowMo catch more and the bigger ones too. She was really sincere, what a MOM, and funny too!
Actually spent a fair amount of time tinking on how to mount rocket motors on my kayak with a sequential ignition system for a sustained thrust, could be fun.
The other kayaker fishing with us, Dave, is a real character that I hope we run into again. Maybe some of you local to the area know him.
Tom, good to meet you and I'm sure we will connect up again.
Steve

I forgot to mention that Dave showed me his fish porn photo collection of him holding several WSB as big as himself that he said he got on a PB.  On second thought, maybe he does read the forum and knew I struck out on WSB the other day and would be on the beach this a.m.!
   I'll be back there again, but I think it'll be a day when the buoy is showing little wind/swell. From Coastside reports, the weather was very unusual all over today.

Hey guys! Sounds like a pretty good day, despite the lumpy seas.
It can get windy there quick. Especially once you paddle beyond the lee of Pt Lobos. But the reefs/kelp off Carmel Pt are epic. I frequently paddle over there and tie up to kelp.
A 7lb olive? Wow, that is a fatty. Maybe a bocaccio? I think the CA record olive is only like 5lbs. Not that it wasn't...because there might be some that big in Carmel! Either way, nicely done.
That reef is difficult to stay over in the wind.

Paddling all the way around Pt Lobos from Monastery could be dangerous. I wouldn't do it in an 8+ swell and/or 15-20kt wind. The conditions have been mellow lately though.

And I think I've met Dave before. Dude with long hair, random kayak, and a van. Wonder where he got the WSB.


Thanks for the report guys!
PK

Yeah, Dave had long blondish hair and random yak, I thought he had a truck, but maybe it was a van.  It was such a nice morning that at about 9, even tho I hadn't caught much, I thought I had 3-4 more hours to go, so I guess I just need to be flexible when I go there.

The 7lbs is accurate, put it on our postal scale at home. Now, identification certainly is an issue with a rookie like me when it comes to rock fish. When I caught it we had the F&G pamphlet out and compared pictures to the fish, thought it was a match. I will have to take a second look at the booklet. I had even brought my camera out to shoot pics, then we would know, but was getting a memory card error, so no pics....aaaargh!

I have a good rockfish chart  (www.rockfishID.com), I think I've seen them in tackle stores, too.
  There are three on the chart that are greenish and that could easily (for me) be confused with one another: Widow, max length 23.6", Yellowtail, max length 26", and Olive, max length 26".