Continued my every other weekend tradition of taking the kayak out, this time with Kam Walsh. We have similarly shaped kayaks, which worked out well since we had a long ways to paddle. Our plan was to paddle out of SD Bay to the Point Loma kelp beds, and possibly explore deeper water if we had time and/or energy.
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Some scenery pics along the way.
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I installed a rod holder next to the fish finder up front. That setup worked well, but for the life of me I can't get the depth contour lines to show up on my fish finder map. I had a Navionics subscription last year, but this year I let it expire. I was never able to get the contours to work when the subscription was valid, so I don't think it being expired is the issue. Any ideas?
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Five miles from our launch we made it to the kelp, but not much was going on. There were small smelt everywhere, but we didn't see anything chasing them. Mixed in were a few mackerel.
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I had a calico on but it wrapped me up in the kelp, and it ended up coming off. A little while later I got this kelp bass though.
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We drifted a mile to the southeast, and the wind was starting to pick up so we made the call to paddle back. Kam finished up the day with his lifer white seabass, which is awesome regardless of it's size!
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The paddle back was tough. The wind knocked at least 1 mph off our paddle speed, if not 1.5 mph. I trolled Rapalas for the first few miles but gave it up when the wind picked up even more. We joked that it was good exercise, but I don't think either of us wanted to do any more by the time we made it back.
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miles: 10.66
hours: 5:53
Next outing will hopefully be La Jolla. I'd like to catch my first new species with this kayak, and I think it will probably be a squarespot rockfish. Or who knows, maybe a baby mako will smash a trolled lure. :)
That's a long way for a mackerel.
That's a long ass paddle!
Funny, usually the point has a lot going on with bait/birds/bass/bonito/barracuda etc...I'm surprised that trip didn't produce more especially with all of the chum, I mean lobster pots out there!
Thanks for the report Ben. I was tired just looking at the long path you paddled. ;D
Crazy paddle.
I know guys that do the MB to SD bay trip. Drop off car #2 at Shelter Island then drive car #1 to Mission Bay and launch. Fish all of PL kelp then land where you dropped of the car #2. Load up and return to car #1. It's a long day but timing the tides makes it less of a hellish trip.
It was pretty dead out there. No birds, no bait (except some large jack smelt), dirty water, and sunny/windy conditions. It was also my first time fishing over there though; I'd like to go back but its a long paddle that doesn't leave as much time for fishing as I'd like (especially if the wind gets bad). Also I think it's worth mentioning that those ridiculous looking sunglasses broke earlier in the paddle.
Fish or no fish....that's a heck of a work out :)