DAY: 12-08-01

TIME: 9-11 AM

PLACE: West end of Del Playa, IslaVista

CONDITIONS: 6-10 Knots breeze and 3 ft swell

BAIT: Fish traps, Sardine and something with orange on the bottom

FISH COUNT: 3 Sand Bass and 2 Calico’s

COMENTS: My Buddy Dave and I Borrowed a couple of Kayaks from a coworker and did our first “Yak expedition”
Now how cool of is it, when your talking in the hallway about renting a Kayak and were you are going to go fishing… and somebody walks by and says “I have two kayaks on a cart, two blocks from the beach, you can use them any time” So we showed up with our life jackets, fanny packs loaded with plastics and a rod each.
First of all beggars cant be choosers but, Single Kayaks from the Costco are not the best fishing platforms, The boats actually worked pretty good. I have not paddled that many other boats but my feeling was these didn’t track very well and were not as stable as some of the other boats I have paddled Also was bummed that one of the paddles wasn’t even bladed, Luckily Dave didn’t mind and I got the good paddle.
On to the fishing, plenty of kelp and the water was clear and cold (my the foot thermometer says mid fifties) we spent a fair amount of time just paddling around looking at stuff it was a beautiful day, then some dicking around in the kelp getting our lines hung up. And then we started the productive fishing. We found that setting up a drift just outside and parallel to the kelp bed, while bouncing a ¾ once lead head with a swim bait on was the ticket. Pretty much every drift produced a fish and we farmed (lost) more than we caught.
Side note: When we returned the Kayaks to the house there was a Trampoline, Yes Dave can still do a forward flip….


Matty

Sounds like a fun first kayak trip. I've never kayak fished, but am considering it as well. I'm concerned though...if I got a really big fish (flattie, WSB, thresher shark?), how would you gaff it? That can be a challenge!

Tbrumfield,

Yeah it was a lot of fun, and you I fished on one other Kayak it was a Cobra Fish and Dive the thing is huge, and the guy who owns it has it set up rod holders a landing net…
I think if we caught something big we would just work it out, and if you lost a big fish at the boat at least it would be a good story….
Any way I like reading your posts on the Surf fishing boards. I am looking forward to the Perch derby this spring,

Rvrfish

Check out www.kayakfishing.com

A bunch of the guys that post there have caught the big fish you speak of. I get the feeling that threshers and the like are the stuff of experts when it comes to kayaks.

I'll stick to bass and flatties for now.

-t-

are you planning to go out any time soon?

Not anytime soon...I'm in Dana Point area...dont have a kayak. Basically surf-fish, but have seen people kayak fish...looks fun, with the potential of getting much bigger fish than from shore.

Hey Todd, did you see that friggin huge derrick out off the point tonight? I first saw it from the freeway exiting at Beach Cities, it was huge and it wasn't there yesterday! I went to Strands and snapped a couple of quick photos of it from the top parking lot, it sure appeared to be on pilings. Probably a mile or so off the point.

Chris, I saw it too...at first I thought it was some kind of oil rig that magically appeared off Salt Creek at night!? I called Dana Point Harbor Patrol...apparently it is NOT an oil rig, but a satellite launcher...it is there temporarily, but is on the way down to Costa Rica area for some kind of launch. There is a pic of it in todays OC Register (and a brief article/caption). Apparently the Harbor Patrol got hundreds of calls...luckily it is NOT an oil rig!!!