Spent this last weekend in Dana Point with my wife and was able to sneak away for a few hours on Saturday to do a little fishing. I've been itching to get down that way after seeing lots of posts about the halibut and WSB fishing. Not only was this my first trip down south, but it was my first time fishing from a kayak. Thanks to Quietman for the tip on where to rent the yak (right across from the launch ramp at the jet ski rental place). They launch you right into the harbor.

I made my way up to the bait dock for a few casts, but really intended on geting out of the harbor and decided to head over to Doheney. On my way around the jetty I passed three yakers coming back in. They had full on set up yaks with all of the fixin's, and here I am in a rented yak with one rod and a backpack full of my favorite baits. One of the guys said he had caught 2 short WSB in about 10 feet of water off Doheney, but the other two guys grumbeled out something about it being slow and that maybe it would pick up later. It didn't deter me to much as I was just happy to be out there and felt pretty confidient that I could catch something.

I really had no idea where to go exactly but just looked for a good spot and ended up right in front of the little jetty North of the river mouth. The water looked like it had to be holding fish as it was dotted with kelp bunches and looked like it had some structure. On about my third cast I got slammed on the 3 inch "Sea Wolf" colored Big Hammer with cocktail sauce, but the fish came unbuttoned after about 10 seconds. The swim bait had some nice slash marks in it. That made me feel a bit better as at least there was something down there. After about 30 min of nothing I decided to go to my favorite flattie crank. That turned out to be a good idea. About 20 minuets later I hook into a fiesty flattie in the 21 inch range.
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Didn't measure it as I was not intending on keeping any fish. Just snapped a quick picture and brought it in for a fast C&R. About a half hour later I hook up another flattie that was just about identicle in size to the first one and was was quickly C&R'd. I caught the second one a little farther south just past the river mouth and for the next hour I made drifts in that area for nothing. I decided I'd head back up to the area with the kelp and on my first pass I got slammed, big time! I could tell this was a good fish as it made several good runs and made my reel sing. It also sat on the bottom for a while and I couldn't budge it. Finally it started coming up slowly. I looked over the edge of the yak and saw this big brown doormat coming up and I almost fell overboard. It took one look at me and took off back to the bottom. I finaly managed to get it up to the yak, but realized that I didn't have a net or a gripper, all I had was my trusty thick leather gardening glove that I allways bring along just in case. Now I've lipped halibut before with the glove, just like a bass, but this boy was much bigger and was snapping it's jaws so hard you could hear it. It's mouth was big enough to put my whole hand in and it had one big snaggle tooth on the tip of it's mouth that looked like it could shred my glove. On about my third try I managed to get a good hold of him and held on for dear life as it wasn't to happy about me grabbing him and hoisted him aboard.
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He measured out at 33 inches! Passing my previous best by 3 inches. Never got the chance to weigh it but the bag of 2 inch thick filets was at least 10 pounds. I ended up catching another fish in the 12 to 14 inch range to finish up the day.

As I paddeled back around the jetty to go in, the guys fishing on the rocks were cheering me as I passed by towing this big boy and the people at the jet ski place were stunned and said they had never seen a fish that big come in the their dock.

Sorry for the super long post but I was a little excited. Can't wait to get back down that way.

Bowlboy

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