Offshore Saturday 07-19-14
 

Short Version: 25+ miles, 13hrs, 2 bonies, no tuna.

Long Version: Launched at 3:30am from the shores and the wind was on it already. Ended up taking my x-factor and letting a friend use the prowler. Paddled out and made the NWC around 5:00am. Filled my bait tank with small spanish. Pinned a big greenback on my live bait rig and started out due west.

Water was cold and rolled in LJ. 67.5 deg F and green. About 6 or 7 miles out we hit the blue water and the temp bumped up to 71 deg F. There were dolphins and birds and blue whales all over this area. Put in the trollers and chased the ponies a bit for nada. Found a good paddy in this area but nobody home.

Kept heading due west and found water up to 72 at 9 miles west of bird rock. Area looked real good. Saw fish breaking under birds. Chased the terns for nada.

Starting heading SW as far a mission bay to try and reach the north knuckle of the 9. Went another 3 miles or so out and the water temp had dropped way down to as low as 67.5. Stained water and no life in this area so changed course due north and the temp slowly came up as we went north.

We got back up to where we were 12 miles west of marine st. The birds were all over this area and I saw breaking fish under the terns several times. Had good marks in this area. rapala got hit twice for small boneheads. worked the megabait, mackerel, and rapala all over this area and couldn't get the right kind to go. Started trolling in at 1:30pm. Found a huge paddy in 72 deg water, nobody home. Landed at the shores around 5:00pm.

Lessons learned:

1. You have to paddle way further than you think. Sure we only made it 10-12 miles out, but that's not in a straight line. We were zig zagging and circling and boxing and chasing birds all over. So I'm not sure the total distance. At least 25mi but it could've been as high as 30. I only used the GPS and VHF sporadically to conserve battery, so I didn't track the entire paddle. And it's not just cruising paddling. When the birds pile up, you have to sprint if you want to even get close.

2. If you're not paddling, a rapala does nothing. I tried to keep moving as much as I could, but there were some areas where i wanted to drift and work the jig so you have to clear your rapala and have a mack out. The hardest part was trying to decide whether to box a fishy area, drift, or just keep moving outside and not get distracted while staying on top of your spread.

3. Its totally doable, but la jolla launch is not ideal. I think I needed to get south of the chloro-band and temp break off LJ. Next time I would launch from tourmaline and head southwest straight to the bank, then work west from there. I should've gone further. I think about 40 total miles is closer to whats needed.

Side note is that there was no boat traffic at all where we were and there were fish around. VHF was pretty much worthless. Couldn't hail boats which were only a couple miles away. Cell phone worked all the way up to 10 miles offshore.

All that said, I'm ready to go again! Who's down for Wednesday?

Awesome trip report! Even though it was a bust fishing, some valuable lessons learned it seems. Definitely seems that long chloro line break out to 20 mi from LJ acted like a fish wall. Launching from tourmo or MB probably would have helped.

A couple of questions for ya, if you don't mind:

1) What kind of speed were you able to maintain for trolling and what was your trolling spread setup? Enough speed for effective trolling?

2) Could you sneak up on any breaking fish without spooking them?

3) What did you bring with you to transport any caught tuna back without attracting the toothy kind?

PG

Thanks for the report and glad you guys made it back safe!

You the man!

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25 miles in a XFactor?! With a full baitwell?! That gives me hope!!! :):):)

Cool report. You gave it your best! :cheers1:

That's a hell of a trip....
Thanks for the report and I'm happy to hear that you did what you said except now I feel like kind of a puss for getting so tired just trolling back and forth along the kelp.
:cheers1:

1. About 3-3.5 kts. I was trolling a greenback and a sardine colored x-rap. seemed like the speed was good, but then again I didn't catch anything.

2. Fish, whales, birds didn't seem to care that we were there. The issue isn't sneaking up on them, rather it is being able to catch them as everything is constantly moving, sinking out and popping up elsewhere.

3. All I had was a gaff and a gameclip. Trying to figure out where you're going to keep all the tuna you haven't caught yet is kinda putting the cart before the horse IMO. If i had miraculously limited on YFT i would've probably put them in the front hatch of my xfactor i guess:)

Great report, 25 miles on an X-Factor is a great training run for 40 miles on your Prowler.

Cool, thanks for checking back.
Unfortunately that seems to be true, and that's getting into unrealistic.

Water is mixing and cooling all through the bight. It's going to be another while before we get back into realistic.

My offshore trips are plotted beforehand usually a triangle, with eyes out for diversions. 3, 7-mile legs is a good realistic goal. If you go out 10, you have fish and then come back 10. On 3 legs you can commute and fish while covering water.

Any further tries I'm afraid, are going to be long searches. Last Mon-Tues were the days to get em "close". Lots of time and chances left. I really wouldn't be surprised about a bluefin in LJ.

Good stuff!!

(I am so going in my garage tonight and starting to figure out this trolling from an OC-1 idea so I can head out with you next time!)

Sounds like a great adventure. I'm sure you got some people's juices flowing to do the same.

Next time, I hope you get better results fishing. Good luck Wednesday.

You guys have balllllllls


Sick journey

Great report & good to hear you guys made it back to land.

Good job, I was hoping to see pictures of fish.

Breaking fish, paddies, dolphins, bird activity - can you get any closer to your goal? Next time!

I thought about you when I was out on Saturday. I was almost run over by a couple of idiots in a cigarette boat and two cruisers. The cig boat saw me and were just a-holes. They should play nice as their truck/trailer are easy to spot at the launch. Are you flying flags and paddling bright colored kayaks to make yourself as visible as possible?

What was the current like? Is there any way to anticipate current direction/speed and plan your trip to take advantage of it?

Wow.... I did a 16 mile trip in my Outback. That was in a river, in calm water, 8 miles each way. Didn't return until 3 hours after dark.

Never imagined that 25 in an X Factor was even doable. It's not for me and my level of fitness anyway. When I was using my X-Factor 2-3 miles was about as far as I went.

For longer treks, do you think it's better to go Hobie Outback or paddle the X-Factor? Now I have one of each.... thinking about selling the X-Factor as I hardly use it.

Wow regardless of fish the fact that you were able to do the trip is great and gives others hope that it's doable. Good going.

Current wasn't that bad. Slight downhill but honestly it didnt affect us that much. the wind and white caps were more of a factor than the current. As far as predicting the current, I dunno. Ideally you would want to ask somebody who has fished offshore recently. Luckily I have a few buddies who were keeping me up on the conditions.

As far as flags and bright colors, neither. My x-factor is stone and I didnt have any flags. We didnt see many boats out there. Had a couple navy transport ships go by several miles inside of us... that was kinda trippy.

Couldn't say which is better as I have never used an outback. I will say that I wouldn't think twice about adding 10 miles to this trip on my x-factor. I know it's not a fast hull, but I seem to be able to do alright in it. Honestly I think for the average kayaker, your legs have much more endurance than your upper body. I have paddled enough to have several different strokes and cadences which utilize different muscle groups and suit different scenarios and conditions. I could probably write a short book on all the different paddling techniques I've played with. I'm not sure if you have that kind of versatility with the mirage drive.

Also keep in mind that the fully rigged weight will have a big impact on the planing ability of the hull. The lighter you are, the lower the speed required to get on plane, and less energy required to stay on plane. I was pretty heavily rigged for this trip compared to where I would've liked to have been.

In a prowler i could bang out a 40 mile day no problem.

Nice effort, I have no doubt that some COOL catches will be happening from the kayak in the next couple of months.

Sweet I want to tag along some time!!

Just wondering what type of gear do you head out with to target the larger fish?