*WARNING* Picture heavy!
So, last year I made it out to California and got to experience kayak fishing in Nor Cal and So Cal in one trip! Also got to do the Islander mothership trip after doing some sweet fishing in Nor Cal at Shelter Cove and Clear Lake. Even had a couple whales come up right next to me while we were Rock Fishin' and Ling Coddin' it out there. Being from the east coast (live in Charlotte, NC now - no SF 49ers smashing my Panthers comments welcome btw
) I really wanted to see what the Pac coast had to offer. I'm super fortunate because I do work in the kayak fishing industry (Jackson Kayak) and get to travel around to some cool places and wet a line. Last year California was awesome (see some photos from last year below) so I had to make plans to get back out there this year! I guess I'll post up this super delayed report from last year and then start another thread about this year's trip.
Below are a few Nor Cal photos from last year (scroll further down for So Cal). I got into some nice fish and a real nice bright colored Verm! All caught on the same Z-MAN Streakz XL. Look I'm an east coast guy and many of you have and will catch more giant lings, halibut, rockfish etc than I'll ever hook up with, but for the sake of trying to contribute something helpful I learned while on this trip I'll share this; I noticed everyone switching their swimbaits and creature baits non-stop due to lings, rockfish etc biting their baits in half or tearing them up. Bass fishing across the country I have a trick where I super glue the soft plastic bait to the jighead. That works well but doesn't stop a ling from tearing it up! What does is the cool 10x stretchy plastic that Z-MAN uses in their baits. I caught about 20 fish this day that all have gnarly teeth; I glued the Streakz XL on the jighead and caught every one on the exact same bait - never got tore up. Not sure why more people don't use these durable plastic formulas that many brands have out now? Or, maybe some guys do and I just didn't run into any of them but it saved me a lot of time and energy on the water and made my day more enjoyable.
Jameson with a nice Ling
Whales! Holy Shnikes that was freaky!
Surfin some waves!
Clear Lake baby! What a cool place and the kayak really can get into some places on that lake that boats can't go...and we caught fish in those spots - no surprise there!
Sight fished this one with a shaky head.
Here is a good shot of the watermelon red FattyZ that she fell for.
Cool aerial shot!
Jameson with a nice one too!
Terry with a big one! I think he got this one on live bait but still!!!
Ok, here are some shots from So Cal now. First Jim took Jameson and I to La Jolla.
Paddling out!
Bracing my way back in! Thank God I stayed upright!
Jim making his way back in.
Here's a nice little La Jolla Calico but you can really get a good look at that Streakz XL that killed it for me with any and all Pac coast species. For Calicos I had it on a 1/2 belly weighted style hook as you can see.
Ok, time to load up the Islander for our trip! If you've never done this trip it is awesome! The crew does an amazing job putting you on the best locations, assisting with getting your boats in/out of the water and feeding you some nice grub thanks to the chef...meanwhile all you do is fish, then talk fishin when you get back in and eat, sleep, repeat. Couldn't be much better!
Lots of great folks went on this trip that I knew so it really made it a blast. Good friend Jameson Redding was there, Adi Ljubovic (Lamb) Jarrod McGehee, Paul Lebowitz and Jim Sammons but more importantly I met a ton of cool dudes from all over Cali on this trip. I remember there were a bunch of friendly divers from Nor Cal as well. Hope to reunite with some of them and meet some new folks on this years trip when I go at the end of May.
Here's Paul with a whopper of a Calico! He had 2 trophy sized ones on this trip!
Jarrod hooked into what I think was the only YT of the trip! Nice one Jarrod!
How beautiful is that place?
I finally got into what turned out to be big fish of the trip - a Halibut in the 25lb range! Suweet! It's actually a funny story cause Lamb was helping me learn to halibut fish with live bait in 80ft with a 1lb ball. I didn't have a bait tank though so once my bait died I peaced out and headed near shore to target Calicos. I see a BIG bolder the size of like 3 SUVs barely under the surface about 5-10 FT off of the shore. I paddled into the shore and then over the bolder to where the nose of my kayak was directly over the front drop off. I figured if anything was under it, then it would be facing into the waves looking for incoming food. I took my Calico bass rod (7ft MH action) and literally just dropped a 5-inch ZMAN Paddlerz swimbait (3/8 oz jighead) down the wall of this bolder until it hit bottom (8-10ft). No joke, next thing ya know I'm pullin up this freakin rug! haha.
We all got a good laugh at how that happened because I really REALLY wanted a big halibut and everyone else was in 80ft with live bait and not getting bit and I lucked out in 8ft of water with artificial lures and a MH bass rod! Haha, what a fight. We were actually out there filming for The Kayak Fishing Show so much of this you can check out when that episode airs soon (March I think).
A cool shot with the Islander off in the distance!
All in all, awesome trip! So awesome I just got back from San Diego last week where we did some bonefish'in in the bay and freshwater bassin in local lakes and the CO River. I'll try to share about that trip soon as well.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the photos and report and it made someone's Mon a little more interesting! :-)
If any of you are heading to the Long Beach Fred Hall show then maybe I'll see ya there! I'll be doing a seminar with Jim Sammons so stop by and say hello and I look forward to sharin the kayak fishin' stoke fellas!
