Last bug trip of this season - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

Aaron&Julie · 03-14-2011, 05:09 AM

Hoping to get something to tide us over until next season, we hit San Diego bay with bugs on our minds.
As Aaron gets a kayak scoop of 'dines so we can try for halibut before the sun sets, Julie heads out to Zuniga jetty. Aaron arrives a couple of minutes after she does. We're met with the Colorado river rushing into the bayside of the jetty.
The Tsunami warning from Friday for our coastline, wasn't in effect but the ocean didn't know it. The water on the south side of the jetty was visibly about a foot higher than on the bay side. The water was rushing over the jetty like a river and with the ocean chop, it was just plain way too freaky. Having no desire to have this occurrence happen in the dark, on a kayak, we changed our plans and headed back into the bay. Found a spot and dropped the nets without bait, then fished for a 1/2 hour.
Julie gets a chunky sand bass, so at least we'll be eating something the next night. We go back pull up our nets to put bait in, and lo and behold, Aaron gets our biggest rock crab of the night (in our promar). Now that the nets are baited we have a snack. 2 pulls later on the first 9 nets, and we come up with one legal. We then go check up on hoop #10 in a different locale, to find it missing. After 15 minutes of searching the surrounding area we find it about 200 yards away towards the middle of the bay with a huge clump of seaweed around the net which we assumed was the culprit. Not!
We continued our hourly pulls on the nets, while experiencing drastic current flows. During the last set we had 4 of the 9 nets in our one location move completely off of their spots by a 100 yards or more within minutes of when they were set. We had enough, and we were lucky to retrieve all of our gear. If we hadn't been in the area we would have lost at least a couple of nets.
We ended the day with 4 rock crabs and 4 legal bugs, plus Julie’s sand bass. The next night, to celebrate our last bug trip of the season, and Aaron’s 50th b-day, we had rock crab appetizer, followed by a dinner of lemon-pepper bass, baked potato, broccoli, and a half lobster each, grilled a la Sam the Cooking guy way. Yum-yum.

Our appetizer

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Bug results

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For future reference, if the weatherman says look for Tsunami surges on Friday, but doesn’t mention any occurring the next day, don’t count on it. We experienced at least 5 surges. After we landed (4:00AM Sunday morning), we saw a surge of almost 2 feet in 2-3 minutes. If we hadn’t been alongside our kayaks trying to get our legs back, the kayaks would have been swept into the bay. These surges were absolutely freaky. Tight lines.

jorluivil · 03-14-2011, 09:19 AM

Way to go! You had more success than Bryguth and I did....I ended the season with a skunk.

old_rookie · 03-14-2011, 10:18 AM

Sounds like a great way to spend the weekend with family... fishing and eating your catch. (Can't figure out who is who... Aaron and Julie are both talked about in 3rd person - no, I'm not an english major).

Thanks for the report on the river.... ummm... bay.

03-14-2011, 05:09 AM	#1
Aaron&Julie Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Spring Valley Posts: 1,400	Last bug trip of this season Hoping to get something to tide us over until next season, we hit San Diego bay with bugs on our minds. As Aaron gets a kayak scoop of 'dines so we can try for halibut before the sun sets, Julie heads out to Zuniga jetty. Aaron arrives a couple of minutes after she does. We're met with the Colorado river rushing into the bayside of the jetty. The Tsunami warning from Friday for our coastline, wasn't in effect but the ocean didn't know it. The water on the south side of the jetty was visibly about a foot higher than on the bay side. The water was rushing over the jetty like a river and with the ocean chop, it was just plain way too freaky. Having no desire to have this occurrence happen in the dark, on a kayak, we changed our plans and headed back into the bay. Found a spot and dropped the nets without bait, then fished for a 1/2 hour. Julie gets a chunky sand bass, so at least we'll be eating something the next night. We go back pull up our nets to put bait in, and lo and behold, Aaron gets our biggest rock crab of the night (in our promar). Now that the nets are baited we have a snack. 2 pulls later on the first 9 nets, and we come up with one legal. We then go check up on hoop #10 in a different locale, to find it missing. After 15 minutes of searching the surrounding area we find it about 200 yards away towards the middle of the bay with a huge clump of seaweed around the net which we assumed was the culprit. Not! We continued our hourly pulls on the nets, while experiencing drastic current flows. During the last set we had 4 of the 9 nets in our one location move completely off of their spots by a 100 yards or more within minutes of when they were set. We had enough, and we were lucky to retrieve all of our gear. If we hadn't been in the area we would have lost at least a couple of nets. We ended the day with 4 rock crabs and 4 legal bugs, plus Julie’s sand bass. The next night, to celebrate our last bug trip of the season, and Aaron’s 50th b-day, we had rock crab appetizer, followed by a dinner of lemon-pepper bass, baked potato, broccoli, and a half lobster each, grilled a la Sam the Cooking guy way. Yum-yum. Our appetizer >> Bug results >> For future reference, if the weatherman says look for Tsunami surges on Friday, but doesn’t mention any occurring the next day, don’t count on it. We experienced at least 5 surges. After we landed (4:00AM Sunday morning), we saw a surge of almost 2 feet in 2-3 minutes. If we hadn’t been alongside our kayaks trying to get our legs back, the kayaks would have been swept into the bay. These surges were absolutely freaky. Tight lines. __________________ "Never say die"

03-14-2011, 09:19 AM	#2
jorluivil Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 6,855	Way to go! You had more success than Bryguth and I did....I ended the season with a skunk.

03-14-2011, 10:18 AM	#3
old_rookie Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Santee Posts: 904	Sounds like a great way to spend the weekend with family... fishing and eating your catch. (Can't figure out who is who... Aaron and Julie are both talked about in 3rd person - no, I'm not an english major). Thanks for the report on the river.... ummm... bay.