Labor day fishing

[Aaron&Julie]

First off, let us express our gratitude to the few who will provide timely reports. We appreciate that. To each their own, but we ALWAYS report success in a timely manner. Sometimes we don't report when we are unsuccessful, as that's LESS important. What happens to us today, may not be what will happen to you, tomorrow.

Labor day fishing. We launched before 5:00AM, we couldn't make any squid, but we managed enough greenies and spanish for the day.

Funny thing, the water was warm when we were making bait, but an hour or so later, cold. We think it had a lot to do with the ripping downhill current, the prediction of rip currents along the coast and a 5+ foot tide change from about 5:00AM rising until 11:00AM or thereabouts. This could have had some effect on our overall success, which was...

One barely legal WSB caught by me, towards the end of the day. Funny thing, a knothead was right next to the fish, as I brought it in. I wasn't expecting it to to hit the deck, but got it in within 3 minutes. Seems the knothead was far too interested in the female Sea Lion next to him to even think about food. Romance was in the air... And, it was actually another (way more legal) WSB, I saw half out of the water, boiling on some bait in the distance that pointed us in the direction of the one I caught. Apparently, the whites went on a little chew.

Anyways, I bounced him on deck, and I decided a just legal WSB wasn't worth keeping as we still have plenty of vacuuum packed from last year and the year before, even though we wanted fresh fish to eat last night. It wasn't to be.

A humorous note and an interesting one.

LOL (to some), on the humorous side, while passing another young yakker, I inquired about his luck, he responded, "Nothing, my fish finder is broke". Julie and I had quite the laugh a little later about this response. Nothing against you, if you are reading this and you were the yakker I asked the question to, but now we know why we've had trips of getting skunked these last 8 years of doing this, our fish finder was broke. Oh, wait...we never had a fish finder...except the mental kind. So, when we got skunked it was our brain that kaputted.

Seriously, though, a fish finder is an outstanding device to have, there is no doubt about it. It's just humorous that the new wave of kayak fishermen/women seem like they're lost without them.

Now, on the interesting note. Near the end of the day, out in front the condo, outside of the kelp line, we see something whitish looking, a foot or so, in diameter. Getting close, I say, "Mola-mola", which it is, indeed. But, getting alongside it, I see it is dead. Looking at the tail, I see huge teeth marks, which looked to have been done by a Great White, which apparently didn't like the flavor. I didn't mention it in my recent post where I went solo and caught a 28lb yellow, but that day, on it's very first run, that yellowtail ran right under what I'd call a 12 foot Great White, no kidding. As I was getting towed towards it's dorsal fin about 30 feet in front of me, the fin slowly sank down. For a moment I thought I had the shark hooked as it was that straight a line to where my fish was going, and my fish hadn't even started fighting, yet. Seriously, looking back, I wouldn't be surprised if that Great White had a spectre slice on it's underside. It is the first Great White I'd seen off of "anywhere", after 40 years of ocean fishing. I'd say the one that took a bite out of the tail section of that Mola-mola was probably comparably in size.

Anyways, I'd thought I'd mention this. I'm not trying to put fear into anyone, I think it's just good to know. Josh (darkhorse), had a recent photo of the dorsal fin of one he spotted and photographed. He said he's spotted 4 so far, and I don't know whether he means just this year or since he's been kayak fishing. He goes out there often, so it's for him to tell.

Back to our fishing day. The downhill current was ripping the whole day, the wind was bothersome early (aiding the current) and late (aiding us, towards the launch). The water temp seemed low, but the water was extremely clean. We just couldn't find fish (our mental fish finder was broken). We both got some sun (burned), the dolphins put on incredible shows all during the day. Once, we were completely surrounded by them. The weather was fantastic, except for some wind.

We landed about 3:30PM (10+ hours on the water), a long day, but all in all, a great day, but definitely a LABOR day. The muscles and joints ache all over for both of us, it's hell doing this in your 50s, especially those of us still remaining dedicated to doing the "paddle". Worth it? You bet.

Aaron