Report for all of you that turned around at the launch today!

[jorluivil]

Originally Posted by Handymansd

"Wind variable less than 10 kt...becoming NW 10 kt in the afternoon. Wind waves 2 ft or less. Swell W 3 to 5 ft at 10 seconds." Ya right... more like 5 to 7ft with occasional sets to 10+ft at around 9 seconds.

"Launched" early 4am... and a waay outside pair of waves flipped me end over end, after I thought I had cleared the surf zone. Glad i was wearing PFD, the set was easily 8-10ft! I have never had that happen before. Climbed back aboard with nothing amiss but my dignity, and soggily headed to the pier, with a pile of leashed goods in my lap and just happy that no one caught that on tape!
Bad idea to go to the pier... as the swell was crashing at the tip of the peir every 90 seconds or so. So, off to the kelp... solid 10-15 ft of Spanish mac/sardine mix everywhere. loaded up and trolled inside, outside, upside, and downside, for nada. Obviously there is still alot of bait around. Had one run at around 120' on the NW corner on fly-lined Spanish but I quickly 'd it. Probably the T-man with the way the bait was behaving.

Landed in substantially smaller surf, though there are still a few good sized sets if your not careful. I had to just sit and watch the tourists land for a few minutes, that's some funny shit! Beautiful warm day on the water... surprisingly good vis for all the surf.

Even with a miserable launch and no fish love it sure beats being in some office... or worse.

I know the feeling of thinking you're in the clear just to have some wicked wave sprawl out of nowhere.

This is from my last LJ trip

1,2,3....jump in and . I get through the white wash from the large breakers and once I thought I was in the clear I started to take my time paddling until I saw a HUGE wave building about 50' ahead of me.....I don't know why but I stopped paddling for a few seconds then told myself, "WTF are you doing...PADDLE YOU IDIOT! The wave was so large that when I was about to clear the crest of the wave my yak was sitting in about a 45degree angle and when I came down the bow slammed into the water. It took me at least 5-10 minutes to gather my senses, had I waited two more breathes I would have been picking my sh*t up from the waters edge.