7/3 Port San Luis Salmon hunt - Avila Beach, Ca

First fish report on NWKA, coming to you from the Central Cali Coast:

HOLY CRAP!!!!!  That was a lot of paddling.  I'm sore already and all over    Never did make it out to the fleet.  From the radio traffic, sounded like many boats were hooking up for limits while some others were striking out.  Heard of multiple 20+ fish with a few pushing 30 lbs.  The fish were out in 180' - 200' fow and were mostly sitting in the 25' - 60' range, with some well formed bait balls both shallow and deep.  Sounds like all the action was on watermelon apex and tray chovies in an fbr type rig.

As for us, we arrived at the Port at 5:45 to find about 30 boats lined up for the hoist.  We rigged up and were otw by 6:15 with a slight breeze and low vis due to fog.  We rounded the corner and made it out to the lighthouse and headed west.  Wasn't long before we heard reports that the fish were out far and began to get the feeling that they were further out than we were going to make it.  We gave it hell, paddling that direction until about 8 and we could barely break the 70' mark.  I had no idea that that shelf ran so far out, kept thinking that it should start to drop off soon.  Realizing we weren't going make it deep enough to be effective we retreated back toward the light house working some structure along the way.

The rf bite was really slow all day.  I managed to bring home one nice blue, the biggest I've ever caught (no pic, sorry).  My buddy Chad brought home 2 nice blues and released an almost legal ling.  Not having much success for the rf, I rigged up my bounce ball rig and trolled inside the port for awhile with no luck.  In the end we took home those 3 fish and logged some good time in the yaks.  Attempting the Salmon hunt was worth it even though we came up empty, good experience and lessons learned.  Thanks to everyone who offered up advice .  I may not get my Salmon this year but will take what I learned and try again down the road.  Until then gonna start gearing up for the WSB and Hali's, sounds like they're not too far away. 

Eric

Nice report! But why wouldn't you be able to get your salmon this year? It seems like there is plenty of opportunity!

thanks for report, my god I miss the central coast fishing, I lived in Lompoc from 86 to 97ish. use to launch out of gaviota as well as refugio/ el capitan park, beaches almost every weekend, weather provided. one of best memories have is going out to santa Barbara islands for lobster opener...what a trip that was! good luck on ur future fishin, keep the reports coming.

Nice report! But why wouldn't you be able to get your salmon this year? It seems like there is plenty of opportunity!

LOL!  Not giving up, but unless they move in closer I'm not willing to paddle out to 200 fow    Hopefully they will move up the coast and I can try again out of Morro Bay.

thanks for report, my god I miss the central coast fishing, I lived in Lompoc from 86 to 97ish. use to launch out of gaviota as well as refugio/ el capitan park, beaches almost every weekend, weather provided. one of best memories have is going out to santa Barbara islands for lobster opener...what a trip that was! good luck on ur future fishin, keep the reports coming.

They have nailing the WSB down south in the Santa Barbara area, getting some nice halibuts too.