Simpson Reef 3/18

I promised some friends a fish taco dinner, so the pressure was on to supply the protein. Conditions were a bit sporty and the bite was slow. The wind picked up out of south and it took a little effort to reset the drift. It felt a lot like ORC 2015.

I rolled up to the launch at 0730 to find there were already a dozen kayakers on the beach. It was good to see a bunch of familar faces. A few short greetings while I unloaded my gear and I was headed for the reef.

There was already a fleet of sport boats on the reef by the time I got there. My jig brined  for a while before I finally got a bite. My first bottom fish of 2016 was a decent sized Cabby.
I couldn't catch one to save my life last year--go figure. I gave the fish a once over and sent it on its way.

I pedaled around looking for fish and noticed the dark clouds looming in from off shore. It wasn't long before the winds hit us. I thought it was funny that the sport boats high tailed it out of there when the wind picked up. I decided to head for the cliffs and find some break from the wind. Without much effort I was clipping along at 4.5 kts. I found a little bit of protection out in front of Shore Acres.

I ran into Paul and Justin as they were dug in heading south. I poked around some wash rocks without much luck when they called over the radio that they had found a good bite. Realizing I still hadn't caught any fish worth keeping I chased the radio bite.

Paul, Nikko, Robert(NCKA  CabezoneLing) and Justin  were all tucked into the rocks harassing some rockfish. It didn't take long to catch fish but they were all dinky blacks.
The wind never seemed to improve. My plan was to get a decent ling and head in. I sorted through shakers before I finally got that fish. A cookie cutter ling at 26".

I got tired of the wind and started to head back to the launch. I trolled a 4oz Lancer jig on my way north and enticed a keeper sized black. I like to stab rockfish in the brain after I bleed them. It keeps them from freaking out and knocking gear out of my kayak. I usually do this by sending the knife into the brain from behind the eye. The fish will stiffen immediately and the job is done. Something unexpected happened this time...
As my knife sunk into the fish, a stream of eye goo came shooting toward my face. I narrowly escaped a face full of fish juice. Luckily, I had the GoPro running and I caught it all on video.

Back at the launch we all shared our luck as we loaded up gear and parted ways. It was good to see everyone and it felt good to get back on the water.

I made beer battered lingcod tacos and some rockfish ceviche. I subbed the ceviche for salsa on my tacos and blew my own mind. It was amazing.

Here's the video and a few pics from the day.


 

Fantastic!  Those fish tacos look amazing!

Nice!!! Lol if i didn't work the next morning i would have came over for food! lol Heres my pics

Nice haul JSM

Great story and pics - thank you guys for sharing. Lets me live vicariously through you 

These kind of posts were the first thing I loved about NWKA... we need more of this good stuff.

Excellent! !!... yep,agree with the Captain. Love the play by play to go with the pics. And I hate you .

No pics from my GoPro (it didn't want to operate correctly), here's the pic from the house.....and one of my kiddos running around w/ a ling!