Grand day in the salt

Got out this morning with Tinker and what a day it was- could say the fish where leaping into the kayaks- we limited out in 15 mintues-the lings came as easy as the blacks do-we out fished the PB and made them look real bad but alas no to all of the above. Instead was greeted by no wind,water visibility down around the 12 to 15 feet mark(could see the sea urchins moving around) and the most important part that would have made this  even better would have been the fish" seems mother nature let them take the 4th. of July off except for one that didn't get the memo and came ever so stand-off-ish to Tinker(nice fish-20 in. and about 4pds.) Mother nature rewarded with 2 greenlings and a cabby, so all an all it was a win/win day." Oh by the way the greenling and cabby where all done by site fishing in 15 feet of water". What a blast that was, talk about a whole new meaning to stalking fish.

I cannot wait to get down there and fly fish with ya'll. 

We don't get many days as nearly perfect as yesterday.  No wind to speak of all morning, and clear, flat-butt-calm water (that's me bobbing around in exposed water, not tucked-away in a cove).  I could have had a great day just watching the fish following my fly around.  Wait!  I did have a great day watching the fish since I spent most of the day doing that.

Yep, it's fun to fish with surf12foot. "Tinker! Tinker! I've got something big this time!" - it was the cabezon - and, "I'm sure I saw three greenlng down there..!"

And we explored. surf12foot thought it would be fun to see new (to me) sights, and silly me followed him through treacherous, narrow rock passages that required ultra-precise kayak control - and one that raised my pucker-factor to "noticeable" when the swell deposited me half on and half off a formerly submerged rock.

The water isn't often as blue and as clear as it was yesterday, and I'm grateful to have had a chance to tag along with that guy.  Thank you, Scott!

Very nice. I'm jealous, of course.

And let me quickly add that I was wearing my surfing wetsuit underneath my water repellant shirt and pants - you can barely see it near the shirt cuff.  And let me add that I do not and never have surfed, except for about an hour in San Diego, which even I do not claim was surfing.

I shout loudly as much and as often as anyone about being prepared for falling into the water, and I was.  Just stealthily prepared...   

psst, psst...I have a feeling there were hungry lingcod down at Simpson Reef, with the whales and grumpy sea lions...wink wink, nudge nudge.

Nice going! It seems that 90% of the people who went out came back with nothing not even a bite to be had.

Nice going! It seems that 90% of the people who went out came back with nothing not even a bite to be had.

I don't have all the pieces of this puzzle but a few observations- I didn't see any schools of black rockfish in certain areas out there that I normally see them.  Next I didn't hook any while drifting squid along the bottom.  Earlier trips this year, I pick up an occasional 3 to 4# black off the bottom.  Next are these 3 powerboats that were 50yards off the end of the reef (ignore the bent meat crane with the 17# ling on the end of it.. ) and based on the radio chatter, they were over big schools and getting their limits of blacks.



Then I considered that gray whales feed by digging up the bottom and with several of them apparently stopping off to feed by the reef, water down there was a beautiful color but only maybe 5' of visibility, plus the sea lions were grumpy and some even seemed to be harassing the whales.  No shortage of lingcod on the bottom and they were hungry, I released 2 undersized, retained my 2, and released another 8 to 10 pounder near the glass house that I so wanted to be a big cabby.  And I really didn't bottom fish all that long, spent more time just hanging with the whales (great company, not real chatty) and sea lions (I will post a separate thread on their reaction when I stole my first ling right away from two of their noses).

Last thing is that the day before, at the CoosBay sunken jetty, there was a good school of larger than normal black rockfish, near the #7 marker, I pulled my 4 in no time and they were all 2 pounds, that's about as large as I ever see in that area, CoosBay is more a 1 to 1.5# rockfish deal.

So if I try to be Columbo and put it all together, perhaps the mucked up water from the whales feeding has moved the rockfish away from shore and away from the reef and even moved more into CoosBay, the sea lions and lingcod are hungry and grumpy, and the whales are just chilling.  Seems like lots of Cabbys up in the lighthouse reefs.   

Regardless, what an absolutely beautiful day, I was out almost 6 hours!

From the chatter I overheard down near the lighthouse, no one was having any luck and surf12foot and I were doing better than almost anyone else around us, but I reckon there are times when you have to make a left turn instead of a right...   
 
Nice job, roger!  Can't wait to hear more, especially the tale about cheating those poor, hungry sea lions out of a decent meal.