Friday... Cape Kiwanda 4/10

Yaknitup and I are tossing around the idea of hitting PC on Friday if conditions are like they were this morning.
Check out the web cam.

Wow,
Is that Steelheader just offscreen to the right?

Put something like this in your window to keep "The Man" away....

Right on, good idea. 

BTW - Anyone else wanna go too?   

Wow,
Is that Steelheader just offscreen to the right?

Naw, I was parked up the beach...

Wow,
Is that Steelheader just offscreen to the right?

Naw, I was parked up the beach...

And? 

Any fishing?

I paddled around until the swells started to grow and the wind began to change around 1045 or so. No bites today. A few dories were running in and out though. They are fun to watch coming in through head high surf.

Trust me, I'll let you know when I actually catch something.

BTW, how do you imbed a link to the current PC photo? I've only figured out how to place a link OR a photo.

Jay

Oops, nevermind. I see you are using a link that updates automatically

How far out did you go to fish?

With the 5-6 ft seas, being out there alone and my stellar history of chumming, I decided to cover the area between the point of the cape and Haystack Rock. I tried to located the submerged rock/reef that I've been told is just to the east of Haystack but I never did locate it.

Jay

It can be hard to find reefs when the swell is making regular 5-6' swings in your bottom sounding.  Sometimes you can tell by a color (tone) change in your bottom sounding as rock generally reflects the sound wave better than sand.


Brian

Look for the buoy (just north of the Haystack).  The reef runs directly north from the buoy for a couple of miles.

Also, if you use braided line and a heavy jig head, you can feel your jig hit the reef when you're on it.

I hit Seaside around 10:00AM.  Swell was pumping and the ocean was glassy so I opted for the surfboard instead of the yak.  Scored awesome overhead surf until after noon when the swell doubled.  According to a couple of non-affiliated yak fishers, the early morning was too big for a go out there.

Yep, the surfers were out in force at PC as well. By the time I came back in, the breakers were well above head height. Fortunately, I got a nice push in following a big set and just steered all the way in.

Brian, your comment about the swells affecting the soundings are right on. When there was a long trough between swells I was seeing a flat, sandy bottom. The rest of the time it looked more like a series of holes spaced nicely apart...DOH!

I have to keep telling myself that I can buy and use the gear but that doesn't mean I know what I'm doing....

I'll be heading out to that reef on Friday, weather permitting of course. I'll show you where it is if you want to head out with INSAYN and I. 

I have to keep telling myself that I can buy and use the gear but that doesn't mean I know what I'm doing....

I completely know how you feel!

Trip report...

I got there about 0645, and just soaked in the view.  What kind of adventure do we have today?






Yakintup, showed up and we drove down to the water to observe the stairs for quite some time, studying the best way through them.   Once we had a course in mind, we dumped the yaks off near the water, filled them with our gear and backed the trucks up the beach and parked along the wall in the soft sand.




Launch time!
Quite the ride to say the least.  I wish we had a video camera mounted to a helmet on the launch.  It was dicey due to the wide surf zone we had to play in.  However, Yakintup marked a window between the swells for us and  yelled GOOOO!   We had probably 10-15 seconds of low swells that could just pop over, and then we hit the incoming bigger ones.  Like I said, I wish we had video rolling on the way out, as it was wicked cool seeing his bow punch through the top of the wave, and then see mine do the same.  With a lap full of water, and I mean LAP FULL, we popped out the other side of the wave and dropped!  Weeeee!    Did this 3-4 more times before we were outside the surf zone. A few had me thinking I was going to get pushed backward, but I had enough power to go through/over them, unlike my first wipe out at Devils Punch Bowl.

Halfway out, turn around to get some shoreline pics. 





Turned back around once Yakintup was ready to continue. He stopped to peel a few layers.  I think he put on everything he owned before the launch.  He looked like a homeless man with issues.   






Moved in closer to the rock to see what we have to work with.








Started to get a little foamy, felt like we were in some kids bubble bath.





Yakintup nailed one or two fish right off the bat.  I had reel issues and didn't get started right away.  Some reason my Penn 209 just locked up and the spool didn't want to move.   Screw it! 
Tossed this pole back in the pod, and grabbed my backup.  Slapped on a purple squid spinner bait and immediately nailed my first (and only) kayak rock fish.






A couple of banana riders paddled up to chit chat, as they were just out for a paddle (not fishing).





Then my stoopid backup rod with 30lb mono on it started rat nesting with the slightest cast. (wWho was dumb enough to put that crap on it?)  The the kelp kept biting and didn't want to let go.  Crap another birds nest! 
I was not having fun at this point.  Time to start hinting to the wife about me needing better line, reel, maybe another rod. 

Yakintup started to get pooped on by the above birds, so on goes the hood. 




We ventured out past the rock where it was much rougher.  We fished a short time out there, with nothing to show for it and I started to feel the movement.  There were times when his upright poles disappeared from view, yet we were close enough to talk.   I started feeling a bit green and proactively moved back next to the rock where it was sheltered some from the criss cross swells.

I mentioned that I was done, back was getting sore, and stomach had enough for the day.  I'm not sure if the ginger I was munching on helped or not, as I still chummed several times today.  Mostly when I was retying something and not paying attention to the rock or the shoreline.  BTW - ginger does not cause drowsiness, so I was awake for this whole adventure this time.  However, ginger does not taste as good in reverse. 
I hope a few more trips like these and I'll start to get the hang of the motion and hopefully kick motion sickness. 

Oh, almost forgot the cool part.  I was all packed up ready to beach, and Yakintup want to get one more fish to get his limit.  While doing one more lap by the rock, a whale breached pretty damn close to him, and did a blow and dove.  Not enough time to dig the camera back out, nor did he resurface.   

He nailed one more and got his limit so we headed in.  Again, this was fun.  I don't get the feeling he like "huli" practice much.  I think its kinda fun.  Probably dangerous, but still a rush.   There was just no way to get a solid window between cycles.  They were rolling in just too fast.  We took the opportunity to just let them roll under us, and push us closer and closer to shore.  I got swamped by one and was able to hop right back on before the next swell.  We did this till we had no choice but to paddle like hell.   Paddle like hell we did, all the while screaming whahoo for the crowd that was watching us from the beach.  We both go swamped, rolled and dumped.  I even had a small yard sale.  My orange box popped open when my yak turned turtle, and puked it's contents into the surf.  Found everything and all was good.



Too pooped to drag his yak any further, Yakintup opted to abandon his yak, and walk up and get his truck for recovery.  I opted stay in the shallow water and pulled mine all the way to my truck.






My first entry into the AOTY.  14.5" starter Blacky.



And of course his full stringer.



This one was every bit 20" and weighed in at 3.2 lbs.  NICE!




Did I miss anything Jeff?
All in all, much further progress and learning for me.  I actually got a pole out and caught a fish this time. 

Well Done!

And, nice report!