South Cove

Packed my yak down the trail to south cove cape arago today. Been wanting to try it for a while now. The water is always calm in there when the wind is out of the north. Ive spent a lot of nights anchored in there when I worked on fishing boats.

There are only a few rocks in the cove and they had kelp all around them. I tried fishing sand shrimp out in the middle which is sandy bottom, but had no bites. Then I tried on the edge of the kelp beds and got a few bites but couldnt hook anything. What finally worked was casting a small jig into the open areas of the kelp, near the rocks, and swimming it a few feet below the surface. Started catching blacks almost every cast. Once i caught 3 on 3 consecutive casts. It was probably the most fun fishing ive had in a long time. I was using my extra light trout rod with i think 6 lb test. Ended up keeping 3 18 inchers.

The trail was not fun on the way up. I only had to stop and rest once, but i was completely winded when i got to the top. Now i have bruises on my shoulders where the yak was resting.

I think next i will try the trail on the north side and fish Simpson. Those sea lions make me a little nervous though.

Way better south then north, i went out at Sunset and it was horrible fishing, almost got skunked!!

Kept hearing on the radio people catching limits down south but was just too sloppy to make the trek down there.

I looked at sunset 3 times and decided it was a little too sloppy and would probably only get worse. Figured it was a good day to try the cove. Sounds like the right decision!

Looks like the swell is coming up for a few days. Might have to try for a salmon..

That's one heck of a hike.  That cove has always looked like it would be fishy.  It is very protected from the north wind and swell.  I've always wanted to fish that cove I'm just not willing to do the hike back up.  Sounds like you made a good call.

That's one heck of a hike.  That cove has always looked like it would be fishy.  It is very protected from the north wind and swell.  I've always wanted to fish that cove I'm just not willing to do the hike back up.  Sounds like you made a good call.

I've fished & dove South Cove quite a bit in the past & always did good. When conditions are right, I'm wanting to launch from South Cove & pull out at Sunset.