Newport Harbor 6-2
 

First time post so forgive me. Me and Hooked Face started getting into kayak fishing early this year and it has quickly become an addiction! We were waiting all weekend to take the yaks out, after calling the bait barges we decided Newport was the spot because they had chovies and squid. We get in the water about 5 am, paddle out to the barge and all they have is sardines. Our bait tank was on a 6 volt battery at the time because we were thinking of using anchovies. A little discouraged we got the sardines anyway and headed out to the kelp. After an hour of using the sardines we had nothing and the dines started to fade pretty quickly. We decided to start cutting the dead ones and using them as bait. From then the bite was on. We pulled a few undersized calico out of the kelps on the small poles and more than a few spider crabs. Being more familiar inside the harbor we head back in and hit the spots. Switching to drop shot we started slaying the spotties, smelt, perch, mackerel. Still trying to have a live bait line out didn't work too well because the sealions were out in full and were Biting our bait in half. I kept my half deen on the line and threw it out anyway, about 5 minutes later a thump and a nice little fight and I landed a 16" spotty. best of the day. If anyone could recommend some spots outside the harbor or any tips for us new to open water fishing we would appreciate it!

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Keep a sardine on the bottom, might run into a bigger friend.:D

Many guys run 6v and sardines do fine.

Try Cabrillo. Fun, protected halibut fishery.




Thanks for posting, welcome to the family.

I have been hitting that area regularly the past few weeks. Lots of short bass and lots of lizards. I got 1 ray about 25lbs and 1 ray about 50lbs. WOW! What a sled ride
The rays may have been a little smaller, but I am a fisherman and exercise my right to exaggerate.
I am new to the sport of kayak fishing, but I have become an addict.

The way I run it the flow is really slow with the 6v. It was okay for a few but they loaded my tank and we lost a lot of them on the way out but we made that work by cutting them up.

It was a fun day. I don't have any photos because I only brought my phone and it was in my center hatch and being a bigger guy it's hell to get into that thing. We will probably be out this weekend in search of the reef depending on Mother Nature.

Did you keep the spider crabs?

No i didn't. I've ever eaten one before and he didn't look all too appealing. We were gettin em left and right tho. The one in the pic latched himself onto my tackle bag then my tank he was a little jerk.

We heard they are good if they are clean but we were not sure so we let them go.

Can you keep them if caught by line?

no,not legally. Way to make it work guys.

Thats what I sort of thought. Time to pickup a crab/lobster trap :D

Glad we didn't keep them. Are they good?

I think that crab is a sheep crab, not a spider crab. The legs look to short to me. Anyways, nice job. I think I saw you guys on the other side of the kelp, I was in a bright yellow yak.

Nice spottie! What were you drop shotting?

The spotty was caught on a Mack head on a dropper loop (last ditch effort to land a ray) and when I was drop shot I was just using a 2 oz pencil weight about 12" from a 6/0 with cut bait.

Aren't they the same thing?