cool pic!!! nasty cuts and gashes are a daily occurance there, if its not the random rocks/rays then its a surfboard fin. Local surfers who frequent reefs have a near obsession with building up thier "paws" to avoid being seen or worse photo'd wearing booties in the line-up. with that said its always a good idea to slowly set your feet to the bottom even giving a little kick before you touch down to give those ever present rays a chance to swim away before you step on them.
As for the launch, i love the place, the people and the shallow water structure that is so easy to access. i would love to share some tips and tricks with you guys and hope to see more people fishing the area.
- in the summer tourmo parking lot is packed just like everywhere else, the advantage is you can pull to the side and wait at the end of the rows and start unloading and setting up you yak while waiting for a spot (it really doesn't take that long...
- depending on the swell direction and period the best launch area is between the base of the ramp and the cement drainage ditch to the north, sometimes even a little north of the drainage ditch.
- Fishing, this area to the north (the cove and around the point to birdrock) is great for structure fishing as there are all kinds of rockpiles, slabs, grassbeds with sand in between, when the vis is good and the surf is low you can easily see the reefs, and adjacent sand areas and it can be easy and productive to throw some swimbaits right next to the structure and swim them along the side, or throw spoon over the top...
- fishing for yellows using traditional LJ methods here can be a little more work because the area is like a mine field of small spaced out kelp/bullkelp stringers which makes trollin macks difficult, and landing a spunky yellow is a crap shoot if you don't have spectra (i'm a
even with spectra)
- the dominant winds & currents are usually running from N to S which means the kelp canopy is usually stretched out past the root bases (opposite of LJ) which gives the lazy fisherman the oppertinaty to tie up to the outside edge of the kelp canopy and fish the area much like a power boat anchored on the outside edge of the kelp in LJ
- bait is typically much more scarce out there and harder to find due to the random sabiki eating kelp stringers that are all over the place, the cure, bring a can of wet cat/dog food, poke some holes in it , poke your game clip thu the can and then hang it down 5-10ft when you tie up to the canopy....
Thats pretty much all i know about fishing that area, if anyone has more tips spit'um out. See ya on the water!!!!