Newport 8/24

[socal_matt]

Woke up, saw it was foggy but still decided to go. Got to the launch site and saw it was even foggier but still decided to head out. My plan was to get rockfish that day. Found this other guy at the mouth of the harbor who was going for the same thing. We had the bright idea to try and fish the spot with only a 100 yards of visibility.

Well...lets just say I should've fished the kelp instead. Caught only a sanddab and a lizardfish and called it a day cuz it was too sketchy. All we had was the foghorn and our FF for direction. Found multiple schools at 180 but none of them seemed to be anything good. I think one time we were close to the canyon since the depth started to drop dramatically. I'm never gonna do that again unless I have a gps. Water was very cold too, highest it got was 61.

Forgot to mention, we had a couple whales scare the shit out of us that came pretty close.

Thought I would still give a report even though it wasn't the best trip.

[TJones]

You made it back safely . A compass would not be such a bad idea. I carry one. Spent a couple bucks at sports chalet on it. Not sure if it is even worth that. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[CheapPelican]

Fishing north @ 250-300' puts you in the path of the Catalina flyer. That motherF'er moves so fast it's hard to get out of the way, also they don't slow down when passing kayaks. Even on a clear day. Dicks.

[t-$money bussard]

Originally Posted by CheapPelican

Fishing north @ 250-300' puts you in the path of the Catalina flyer. That motherF'er moves so fast it's hard to get out of the way, also they don't slow down when passing kayaks. Even on a clear day. Dicks.

[Amish Ed]

Thanks for the report. It's always good to see the reports of bad days too.

[rpd]

It was the same thing yesterday. I seemed to have run into the bad trio. The drift was horrible. The FOG that came in was horrible leaving very low visibility, I managed to keep my eyes on the buoy so I knew which way home was and the Flier zoomed by only to blow their horn at us and grace us with some sea sickness worthy waves.

[Kelp Master]

I bought a combo whistle/compass/dry cylinder from Big five for bout $4.00... I keep my swivels in the compartment and hang it from my PFD...

[Kelp Master]

I was out on the same morning, launched out of the small beach by the coast guard station... (didn't know about the sidewalk, so the long, hard pull through soft sand in my loaded x factor was awesome...) Trying out my new night light and headlamp so I launched out at 3:30am... All I could hear in my head was the jaws theme song... Hooked up on a pathetically small bass that must have run away from home, little juvenile was not more than 6 inches long. The fog got thicker and thicker and it was so ominously quiet and dark/foggy I kind of lost myself in the harbor. Paddling back in the dark and quiet, no boats or anything when a $%@#^ sea lion breached about 5 feet from me... I darn near messes my Yak... Fog cleared enough for me to find my way back to the launch and meet up with my dad for a day of kelp and crap... Caught one lizard and hooked into a nice Halibut about two and a half feet long. When I got him to the surface my line snapped. My first time using braided line so my knot to the leader was less than exemplary... Lost a brand new $6.00 laser minnow and the best fish I had seen all day... My first time out at Newport... Fog and big boats trying to run me down... How can you not see a 300 pound man in a 14 foot kayak on the open sea??? Look forward to trying it again!