9/21/13 - Kayak Fishing Report with a PB!

[iethinker]

I broke through the unusually smallish Del Mar waves at first light with fish jumping all around. There were a few surfers too. The water was glassy. As I peddled out to the kelp, the fish-finder settled to a 70.5 degree water temperature.

Conditions a bit after arrival to AO:


I dropped in the sabiki rig and was immediately rewarded with the target bait species. It did not take long to capture the desired quantity of ten. Three Mackerel at once sure do put up a chaotic fight!

Bait making in progress:


I dropped some chunk cut Mackerel to the bottom and hooked up with two Sand Bass.

One of the Sand Bass - 13.5":


I also hooked-up with five Calico Bass. No photos of these. They were all 11' to 13" in length.

I trolled some Mackerel several miles back and forth probably 1.5 miles off shore (60' to 80' of water) with no reward. So back to the kelp where I dropped another chunk of cut Mackerel.

While bottom fishing, I saw a bigger-than-bait fish on the FF moving mid-column at about 20'. I pulled the cut Mack up to the same depth and bendo! After a good and surprisingly energetic fight I am pleased to land my personal best Spanish Mackerel. This thing is 15.5" and fat. I did not know they grew this big or could fight this hard. He flipped and flopped 2' in the air on top of my kayak as well.

Spanish Mackerel (I think) / Personal Best @ 15.5" - measured.


After this, the bite died down a while. I switched my set-up to a whole squid and a 5/0 hook on an Ugly Stick Tiger. After some soaking I get an even bigger bendo. After some of the ole tug of war, I land a 39" Shovel Nose Guitar Fish. I have never caught these in the Kelp before.

39" SNGF - Measured / My pants in-seam is 34"


After all of this it was back in through small waves for a wipe-out free surf landing.