Going light yields a new species and a surprise...yay!

[iethinker]

This is a kayak fishing report for 9/6/2015 from South San Diego Bay

Having several months in a row now of exclusive ocean based fishing and considering the offshore swell forecast I decided to take a trip on the lighter side. Thus I grabbed some smaller gear, a new crankbait and made my way to Chula Vista for a first-light launch into South San Diego Bay.

The tranquility of the area was especially enjoyable. Have you ever dozed off for a while on your kayak? It was too easy with no swell a light AM breeze and only the sounds of nature to hear. I could hear fish surfacing and even see little fins out of the water.

Birds of San Diego Bay - I snapped this photo after heading out and before catching any fish:




My bait of choice for the day was a small Rapala X-Rap in Mackerel color. Two treble-hooks would normally be a challenge in the grassy bottomed flats of the area. Fortunately, not much grass was floating around and this lure is not a deep diving model.

Rapala X-Rap:




The first several fish I caught were Spotted Bass. Here is a picture of one of the bass. The others looked similar:



The next fish I hooked-up with provided a slightly better fight and turned out to be a Corvina. This is my first Corvina and it was over close to the Coronado Cays. I measured it at 19-inches.

Corvina from the Cays. I love those Vampire teeth! I wonder if these fish are related to Trout?




My last fish of the day also came from the area by the Cays. It did not fight as good as the Corvina or Bass from earlier. It was however a surprise to see a Needlefish strike a crankbait. This fish was was mouth-hooked for sure. I did not measure but estimate his length at about 26-inches. I caught one of these before in Huntington Harbor but not quite as big. I was reminded that I don't really care to catch these things as they stink a bit.

Needlefish on crankbait. This is as far back as I can hold it from the camera to fit it in. It's like a snake with a pair of scissors on the front:




Until next time,
Matt