North County report

[Trout]

Fished in my backyard on Saturday (North County) w/ buddy John and Grandpa B (my father-in-law). Dad had never kayak fished before and was tired of all the 2nd hand stories. He is a little prone to sea sickness, but Saturday was incredible - no problem there. 1 foot waves and glassy conditions, so out he went.

We launched at gray light and it was FREEZING. Yeah, I know I just moved back from Hawaii and all and am not quite back in the groove, but this was ridiculous. Even John said it was cold. The early offshores numbed all 10 fingers. Bait was a pain to make and it didn't work out. We were bombarded with smeltasauruses. These smelt were literally 14" long. We gave up and headed out... and before long it was 70 degrees and incredible.

Other than some calicos in the kelp with plastics and buzz baits, we fished the bottom with single and twin-tail rootbeer scampis with squid strips and it was easy pickings. Too bad rockfish are out of season because I think I released about 15. Although there wasn't a lot of size going on there was at least a lot of action and specie diversity. I pulled up calicos, sandies, sheepshead, vermillion, starries, treefish, gophers, sugars, and a few other weird little guys. I kept one decent bass to pan fry for the kids and released everything else.

Although he didn't catch a ton of fish, Grandpa B had a great time and will definitely do it again. Here are a few shots of his day... never too late to try something new!