LJ Saturday slop report

[Fiskadoro]

Short version...

Well you guys didn't miss much yesterday at La Jolla, but at least I kept my sheet together on a few levels.

Longer version:

I wasn't planning to go to La Jolla Saturday but when I got home Friday night after few drinks I checked Magic Seaweed http://magicseaweed.com/California-S...f-Forecast/17/ ..and the wind forecast had dropped to under ten knots of wind all day, so I figured this was the last chance before everything was going to blown out, with high surf forecasts, so I might as well take it.

Launched at gray light into a tight mix of 2 to 3.5 breakers maybe 20 feet apart with a few larger waves thrown in. Total washing machine. I spent maybe twenty minutes looking for a pattern. Finally had to take the slow pick your path route, climbed over maybe a dozen breakers to get out.

No wind to speak of but It was so up and down even getting the gear out of the hold made my head feel a little thick and it didn't do much for the gut either. I don't really get seasick but get enough motion out there and I get groggy, irritable, and sleepy.

This time for some reason my stomach starts doing loops. (maybe something to do with the night before) Not the puke your guts out kinda loops but more the other direction. I swear I thought for a while I was going to get the shitz, and in my polar tech wetsuit, with waders, on my x-13, this was NOT!! an option!!!

I paddled out on the squid grounds and metered what looked like some squid tight to the bottom. Unfortunately sand dabs had over run the squid flats so they were all over the sabiki. I got squid (made two) it got picked apart before anything could find it. The fresh dead I brought was useless as I couldn't even get to the bottom before the trash was on it. Solid macks on the top everywhere on fin bait, anything you threw or trolled they were all over it.

The wind came up and I went into the kelp and manged a bunch of smallish rockfish, mostly browns but on thirty it was not much sport, and in such a washing machine that it didn't seem worth the effort. Not what I was looking for..

Worked maybe a half a dozen holes looking for seabass, never saw any and the freedivers were not fairing any better. Finally paddled deeper into the kelp tied up and took a nap for an hour out of boredom. Got woke up by a calico that ate a surface squid I had maybe four feet down. Slept a little more and got woke up by a second one. Since they weren't going to let me be, I went back at it, stayed till just before dark for nothing on the c's. By then I was the only boat out there, saw two kayakers all day I got the impression they were not doing any better but they looked like people who knew what they were doing. Just not the day for it.


When I got back to the surf a larger sneaker wave popped up in the 2 foot mix I was paddling in thorugh, and it broke right on my stern. I saw it coming out of the corner of my eye and knew it was going to be bad. It almost buried the bow but I just kept it up high enough to avoid the perl (Diggin in) by literally standing on my foot pegs and leaning as far back as I could. The kayak swung hard to the right in an abrupt bow steer but I managed to brace out with the paddle, kept it level as it surfed sideways parallel to the beach. I then swung it back around straight with some heavy stroking and surfed the next breaker straight in to the beach. I landed maybe thirty yards to the right of where I had intended, but came in upright. Now that's one I'd like to have seen on video!!

Lets just say I was glad to get back on shore dry with all my gear intact.

So kinda of a challenging day on the water, but it still beats staying at home.

Jim