Wide Open Winter - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

chris138 · 02-01-2016, 12:19 AM

La Jolla never stays slow for long. As far as season openers go, 2016 has left little for want. You can show up on any given day and have a shot at the slam. Judging by the amount of boats fishing weekdays in the cove, sitting on the hook in a tight bunch, you might be mistaken into thinking we were back in 2010 with a full on squid frenzy. Its not quite a full speed slurp-fest just yet, but I think few have any doubt that things are going quite well.

The big story of the last two winters has been the tuna crab. Pleuroncodes planipes have been feeding and aggregating on the ledges and rockpiles relentlessly. Although we haven't had the massive stranding events like early 2015, the tonnage is still there. They are everywhere. Up in the kelp, out deep, top to bottom crab bonanza. Many folks will hastily attribute their abundance to the recent warm water events, but the fact is that the tuna crab are considered to be resident in our socal waters and have been found consistently in the CalCOFI data of cold water years as well.

I'm sure people have noticed, the YT are often plugged with the crab. In my opinion, the sashimi of the crab-fed YT has a much different taste than the finbait diet. Its has a visible orange oil to it, and is just so buttery. Although the crab are plentiful, they have low nutritional value for how difficult they are to digest. When presented with a juicy greasy greenback the forkies just cannot resist. That's why for targeting yellows, I've been just sticking to GB over the frozen squid. 40# reverse dropper and 10oz torpedo bounced or suspended on crab clouds, deep structure and fish marks. I like to fish a suspended rev dropper with a lever drag at about 40% drag actuation with the clicker off. When they hit, it's just a steady increase to 100% drag which will get the perfect corner hook set with my 4/0 ringed circle gamakatsu.

Use of the sonar is so critical for efficiently targeting the deep fish. Otherwise you can spend a lot of hours drifting in unproductive areas. Much of the time you never see the YT school on the meter. But the bait will react when the fish swim through, and get all broken up or wall off completely. These are usually the first indications that you are about to get lit up. Even though I have the narrow screen of the Lowrance 4x HDI, i still always roll around with dual frequency. The arches of the big fish will show up much better on low frequency, because it has a wider cone and better depth penetration. The high frequency is important for seeing better resolution of small objects, like crabs, krill and soft bodied invertebrates.

This is a compilation of several days fishing this January. Haven't connected with a cbass yet, but I'm definitely not complaining. My best so far this year was a 31# Halibut on 01-03-16, caught on spanish. Didn't get any video of the fight unfortunately, but that was my biggest flaty from the kayak.

02-01-2016, 12:19 AM	#1
chris138 donkey roper Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pacific Beach Posts: 968	Wide Open Winter La Jolla never stays slow for long. As far as season openers go, 2016 has left little for want. You can show up on any given day and have a shot at the slam. Judging by the amount of boats fishing weekdays in the cove, sitting on the hook in a tight bunch, you might be mistaken into thinking we were back in 2010 with a full on squid frenzy. Its not quite a full speed slurp-fest just yet, but I think few have any doubt that things are going quite well. The big story of the last two winters has been the tuna crab. Pleuroncodes planipes have been feeding and aggregating on the ledges and rockpiles relentlessly. Although we haven't had the massive stranding events like early 2015, the tonnage is still there. They are everywhere. Up in the kelp, out deep, top to bottom crab bonanza. Many folks will hastily attribute their abundance to the recent warm water events, but the fact is that the tuna crab are considered to be resident in our socal waters and have been found consistently in the CalCOFI data of cold water years as well. I'm sure people have noticed, the YT are often plugged with the crab. In my opinion, the sashimi of the crab-fed YT has a much different taste than the finbait diet. Its has a visible orange oil to it, and is just so buttery. Although the crab are plentiful, they have low nutritional value for how difficult they are to digest. When presented with a juicy greasy greenback the forkies just cannot resist. That's why for targeting yellows, I've been just sticking to GB over the frozen squid. 40# reverse dropper and 10oz torpedo bounced or suspended on crab clouds, deep structure and fish marks. I like to fish a suspended rev dropper with a lever drag at about 40% drag actuation with the clicker off. When they hit, it's just a steady increase to 100% drag which will get the perfect corner hook set with my 4/0 ringed circle gamakatsu. Use of the sonar is so critical for efficiently targeting the deep fish. Otherwise you can spend a lot of hours drifting in unproductive areas. Much of the time you never see the YT school on the meter. But the bait will react when the fish swim through, and get all broken up or wall off completely. These are usually the first indications that you are about to get lit up. Even though I have the narrow screen of the Lowrance 4x HDI, i still always roll around with dual frequency. The arches of the big fish will show up much better on low frequency, because it has a wider cone and better depth penetration. The high frequency is important for seeing better resolution of small objects, like crabs, krill and soft bodied invertebrates. This is a compilation of several days fishing this January. Haven't connected with a cbass yet, but I'm definitely not complaining. My best so far this year was a 31# Halibut on 01-03-16, caught on spanish. Didn't get any video of the fight unfortunately, but that was my biggest flaty from the kayak.