North County Humble Pie

[onetriphudson]

I arrived at 5:30am to fish North Ponto. The available parking was already jammed up with people camped in their cars and rv's. Dragging my PA14 down the steep cobbles was a nuisance but it was the choppy surf and 3 foot breakers that had me worried. Thought I saw a gap and went for it. My kayak got flooded with a few waves but eventually I made it out after hitting a sand bar or rocks somewhere. Mirage drive felt weird and when I inspected realized I lost a fin somehow. PA14 was moving slow after this and the mast rod was hitting the bottom of the boat with every stroke. Kept going out to about 40 foot of water looking for bait. Then my fish finder started flashing and I guess the battery was dying. So now fishing blind with only one fin I lowered my expectations for the day. Oceanside sport boat came for about an hour but then left. Worked hard to only get a few short calicos and one legal for taco(s). Found a couple bait fish but no luck on them either, whole area just seems dead. Got desperate and tried to ball bounce for awhile using a flasher and only snagged a lot of floating grass. Time to go in and the single fin did not help my effort. Surfers looked at me like I was a crazy person. Jumped out thinking it was deep enough and couldn't touch bottom. The tide was higher now and the beach was a treacherous washing machine with huge rocks. Had to get help from three guys to get my gear back up to sand. Exhausted, I promised myself never this beach again. Too hard to even walk on these rocks. Anyone know where to get the mirage drive repaired for a good price?