Oceanside/Carlsbad - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

mattamatta · 02-09-2018, 11:25 AM

I was out in front of the inlet/outlet jetties for a while on Sunday and came across a fairly small amount. There was a little paddy at the surface, maybe 5x10ft and a couple small clumps of vegetation I saw coming off the bottom while paddling around. I wasn't really looking for kelp though, so there may be more interesting stuff around there.

Didn't find anything but mackerel, which was pretty easy to come by, though I did get a 3lb chunk of kelp on my rig while trolling and happened to have a small octopus on there.

Some info on the artificial reefs here:
https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/...al-Reefs/Guide

Check out both Oceanside AR 1 and 2. I haven't been to either.
Carlsbad Artificial Reef is right off the lagoon mouth in Ponto. I was there once in late December and there was actually some big kelp-looking growth from place to place on the fish-finder. Lots of rocky bottom and lobster bouys, though I only caught a small calico and (lots of) mackerel that day. As with last weekend, I probably didn't do a good job getting into the right spots, so there may be more to catch there than I've ended up finding.
I'm pretty much a beginner, too, and like to watch posts from guys like DirtyCurti who seem to have the North County fishing pretty well figured out.

02-09-2018, 11:25 AM	#3
mattamatta Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 34	I was out in front of the inlet/outlet jetties for a while on Sunday and came across a fairly small amount. There was a little paddy at the surface, maybe 5x10ft and a couple small clumps of vegetation I saw coming off the bottom while paddling around. I wasn't really looking for kelp though, so there may be more interesting stuff around there. Didn't find anything but mackerel, which was pretty easy to come by, though I did get a 3lb chunk of kelp on my rig while trolling and happened to have a small octopus on there. Some info on the artificial reefs here: https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/...al-Reefs/Guide Check out both Oceanside AR 1 and 2. I haven't been to either. Carlsbad Artificial Reef is right off the lagoon mouth in Ponto. I was there once in late December and there was actually some big kelp-looking growth from place to place on the fish-finder. Lots of rocky bottom and lobster bouys, though I only caught a small calico and (lots of) mackerel that day. As with last weekend, I probably didn't do a good job getting into the right spots, so there may be more to catch there than I've ended up finding. I'm pretty much a beginner, too, and like to watch posts from guys like DirtyCurti who seem to have the North County fishing pretty well figured out.