La Jolla Sunday 8/1 - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

jorluivil · 08-05-2010, 01:32 AM

Finally got to do a LJ run on Sunday and man-o-man is LJ nice: clean water, clean neighborhood and lots of eye candy

. Being that it was our first time there and the fact that we were desperate to get there to avoid the crowds we left my hood(Norwalk) right around 4am.

I missed my exit and ended up exiting La Jolla Pkwy instead of La Jolla Shores so we did a little backtracking. Drove around for a bit looking for a 7-Eleven, AM-PM, grocery store....anything that sold goodies!!!! We weren't to familiar with the area so we drove around for a bit until we finally hit the Vons on Torrey Pines and Grand....went in for some snacks and drinks...in n out in 10minutes.

We start to back track and finally get to Avenida De La Playa and do a quick scan of the area. I remembered reading some reports about trucks getting stuck in the sand but also remembered reading a post stating that high tide was earlier that morning so the sand would be packed and it was.

We pull up on the waters edge and start to offload our yaks and gear, got everything off and drove to the parking lot. I saw a few other yakkers there and talked to one guy, I believe he said his name was Chris, got a few pointers and off we went.

I was told that you cannot fish until after you pass the yellow bouy, is this true? We got past the yellow bouy and found bait all over but being that it was our first time making bait it was hard getting them on board, after and hour or so I ended up with a small, medium and huge mack, all caught on the edge of the kelp.

I started to troll a medium size mack, no more than 10 minutes pass and the reel goos offfff!!!! I couldn't believe that I hooked something that fast!! I get the rod, remove the clicker and pull to make sure the hook is set. No sooner do I set the hook and it starts to run.

I'm in bendo mode for the next few minutes, not wanting to loose what was on the other end I adjusted my drag and allowed the fish to run but still managed to gain on it when I wanted to. Roughly 10 minutes go by and I start to see color....MY FIRST WSB? MY FIRST YELLOW ON A YAK? MY FIRST THRESHER? NO, IT'S A HUGE BAT RAY!!! Not what I was looking for but fun to fight.

I finally managed to get it up to the top and grabbed my hook remover, it was hooked on one of its wings....this thing was huge, wing span was probably 4' long. I finally managed to get the hook remover set, pulled a few time and got it loose. That was pretty much the highlight of my day, fished the kelp, trolled macks and threw irons for nada.

We finally called it a day around 1230 and started heading back to shore. Our plan was to land in front of the lifeguard tower near the parking lot but decided against it for two reasons....crowds and some flag colors that I didn't recognize. Can you land anywhere on the beach or do you have to land between the flags near Avenida De La Playa? Rather than taking a chance of getting tossed I jumped off the yak in about 4' of water and walked it in.

We learned that we need to have everything that we need before we get to LJ, food, bait(squid) and launch early or expect crowds. We didn't land that WSB or the YT but we did have a good time. Got to meet a few yakkers out on the water, got some sun and also got to try out our sabiki rigs which I'll post pics of later.

08-05-2010, 01:32 AM	#1
jorluivil Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 6,855	La Jolla Sunday 8/1 Finally got to do a LJ run on Sunday and man-o-man is LJ nice: clean water, clean neighborhood and lots of eye candy. Being that it was our first time there and the fact that we were desperate to get there to avoid the crowds we left my hood(Norwalk) right around 4am. I missed my exit and ended up exiting La Jolla Pkwy instead of La Jolla Shores so we did a little backtracking. Drove around for a bit looking for a 7-Eleven, AM-PM, grocery store....anything that sold goodies!!!! We weren't to familiar with the area so we drove around for a bit until we finally hit the Vons on Torrey Pines and Grand....went in for some snacks and drinks...in n out in 10minutes. We start to back track and finally get to Avenida De La Playa and do a quick scan of the area. I remembered reading some reports about trucks getting stuck in the sand but also remembered reading a post stating that high tide was earlier that morning so the sand would be packed and it was. We pull up on the waters edge and start to offload our yaks and gear, got everything off and drove to the parking lot. I saw a few other yakkers there and talked to one guy, I believe he said his name was Chris, got a few pointers and off we went. I was told that you cannot fish until after you pass the yellow bouy, is this true? We got past the yellow bouy and found bait all over but being that it was our first time making bait it was hard getting them on board, after and hour or so I ended up with a small, medium and huge mack, all caught on the edge of the kelp. I started to troll a medium size mack, no more than 10 minutes pass and the reel goos offfff!!!! I couldn't believe that I hooked something that fast!! I get the rod, remove the clicker and pull to make sure the hook is set. No sooner do I set the hook and it starts to run. I'm in bendo mode for the next few minutes, not wanting to loose what was on the other end I adjusted my drag and allowed the fish to run but still managed to gain on it when I wanted to. Roughly 10 minutes go by and I start to see color....MY FIRST WSB? MY FIRST YELLOW ON A YAK? MY FIRST THRESHER? NO, IT'S A HUGE BAT RAY!!! Not what I was looking for but fun to fight. I finally managed to get it up to the top and grabbed my hook remover, it was hooked on one of its wings....this thing was huge, wing span was probably 4' long. I finally managed to get the hook remover set, pulled a few time and got it loose. That was pretty much the highlight of my day, fished the kelp, trolled macks and threw irons for nada. We finally called it a day around 1230 and started heading back to shore. Our plan was to land in front of the lifeguard tower near the parking lot but decided against it for two reasons....crowds and some flag colors that I didn't recognize. Can you land anywhere on the beach or do you have to land between the flags near Avenida De La Playa? Rather than taking a chance of getting tossed I jumped off the yak in about 4' of water and walked it in. We learned that we need to have everything that we need before we get to LJ, food, bait(squid) and launch early or expect crowds. We didn't land that WSB or the YT but we did have a good time. Got to meet a few yakkers out on the water, got some sun and also got to try out our sabiki rigs which I'll post pics of later.