La Jolla 1-15-2021 - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

FISH11 · 01-16-2021, 07:26 PM

Finally made it out to LJ again on the Solo Skiff Yesterday. I was going to go Wednesday and Friday because Magic Seaweed had those as 2 days in the crazy surf forecast that were not too bad compared to the 4'-6' or more for many days in the last couple weeks. Then they updated the forecast on Tuesday night after I was all loaded up, so i decided to just go on Friday. Man it was a beautiful day and warm. Early in the morning there was a ton of life outside, birds, porpoises and Humpbacks. Went west of the pier to find bait and made 5 greenbacks then they were gone so I went west and back over the deep canyon looking for nice marks on the FF while making it back to the LJ point. Never did see any good marks and then even the birds and porpoises had left. Trolled a greenback and another line with a Colt Sniper at idle going 1.8-2.5 mph. Headed west from the launch and around 190'-200' deep, saw some marks and Humpback and then the line with the greenback out about 70+ yards and with a slider 4 oz slider weight on the braid , started screaming and peeling fast. I turned the Solo and put it in neutral. Started reeling in and it was pulling drag. Man I was getting exited and after a couple of minutes the line pops and I'm like WTF. When I got the line in I checked it out and saw that the end had a very small curl on the end and figured the 40lb fluorocarbon leader had broke at the knot to the ringed circle hook. That's when it hit me that I had gotten lazy and not re-tied the swivels or hooks in several weeks. The little rust that forms even with rinsing with fresh water had caused a weak spot that had cost me a nice Yellowtail. I re-tied the swivels and put a new hook on the leader. Pinned on another greenback and continued trolling a while later The same rod gets hit again but it's a much slower pull, so I quickly wind in the other line with the Colt Sniper. As I start winding in some line I see a very large swirl like mark on the surface and as the line get tight I see this juvenile Humpback breach and as I pull it makes a screech type of noise goes down and breaches again this time as i try to cut down the distance by putting the outboard in gear and accelerating closer, it dives and my line 65 lb braid breaks and I loose my 4 oz slider weight, swivels, circle hook and greenback. At least I got it on the GoPro cause the battery on it just died after the line breaks because I had forgotten it recording a couple times. Had over an hour of GoPro video but very little fishing video. Went around covering a lot of water and ended up by the South La Jolla reserve border and found more bait and even got and released a legal Calico on the sabiki. Over all it was a great day on the water and couldn't have asked for better weather. Were else can you fish out on the open ocean wearing just board shorts and a hoodie in January. Got to Love La Jolla. .

BenCantrell · 01-17-2021, 08:42 AM

Haha, hey that's my yellow and red kayak at the launch!

That's nuts about the whale!

FISH11 · 01-17-2021, 09:07 AM

Yeah the whales are cool when they are around, but a little scary when they get real close. It's the second time I've had one wrap my line. The first one was on Dec. 31, 2013 and it was a Grey Whale as big as a bus and he was coming right at me for a long distance. He ended up going under and coming up along side around 20'-25' to my left and I got it on video using my cell phone. Pulled some stills from the video and all the barnacles on it's back are visible and when he went down and the fluke was straight up and down, the picture shows my 65 lb braid coming off the top of the fluke and running diagonally across the picture and out the right margin.. That's one of the coolest picture that I've gotten out at LJ. Here is a link to my utube video post at that time. The weird click click noise is the shutter on the other camera I was using along side, but that video was not as good. I had my sunglasses on and could not see the screen so the video is not as steady as it could have been. https://youtu.be/kIw4V1casnA . .

rdahl · 01-17-2021, 06:33 PM

Awesome video! I've been fairly calm when close to whales great job on staying calm on my yak, but I would have been dropping a few f bombs at the end there. Nice job staying relaxed.

01-16-2021, 07:26 PM	#1
FISH11 Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Pine Valley when not fishing La Jolla Posts: 2,643	La Jolla 1-15-2021 Finally made it out to LJ again on the Solo Skiff Yesterday. I was going to go Wednesday and Friday because Magic Seaweed had those as 2 days in the crazy surf forecast that were not too bad compared to the 4'-6' or more for many days in the last couple weeks. Then they updated the forecast on Tuesday night after I was all loaded up, so i decided to just go on Friday. Man it was a beautiful day and warm. Early in the morning there was a ton of life outside, birds, porpoises and Humpbacks. Went west of the pier to find bait and made 5 greenbacks then they were gone so I went west and back over the deep canyon looking for nice marks on the FF while making it back to the LJ point. Never did see any good marks and then even the birds and porpoises had left. Trolled a greenback and another line with a Colt Sniper at idle going 1.8-2.5 mph. Headed west from the launch and around 190'-200' deep, saw some marks and Humpback and then the line with the greenback out about 70+ yards and with a slider 4 oz slider weight on the braid , started screaming and peeling fast. I turned the Solo and put it in neutral. Started reeling in and it was pulling drag. Man I was getting exited and after a couple of minutes the line pops and I'm like WTF. When I got the line in I checked it out and saw that the end had a very small curl on the end and figured the 40lb fluorocarbon leader had broke at the knot to the ringed circle hook. That's when it hit me that I had gotten lazy and not re-tied the swivels or hooks in several weeks. The little rust that forms even with rinsing with fresh water had caused a weak spot that had cost me a nice Yellowtail. I re-tied the swivels and put a new hook on the leader. Pinned on another greenback and continued trolling a while later The same rod gets hit again but it's a much slower pull, so I quickly wind in the other line with the Colt Sniper. As I start winding in some line I see a very large swirl like mark on the surface and as the line get tight I see this juvenile Humpback breach and as I pull it makes a screech type of noise goes down and breaches again this time as i try to cut down the distance by putting the outboard in gear and accelerating closer, it dives and my line 65 lb braid breaks and I loose my 4 oz slider weight, swivels, circle hook and greenback. At least I got it on the GoPro cause the battery on it just died after the line breaks because I had forgotten it recording a couple times. Had over an hour of GoPro video but very little fishing video. Went around covering a lot of water and ended up by the South La Jolla reserve border and found more bait and even got and released a legal Calico on the sabiki. Over all it was a great day on the water and couldn't have asked for better weather. Were else can you fish out on the open ocean wearing just board shorts and a hoodie in January. Got to Love La Jolla. . __________________ MARK ......... 2016 MALIBU X FACTOR, 2020 SOLO SKIFF (Fishing Kayak on Steroids )

01-17-2021, 09:07 AM	#3
FISH11 Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Pine Valley when not fishing La Jolla Posts: 2,643	Yeah the whales are cool when they are around, but a little scary when they get real close. It's the second time I've had one wrap my line. The first one was on Dec. 31, 2013 and it was a Grey Whale as big as a bus and he was coming right at me for a long distance. He ended up going under and coming up along side around 20'-25' to my left and I got it on video using my cell phone. Pulled some stills from the video and all the barnacles on it's back are visible and when he went down and the fluke was straight up and down, the picture shows my 65 lb braid coming off the top of the fluke and running diagonally across the picture and out the right margin.. That's one of the coolest picture that I've gotten out at LJ. Here is a link to my utube video post at that time. The weird click click noise is the shutter on the other camera I was using along side, but that video was not as good. I had my sunglasses on and could not see the screen so the video is not as steady as it could have been. https://youtu.be/kIw4V1casnA . . Attached Images __________________ MARK ......... 2016 MALIBU X FACTOR, 2020 SOLO SKIFF (Fishing Kayak on Steroids ) Last edited by FISH11; 01-17-2021 at 01:51 PM. Reason: Added pict.s and spelling

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01-17-2021, 08:42 AM	#2
BenCantrell Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: Sebastian, Florida Posts: 238	Haha, hey that's my yellow and red kayak at the launch! That's nuts about the whale!

01-17-2021, 06:33 PM	#4
rdahl Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 48	Awesome video! I've been fairly calm when close to whales great job on staying calm on my yak, but I would have been dropping a few f bombs at the end there. Nice job staying relaxed.