7/17, CDM kelp

[rieffer]

I headed out of Newport about 6:30 and turned left. Normally, I fish the outer edges of the kelp in 50'-60' of water, but the swell was almost flat, so I turned into the shore and fished in 15'-25'. First cast, a legal calico and then released. It then got a little slow till about 10. A little breeze came up and then noticed some terns working in close at the Pelican point area. Unbelievable!!! Every cast with the waxwing was bringing in a calico.
I had 5-6 fish following the waxwing into the yak on almost every cast.
I tied up to a kelp stringer about noon to have some lunch and watch the calicos bustin' the bait fish.. what a sight!!! In my ten years of fishing that area I don't think I ever saw that many bass jumping out of the water for that long of a time.
Then to top it off, while I'm eating my lunch, I decided to drop over a squid to soak...5 minutes later a ray is towing me through the area. At first, I thought it might be a WSB, the way it jetted out to deeper water, but once I got on top of it and couldn't get it off the bottom I knew what it was. Well, I finally did crank it up and cut the top shot for the release.
I get back to my spot to finish my lunch and decide to drop some more squid over. Yep, another ray! I'm beat, the wind is building, I make another 3-4 casts and 3 more calicos. I'm done!
Total was about 25-30 calicos, probably 5-6 being legal, the rest in the 10"-12" range. All released.
I used the mackerel pattern waxwing throwing it on top of the kelp and on the down current side. I did notice that in the shallower water, the fish are a little smaller than the models in the deeper water, but they still hit like crazy. It was a great day!!!
Next Monday, 7/22, I'm either doing Newport or maybe DP. If anybody is interested, let me know.

[vincentek9]

thanks for the report. i saw a day where MONSTER calicos were busting the kelp for some kelp crabs, but that only lasted about 10 minutes before they sank out.

[caddisx]

Great report