Little Harbor, Catalina Report [Newbie]

[shawny]

Hi all,

This past weekend, I did a 3-day, 2-night camping trip at Little Harbor, Catalina. Took the Catalina Express from San Pedro to Two Harbors and backpacked 7 miles to Little Harbor Campgrounds. At Little Harbor, we had fishing kayak rentals on the beach waiting for us from Wet Spot Rentals.

I'll admit right away that my group of friends and I are new to kayak fishing, so we didn't really have much success. Only catch from the kayak was a jacksmelt (I think...) caught by my buddy.


Simple double-dropper loop rig... on a surf rod spinner setup My buddy only brought his surf setup, as if he knew we wouldn't have much luck kayak fishing..


I'm thinking this was a jacksmelt - would be great if someone could verify the fish id!

The rental kayaks we fished from were 12 or 13 foot Ocean Kayak Classic Prowlers. They seemed a bit sketchy when we tried venturing out to deeper waters as the waves made us feel unstable. This made me a little bit worried, since I'm planning on investing in a fishing kayak in the next year or so - I'm hoping there are other kayaks out there that are much more stable and feel less sketchy? How much more stable does it feel with a 14-15 footer that is much heavier? Our rentals were probably around 50 lbs.. I tried standing up on it for fun close to shore and flipped in an instant.

So my buddies and ended up leaving our poles on the beach the rest of the trip and kayaked/swam for fun instead. Super beautiful location! We did notice that on our second and third day there, the water seemed to calm down a lot (versus the first day, when we tried our luck at kayak fishing) - but we didn't try kayak fishing the second or third day.

We did try our luck at fishing from the shore near rocky area. We landed four fish - two rockfish and two calico bass - just enough to fill our bellies.


2 decent-sized grass rockfish and two calico bass (14.5 and 15.5 inches) caught from shore, on a variety of dropper loop and sliding sinker setups.

Overall, it was a great trip! Was a bit disappointed by the sketchiness that I felt on the rental fishing kayak, and I would definitely want a chance to try out a more stable kayak... I definitely don't want this trip to discourage me from chasing my dream of kayak fishing in prime locations like LJ, Newport, Central Cal area, etc..

Lastly, here's some pics I took to give you a better feel of my trip:


There's a 5.5 mile hike from Two Harbors to Little Harbor (Trans-Catalina Trail), which has a lot of hills/elevation gain. Really difficult for backpacking. We chose to hike on the Little Harbor Road (which the Safari bus drives on) that is 7 miles and much more flat and manageable, especially when you have 20-35 lbs on your back + fishing poles in hand.


Little Harbor campsites were nice and serene - with considerable distance between neighboring campsites for some decent privacy.


Little Harbor, in all her beauty.


Short hike to get to a nice cliffy area to watch the sunset.


Good time on the water.



Thanks for reading!

Fish on,
-Shawn

[Cbad Mike]

Nice report and pictures. Looks like it was a good time.
Some kayaks are more stable then others right out of the box but the main thing is that whatever you're on you will feel and be more stable over a little time as you get used to it and get experience on it. My Malibu Stealth 14 has to be one of the most stable kayaks that I've ever been on but I'm sacrificing speed for stability. My advice is to ride as many as you can to find the right feel, stability, and speed that you will be comfortable with.
Demo days are a good start.
Good luck.

[Scoot]

Report!! OK Malibu 2 very stable!! Takes
getting use to it!! Keep it up

[octico]

Nice report!

[Iceman]

Some really cool photos. Little Harbor is like heaven on earth!

[JDW]

See any bison? I've wondered about how sketchy hiking around them would be...

[shawny]

Originally Posted by JDW

See any bison? I've wondered about how sketchy hiking around them would be...

Strangely enough, didn't see a single bison on the 14 miles total we hiked. They must have migrated to some other part of the island.

I heard they can charge at you when angry/threatened - best to just keep you distance, no sudden movements, and just wait it out if they're blocking your way..

[newportdogs]

Nice report, thanks for sharing. I live the pic of Little Harbor.

[walrus]

Your photos are seriously good! Good report also.

[CobraTandem]

Nice Pix!