Kayak fishing the HMCS Yukon

Happy New Year! Rumor has it that the wrecks outside Mission Bay have pile perch, and possibly a few rubberlip perch, so I kayaked out there on Saturday to check them out. I launched from Mission Point Park shortly after sunrise.

Once on the water I started recording an activity with my Garmin watch and turned the fish finder on.

My first pin was the NOSC Tower wreck. I had it saved as 32.77191, -117.26868, but when I got to those coordinates, I couldn't find it! I circled the kayak around a few times but didn't see any signs of it on the fish finder, so I gave up and decided to move on in the interest of time. While I was entering the coordinates for the next spot into the fish finder, I let a sabiki drop to the bottom. When I pulled it back up, I found my first fish of 2020 and a new species!

Speckled Sanddab (Citharichthys stigmaeus) - new hook & line species #654

The next spot was the HMCS Yukon, which was pretty much lined up with a white rainbow in the fog. I hoped it would be a good omen.

As it turns out, the GPS coordinates for the Yukon are also off by a bit. Luckily they have red buoys marking the ship, otherwise I probably wouldn't have found it.

First fish off the Yukon was a calico bass.

Kelp / Calico Bass (Paralabrax clathratus)

When I switched to pieces of shrimp on a sabiki the bites really picked up. I was worried about snags so I fished right next to the wreck and picked up 3 ocean whitefish.

Ocean Whitefish (Caulolatilus princeps)

To avoid the whitefish I moved over what I thought was the center. Hopefully my rig wouldn't be near any of the deck railings. I had watched a few dive videos before the trip and knew there would be a lot of blacksmith, and sure enough I ended up catching 8 of them, all decent sized.

Blacksmith (Chromis punctipinnis)

Also caught 3 sheephead, and probably missed a lot more. The sabiki hooks were tiny and not really suited for their mouths.

California Sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher)

The wind was beginning to pick up and become a problem, but my persistence finally paid off, and I pulled up a new perch species. It wasn't a pile or a rubberlip or even a white. Instead it was a sharpnose, one people occasionally catch in deeper water (200+ ft) while going for rockfish. I was stoked!

Sharpnose Seaperch (Phanerodon atripes) - new hook & line species #655

Before I paddle back I wanted to see if there were any big sheephead hanging around, and I had a couple whole shrimp to use up. I put one on a 2 oz jig and hopped it along the bottom for a bit. A sand bass picked it up, which was good enough for me.

Barred Sand Bass (Paralabrax nebulifer)

I always stay out about an hour longer than I ought to, and the paddle back was a little rough in the wind. The New Seaforth gave me a pretty big wake to punch through before I headed back into the Mission Bay channel.

Miles: 9.44
Hours: 6:23

Hope you enjoyed the report! And by the way, anyone is welcome to join when I go kayaking. Just leave a comment, and we'll make plans.