The sea was pretty rough for the first hour or two, and our progress was a lot slower than I had hoped. It didn't help that I realized I wasn't wearing my PFD when we were about 200 yards from shore, so I had to go back to the car and get it. The water was pretty choppy, but I assured Brandon it would smooth out when the sun came out. It was a wet and bumpy ride, but eventually my prediction came true. To be honest though, I was starting to worry a bit.
I wasn't sure if we'd make it to the 5 mile spot, so we stopped to fish along the way while we waited for the conditions to improve. Our first stop was just outside the kelp beds in 60 feet of water. We caught a few ocean whitefish and small rockfish.
Ocean Whitefish (Caulolatilus princeps)
I found a rocky looking spot on my phone, and we paddled another mile west to it. Surprisingly, the bottom stayed at 60 feet the entire way. We stopped when I noticed structure on the fish finder, and we dropped our baits. Brandon caught a few more rockfish for his list, and the ones big enough to keep went into a cooler. I also caught one sheephead, but it was too small to keep.
Kelp Rockfish (Sebastes atrovirens)
California Sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher)
Gopher Rockfish (Sebastes carnatus)
Around 10 am the water was finally nice and calm, but I expected the afternoon wind to pick up around 1 pm, so we didn't have time to finish the paddle out to the original spot. I looked on my phone again and found another rocky patch that would be in deeper water. Sure enough, the bottom steadily dropped off to 150 feet. We switched to heavier sinkers and gave it a try.
The decision to move paid off, because Brandon was able to add several more species to his count including flag rockfish (a big one!), honeycomb rockfish, and longfin sanddab. Surprisingly we didn't have much overlap, besides the ubiquitous ocean whitefish. I caught rosy rockfish, starry rockfish, and treefish. The treefish was the first one I've caught and photographed from the new kayak.
Rosy Rockfish (Sebastes rosaceus)
Starry Rockfish (Sebastes constellatus)
Treefish (Sebastes serriceps)
A little after noon we packed up our gear and paddled back towards La Jolla Shores. The wind was picking up right on cue, and I could tell that Brandon was starting to feel the long hours sitting in the kayak. Once we made it to the shelter of La Jolla Cove he looked much more upbeat. He had seven new species on his lifelist, which certainly helped!
I zoomed out on the Garmin app to take a screenshot of the route so it would show our original target on the far left. Our first fishing spot is hidden behind the text of La Jolla Cove. Our second spot is to the southwest, and you can see how far we drifted back towards shore due to the wind. Our third spot is the furthest we went from shore, and you can see that the wind barely pushed us around.
Miles: 10.53
Hours: 6:34
Water Temp: 63 F
After we loaded our gear, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed in the direction of the La Jolla tidepools. Sadly though we didn't make it. The Subaru's clutch failed, and we had no choice but to call a tow truck to take it back to my house. Kam also has a Subaru Crosstrek, and it's also out of commission at the moment, so unfortunately he's going to have wait a few days to get his kayak back.
Brandon is in town for the rest of the week, so I think he'll get to catch a few more species before he heads home. I'm really glad this trip worked out for him so he could see what ocean fishing from a kayak is like!
Next up for me is another long paddle day. Stay tuned...
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