Taking the Ocean Kayak on the ocean

For my second trip in the new kayak I joined up with David, a member from the bigwatersedge message board. We met at La Jolla Shores and launched shortly after sunrise. The surf wasn't high, but I timed the sets wrong and took a wave to the chest. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a bit annoying to be soaked to start the day.

Our plan was to paddle past the marine reserve and fish outside the kelp beds in roughly 100 feet of water. I used a 2 oz iron tipped with squid, which is my standard bottom fishing method for that depth of water. I picked up my first fish right away, an ocean whitefish.

Ocean Whitefish (Caulolatilus princeps)

My next fish hit with a bigger thump and turned out to be a calico bass. It wasn't a huge one, but it wasn't a small fish either. It was looking to be a good day! The bites continued, and the species count kept going up. Sheephead were a surprising catch on the iron.

Kelp Bass (Paralabrax clathratus)

California Scorpionfish (Scorpaena guttata)

California Sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher)

Kelp Rockfish (Sebastes atrovirens)

Not pictured is a big treefish that came off the hook as I was lifting it into the boat. Quick release! There was also a lot of bait being pushed to the surface, so we stopped jigging the bottom to see what was going on.

The bait looked to be small fish like anchovies or sardines, and the predators were mackerel that weren't all that much larger. Small jigs got hit by mackerel right away.

Pacific Chub Mackerel (Scomber japonicus)

After about five hours on the water our lower backs were feeling it, so we paddled back to the launch. I trolled a small Rapala as we went, and I caught one fish on it, an embarrassingly small calico bass. My first trolled fish from this kayak! They can only get bigger, haha.

Kelp Bass (Paralabrax clathratus)

Our route looked like a pretty typical La Jolla fishing session.

Miles: 6.76
Hours: 5:45

I was really happy with this session considering that I didn't have the fish finder installed yet. Seven species is pretty solid only using irons (ok fine, the squid was cheating a bit). La Jolla has a lot more diversity to explore though, from deeper water rockfish species to big predators like yellowtail and white seabass. Expect more reports in the future!