Long paddle for La Jolla rockfish

Yesterday I launched from La Jolla to check out a seamount I found using Google Maps. The surf at La Jolla Shores was low, but I didn't realize how high the tide would be! The water was actually pushing up onto the street. It was chilly too, as you can see from my car dash.

I met up with a guy Esteban who wanted to give deep water rockfishing a try. We were the only two people who launched at sunrise, probably due to the high tide. I had a waypoint marked about 4 miles from shore where it looked like there would be good structure. Along the way we stopped for a break and caught some whitefish.

Ocean Whitefish (Caulolatilus princeps)

It was really cool to see the bottom change from flat and featureless to a rocky seamount when we reached the waypoint. It pays to do your homework! I dropped a 4 oz megabait tipped with squid to the bottom and almost immediately hooked up with my first starry rockfish of the year. Esteban got a starry on his first drop as well.

Starry Rockfish (Sebastes constellatus)

My primary target was a squarespot rockfish for my lifelist, so I switched to dropper loops with smaller sized hooks. Starry rockfish were by far the most common catch of the day, but there was plenty of variety mixed in.

Flag Rockfish (Sebastes rubrivinctus)

Blue Rockfish (Sebastes mystinus)

Rosy Rockfish (Sebastes rosaceus)

California Scorpionfish (Scorpaena guttata)

California Sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher)

After a few hours Esteban wanted to fish the kelp closer to shore, so he took off while I stuck it out at my spot. I'm sure we'll cross paths again!

The spot I was fishing was between 200 and 250 ft deep, which is the depth that I've always seen other people catch squarespots, so I knew they had to be down there. And sure enough, one eventually turned up.

Squarespot Rockfish (Sebastes hopkinsi) - new hook & line species #648

After that a school of halfbanded rockfish and chub mackerel moved in and wouldn't leave my bait alone, so I put away the dropper loops. You can only catch so many of these guys before they drive you crazy.

Halfbanded Rockfish (Sebastes semicinctus)

Pacific Chub Mackerel (Scomber japonicus)

I wanted one more good fish to cap off the day, so I dropped the megabait again. I thought I had drifted off the structure, so I reeled up a couple cranks and stuck the rod in one of the kayak's rod holders. I pulled out my phone to check the location when the kayak suddenly lurched sideways! Fish on! It was a big vermilion, worthy of using the net on. It measured 4.5 lbs on my fish gripper.

Vermilion Rockfish (Sebastes miniatus)

A lot of the rockfish were spitting up these strange spongy sacks, and I had no idea what they could be. I posted this photo on Instagram, and someone from Scripps chimed in that they're pyrosomes,, which are "free-floating colonial tunicates". What I do know is rockfish like to eat them!

As I paddled back in I saw one of the sport boats heading back towards Mission Bay. I've done a few half day rockfish trips, usually when friends are visiting from out of town, but I'm immensely grateful that I can fish for rockfish now without being crammed on the deck of one of those boats. I won't take what I have for granted.

The screenshot from my Garmin app shows exactly where I was fishing, and I'm fine with that. Next time I head out I'll probably be checking out something new. So if anyone is able to find some fish because of the information I share on this blog, it's perfectly fine with me!

Miles: 11.10
Hours: 7:27

The depth limit for rockfish recently increased from 360 feet to 450 feet, so I think on my next trip I'd like to try the bottom 400+ feet down in La Jolla Canyon. It'll actually be a much shorter paddle from the launch compared to what I've been doing. Hopefully there's some weird stuff down there!

Long paddle for La Jolla sanddabs

Yesterday I did a solo kayak trip in La Jolla. Parking was tough because I showed up later than most, but unloading gear without a headlamp was nice. The surf was less than a foot, which made for a super easy launch.

I finally figured out how to turn on contour lines on my fish finder, which meant I could actually plan out where I wanted to go. My plan was to bottom fish in 300 ft to try for a squarespot rockfish for my lifelist, so I set a waypoint a few miles out and started paddling.

Unsurprisingly, the bottom there didn't have any structure, but the day was more of a proof of concept than anything, so I dropped pieces of squid down to see if I could pull something up. Right away I had savage little bites, and I started pulling up sanddabs. The first one was a longfin, which is a new species for me! (And yes he was missing an eye.)

Longfin Sanddab (Citharichthys xanthostigma) - new hook & line species #647

The sanddabs were coming up two at a time, and this photo shows my deepest kayak catch at 312 feet.

The majority of the sanddabs were Pacifics, but on one of the drops I caught both species, so I was able to do a side-by-side photo. The length of the pectoral fin is the obvious ID characteristic, but there are other differences as well. Sometimes the pectoral fin can be frayed and shorter than it ought to be, so scale size (and therefor lateral line scale count) is another way to quickly tell the two apart.

I caught a few Pacifics that were big enough to keep and stashed them in a walmart bag in the shade. They came home with me and were delicious.

Pacific Sanddab (Citharichthys sordidus)

While I was sanddab fishing I had some juvenile fish use my kayak for shelter. I'm pretty sure they were halfmoons. They ate little bits of squid that I dropped over the side. Perhaps I should bring microfishing gear whenever I kayak in case something weird shows up?

Mixed in with the sanddabs were a few small rockfish, but none of them were squarespots. Here's a halfbanded and a blue.

Halfbanded Rockfish (Sebastes semicinctus)

Blue Rockfish (Sebastes mystinus)

For the remainder of the day I paddled over to the 100 feet deep area near the kelp where other boats typically fish. Along the way I had a genuine shot at a mako that was finning at the surface, but I tangled up my lines and missed my chance. In the shallow(er) water I caught other species including copper rockfish, gopher rockfish, kelp rockfish, California scorpionfish, ocean whitefish, and Pacific chub mackerel.

Copper Rockfish (Sebastes caurinus)

Ocean Whitefish (Caulolatilus princeps)

My last fish of the day was this gopher rockfish that ate both of my baits.

Gopher Rockfish (Sebastes carnatus)

Here's the the route for the day from my Garmin app. The sanddab spot is in the upper left, and the end of the day was below where it says La Jolla Tide Pools.

Miles: 10.09
Hours: 6:51

This trip was more of a skills building session than anything, but I'm quite happy that I picked up a new species! Next time I'd like to focus on finding structure in deeper water so I can catch some decent fish that aren't sanddabs.