Scouting out the Mission Bay jetty

Several of my friends are coming to town in the next few weeks, so I thought I'd scout out the Mission Bay jetty to see what's biting. Today would have been a good day to kayak before the wind picks up tomorrow, but it felt good to enjoy a weekend without dealing with all that gear.

I worked my way over the rocks until I was 3/4 of the way to the end. I haven't really fished the ocean side of the jetty, so I started on that side using half a shrimp on a #6 hook. It got picked up right away by a small kelp bass. I caught another one later on the channel side.

Kelp Bass (Paralabrax clathratus)

After a few minutes of not getting bites I moved over to the channel side. There were a lot of small savage bites, and it took me a while to finally hook the culprit, a non-giant giant kelpfish. They're a pretty reliable species from the jetty, but I only catch one or two per session.

Giant Kelpfish (Heterostichus rostratus)

The species of the day turned out to be black perch. I caught 7 of them all together, and they were especially colorful. The juveniles were very dark all over, and the adults had a purple iridescent sheen, vertical bars, and blue and orange on their fins.

Black Perch (Embiotoca jacksoni)

One of them also had nice blue markings on its face and side. And of course you can't forget the orange lips and black mustache!

The small savage bites were continuous, but I didn't really want to downsize my #6 hook because I was hoping for a cabezon for my lifelist. Eventually though I'd hook up with the little biters, which were either juvenile black perch, opaleye, or rock wrasse.

Opaleye (Girella nigricans)

One of the rock wrasse males was the largest I've ever seen. I didn't realize they got that large! I also caught intermediate phase females and smaller males.

Rock Wrasse (Halichoeres semicinctus)

To wrap up the day I moved back to the ocean side and used up the last of my bait. Unfortunately, the only fish I hooked up with were garibaldi, which are a protected species and can not be fished for intentionally. I kept casting to new spots, but apparently these guys are in charge of that side of the jetty, because I couldn't find any other fish. *All of the garibaldi were caught incidentally and released unharmed.*

Garibaldi (Hypsypops rubicundus)

One of these days I'll catch a cabezon from one of these jetty sessions. However, even when I don't catch something new, I always enjoy the steady action and the lineup of interesting species.

Two new species from the tidepools

After wrapping up a 15 mile kayak trip (see my previous post), I decided to check out the tide pools nearby because there was a low tide that was too good to pass up. My lower back was already sore, but damnit I was ready to be hunched over for another hour looking for tiny fish! This spot has a lot of shallow pools with rocks that could be carefully lifted up to see what might be living under them.

My main target was blind goby, a species that I've not yet found, but I suspected might be in the area. They cohabitate with ghost shrimp and honestly look a lot like them, minus the shrimp appendages of course. I slowly and carefully flipped rocks looking for them, but instead I kept finding clingfish. I've dangled baits in the faces of clingfish before, and I've come to the conclusion that they won't bite once you disturb the rock they're clinging to. However, one of the rocks I lifted had a clingfish sitting in the sand beneath it. Would he bite?? I quickly found a small shrimp to use as bait, dangled it on a Tanago hook in front of him without bothering to use a pole, and instantly he sucked it in!

California Clingfish (Gobiesox rhessodon) - new hook & line species #658


This is a fish I honestly wasn't sure I'd ever be able to catch on hook & line. I've heard of a few people catching northern clingfish in the Pacific Northwest states, but they grow quite a bit larger than California clingfish. I'll consider myself lucky.



I decided to spend 10 more minutes looking for blind gobies. They weren't under any of the rocks I looked under, but one of them had a pair of blennies instead. Making a note of where one of them hid, I found another tiny shrimp and dangled it in front of where I thought he might be facing. It really was my lucky day, because he came out and bit it, and it was the one blenny species in California I haven't caught.

Mussel Blenny (Hypsoblennius jenkinsi) - new hook & line species #659

Mussel blennies can be IDed by the cirri on their head, the small reddish spots on their face, and the large dark blue patch behind their eye. I'm not sure if those bright red tufts coming out of it's nostrils are an ID trait as well, but it's not something I'm used to seeing on rockpool blennies or bay blennies.

I still had an hour or more of good low tide and daylight, but I was really feeling the effects of getting up at 4am and paddling 15 miles, so I ended on a high note and headed home. Since this post is a little light on photos, I'll add in one of a colorful nudibranch that was cruising around the blenny tide pool. Next time I'll have to document some of the shrimp species as well.

I'll be back for the blind goby!

Whale of a day kayaking off Point Loma

My most recent kayaking trip turned out to be quite the adventure! The plan was to officially do a 15 mile paddle as a way to build endurance so I can expand where I'm able to fish around San Diego. The wind forecast showed low wind in the morning picking up to 8 or 9 mph around noon. I figured I could handle that, but I still wanted to be off the water by about 1 or 2pm. I also wanted a few hours to fish along the way, so I back calculated when I needed to start and ended up launching a few minutes before 6am.

By the time I exited the Mission Bay channel the sky was already becoming light. The sun came over the hills just after I paddled past Ocean Beach Pier.

I trolled a big Rapala as I went, but in hindsight it really wasn't a good idea, it slowed me down quite a bit. Looking at my Garmin data, I was averaging less than 3 mph for the first half of the day. My first bottom fishing spot was a small rise in about 90 feet of water. I didn't have any target species in mind, but it seemed like everything I caught was out of season, so I didn't stay long.

Kelp Rockfish (Sebastes atrovirens)

California Sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher)

As I was putting away gear so I could resume paddling, I heard a "whoosh" to my right and looked over to see a whale, the first one I've seen in the wild! I was so excited, and it was even heading in my direction, so I'd probably get to see it up close.

When it resurfaced again, my happiness quickly changed to alarm. It was coming right at me! I gripped my paddle and camera at the same time and tried to get out of its way before it hit me.

It must have finally realized I was in front of it, because it dove just a few feet before it reached me. I looked down to see it pass directly under my kayak, and then I looked up to see its tail rise up taller than me. It disappeared beneath the water, and then bubbles started coming up all around me, so I paddled like crazy until I was well away from where I thought it might be.

The whale resurfaced 20 or 30 yards away and continued on its way. I ended up seeing two more later in the day, both headed in the same direction to the south. I'm sure the whale watching boats had a good day! My second fishing stop had swarms of big jacksmelt, so I didn't stay long there either.

Jacksmelt (Atherinopsis californiensis)

By the time I reached my third fishing spot, another small seamount, a layer of fog was rolling in from the south. You can see the change in color in my photos. Again I caught rockfish and sheephead, all of which were released.

Gopher Rockfish (Sebastes carnatus)

One thing I didn't consider when I planned my route was the kelp beds. It was a good thing I have a paddle kayak, because this would have been a problem if I had fins underneath me. Going over top of the kelp slowed me down a bit, but I kept on my course and was out of it before long.

My last fishing spot was a rise of about 25 feet surrounded by 40 feet of water. It looked like a fishy spot, but I knew I couldn't stay long because I needed to start my paddle back. I caught this vividly colored rock wrasse and a handful of small calico bass and then packed up my fishing gear.

Rock Wrasse (Halichoeres semicinctus)

Kelp Bass (Paralabrax clathratus)

The fog continued to roll in, so there wasn't much to see as I paddled along Point Loma. I chose a route a lot closer to shore compared to the way I came down in the morning.

By the time I reached Sunset Cliffs the fog had mostly cleared up. I was surprised by how much of the coast the surfers use. A couple times I had to correct my course away from shore so I didn't go into an area with a surf break big enough to get me into trouble.

The wind never became an issue, which I was very grateful for. I landed back at Mission Point Park 7.5 hours after I launched with my Garmin saying exactly 15 miles.

Miles: 15.09
Hours: 7:29

Overall the day was a success, and I learned a few things to help me plan my 20+ mile days in the future. I can probably launch an hour earlier, I should not mess around with trolling no matter how tempting it is, and for the sake of my lower back I should be really strict about a time limit of about 8 hours. There will always be a trade off between paddling time and fishing time, so I'm not going to do these crazy long sessions every time, probably once a month.

I'm looking forward to rockfish opening back up soon!

Kayak deep dropping Carlsbad Canyon

Yesterday Emerson and I decided to try Carlsbad Canyon for deep dropping. On nautical charts it looks like the younger sibling of La Jolla Canyon, and it's head is equally close to shore. We chose Tamarack Beach to launch. It was quite a bit steeper than La Jolla Shores, but we made it work.

We followed my usual deep drop routine by paddling out to the furthest and deepest spot first and then working our way back towards shore. We dropped in 970 feet, our hooks baited with fresh strips of squid, and my rig had a green strobe light. The 16 oz sinkers we used were heavy enough to hold bottom, so drifting was not an issue. In hindsight though, I wonder if the lack of drifting was actually the reason why we didn't get any bites.

We also tried dropping in 650 feet, 500 feet, and 400 feet, but no one wanted our tasty strips of squid. I added a chum cage to the top of my rig, filled with more pieces of cut squid, but it didn't change the results. Eventually the wind began to pick up, and we let it push us off the canyon into less than 300 feet of water. Finally we started getting bites! We started off with a mix of longfin sanddab, Pacific sanddab, and halfbanded rockfish.

Longfin Sanddab (Citharichthys xanthostigma)

Longfin sanddab was by far the most common catch of the day, and it was nice to get some more photos of them. If you look on the blind side you can see a streak of bright yellow at the bottom of the operculum. Breeding colors perhaps?

Sanddabs are not large fish, but one of the longfins was considerably large compared to all the others. I'll definitely be swapping this photo out with my old one on my lifelist.

We continued drifting into shallower water, and at 140 ft I had a good hit and pulled up an even more exciting flatfish, a fantail sole! I've only caught one of these, and it was several years ago. It was nice to see another one, and definitely a special one to get from the kayak.

Fantail Sole (Xystreurys liolepis)

A few minutes after the sole I heard Emerson yell "Ben!". I looked over to see his rod bent over, and then he said "Oh sh$%..... I'm going for a ride!". Sure enough, his kayak took off in the direction of the open Pacific. I had to paddle hard to catch up. He was hooked into something big, and after it's initial run it was mostly a vertical battle.

We debated what was on the other end of his line. A halibut wouldn't have made that initial run, so it likely wasn't that. Emerson insisted that it felt like a giant sea bass, but we weren't anywhere near structure so I had my doubts. When he finally got the fish to color he yelled "white seabass!", but as it got closer to the surface we finally saw the bright yellow tail. Emerson's first kayak yellowtail!

California Yellowtail (Seriola lalandi)

The wind was progressively getting stronger and stronger, so we didn't fish for much longer. My last catch was another fantail sole, smaller than the first one, but it was right-eyed instead of the usual left-eyed. There are only a few flatfish that can be both orientations, with California halibut being the other one that I can think of.

We had a long paddle back in the wind. Usually I can comfortably do between 3.5 and 4.0 mph, but heading north into the wind we were barely able to maintain 2.5 mph. To make the end of the day more interesting, when we got close to Tamarack Beach we realized it would be impossible to make a landing on. The outflow from Agua Hedionda lagoon combined with the swell and tidal flow and wind made for some terrifying conditions. However, the beach to the south of the lagoon entrance didn't look as bad, so we landed there and hiked over to get our vehicles.

Miles: 9.39
Hours: 6:15

To sum up: deep dropping continued to disappoint, I've established myself as a professional sanddab fisherman, and Emerson's kayak yellowtail was by far the highlight of the day.

Oceanside shiner perch and cheekspot goby

This past weekend I made another attempt at white seaperch in Oceanside Harbor. I wasn't in the mood for kayking, so I fished from the harbor pier instead. I also didn't have mussels (their bait of choice), so I used small pieces of shrimp instead.

The first hour was slow, but after a bit of chumming I was able to get a school of shiner perch to show up. They weren't the perch species I was looking for, but I felt encouraged that other perch might be in the mix.

Shiner Perch (Cymatogaster aggregata)

After I caught a dozen shiners, the bite died off. Emerson had joined me, and we agree it was time to move on to something else. We headed south to a saltwater lagoon near Oceanside. It looked like a good place to find gobies and other micros.

Emerson spotted some small fish in the shade of the bridge, which turned out to be juvenile bay blennies. They were easy to catch on microfishing gear.

Bay Blenny (Hypsoblennius gentilis)

I brought a small plastic tub to take underwater photos of our catches, but I had difficulty getting the lighting and focus to work with my camera. Here's a shot of one of the blennies with a hand-caught shrimp in the background.

Out in the open we found some gobies sitting on the bottom near ghost shrimp burrows. They looked bigger than the ones I've pumped up from burrows in Mission Bay, and they happily chomped bits of shrimp on Tanago hooks. A new species for the list!

Cheekspot Goby (Ilypnus gilberti) - new hook & line species #657

These cheekspots are REALLY tiny fish. They flare out their operculums to make their heads look bigger, but even then they're incredibly small.

Here's an underwater shot of two of the gobies in the plastic tub. We released them back into the lagoon before we left.

Emerson wandered off while I was looking for more fish in the rocks, and when he came back he showed me this tiny juvenile flatfish. We didn't have any ideas what it could be, but my contact from Scripps identified it as a diamond turbot.

Diamond Turbot (Hypsopsetta guttulata)

The next day I wrote up a short report on sdfish's fishing forum, and one of the other users replied back that he also fished the harbor pier over the weekend, but he did catch a white seaperch!

White Seaperch (Phanerodon furcatus)

Photo courtesy of Bird334 from sdfish.com.

As I write this I already have the itch to do some more kayak fishing, so my next report will probably be from somewhere off the San Diego or La Jolla coast. Wish me luck!