Catalina without the kayak

Unfortunately, this is not an epic blog post about an epic kayak trip. I spent the week leading up to the departure date watching the wind and swell forecasts for San Pedro, Catalina, and the channel between them. My self imposed limit for wind speed was 10 miles per hour. The forecast was showing 12 mph winds and swells of around 3 feet. Those numbers would probably be doable, but I couldn't risk the forecast getting worse after I drove my kayak up to San Pedro. So, I did the prudent thing and bought a round trip ferry ticket on the Catalina Express.

I checked the weather forecast again before getting on the ferry. The winds and swell had both dropped to well below my criteria for kayaking, but it was too late to change my plans. Sure enough, the ferry ride across the channel was calm and pleasant. It would have been the perfect day to solo paddle the roughly 24 miles across.



Several years ago I fished with Eli just off Catalina, but this was my first time stepping foot on the island. The views were beautiful, and it was an enjoyable hike from Two Harbors to the campground where I'd stay for the next three nights.

My pack was already heavy with camping gear, but I stubbornly brought along my mask, snorkel, and flippers so I could snorkel and check out the fish in front of the campground. I went out twice and saw all the usual suspects. I hoped to see something new, such as a bluebanded goby or rainbow scorpionfish, but everything I saw was also common in areas such as La Jolla.

Garibaldi (Hypsypops rubicundus)


Pacific Barracuda (Sphyraena argentea)


California Salema (Haemulon californiensis)


Zebra Chub (Kyphosus azureus)


Topsmelt or Jacksmelt (Atherinopsis sp.)


Giant Kelpfish (Heterostichus rostratus)


Halfmoon (Medialuna californiensis)


The rest of the trip was spent hiking, including a tough hike to the top of the ridge to see the open Pacific on the west side of the island. The weather was great, and I really enjoyed not having a phone signal for three straight days.

The surf was fairly rough the morning I would have paddled back. It would have made the launch before sunrise a challenge, but it looked doable. Out past the surf the ocean looked calm with slow sets of moderate swell.

I'll consider planning a Catalina kayak trip again next year.

Prepping for Catalina

Sept 5, 2020

I've been hinting at a Catalina crossing for a while now, and I suppose it's time to announce my intentions. Weather permitting, I'll kayak from San Pedro (west of Long Beach and Los Angeles) to Catalina, camp for three nights, and then kayak back. There are a lot of variables at play, most importantly the weather and surf forecasts and my wrist, but if everything lines up I'm ready to do it. I've spent all year training, practicing skills, and spending time on the water. I've paddled 330 miles on my Trident, including several days over 20 miles, and I've practiced flipping and self rescuing. I bought a satellite communicator so my friends and family can track my progress during the crossing, and it has an SOS button I can press if I need the Coast Guard.

Letting my wrist heal up after the 30 mile paddle in July has been my biggest concern. To ease back into things I did a relatively short outing in La Jolla. I tried some powerlifting wrist wraps, which kept my wrist from moving, but they also made my fingers go numb. More importantly I'm working on my forward stroke technique, making sure to minimize wrist movement as I lift the paddle blade out of the water. While I was paddling I also did some fishing and caught a good mix of species.

California Salema (Haemulon californiensis)


Kelp Bass (Paralabrax clathratus)


Ocean Whitefish (Caulolatilus princeps)


Honeycomb Rockfish (Sebastes umbrosus)


I tracked my outing both with my watch and with my new Garmin inReach Mini satellite communicator. The tracks lined up well, but the inReach only records the GPS every 20 minutes, so the total distance was a little less than what the watch recorded. I'll use both when I do the Catalina crossing, and I have an external battery pack to recharge everything before the return crossing.

Miles: 8.71
Hours: 6:08
Water Temp: 69 F

Next up will be a "dry" run of the surf launch in San Pedro.

Sept 12, 2020

The following weekend I did my last training paddle before Catalina. I wanted to learn as much as I could about the launch in San Pedro, so I practiced everything exactly how I would for the crossing. I unloaded my kayak on the surf side of Cabrillo Beach, parked my car up the hill where there is multi-day street parking, and then launched at sunrise.

As I paddled out to the shipping lanes I noticed plenty of activity both on the fish finder and on the surface. I could see strong marks below schools of bait on the fish finder, so I dropped an iron down and aggressively reeled it back up. It got hit on every drop.

Kelp Bass (Paralabrax clathratus)


Barred Sand Bass (Paralabrax nebulifer)


Here's what the action looked like on the fish finder.

I planned to fish a few wrecks in 100 feet of water and then fish deeper in the canyon. There was some haze from the wildfires and fog, but visibility was good enough to see the cargo ships using the shipping lanes. I wasn't anywhere near the big ships, but I was in the path between Long Beach and Catalina, so I had to keep my head on a swivel and make sure none of the smaller boats ran me over. As I was approaching the wreck coordinates, I came across a midshipman splashing on the surface. Something seemed to be wrong with its swim bladder, but I didn't see any external trauma.

Specklefin Midshipman (Porichthys myriaster)


Fishing was slow over the wreck. I got a few short bites but didn't connect with anything. The boats going full throttle towards Catalina made it hard to relax, so I didn't fish the wreck for long. I pulled my line up and paddled over the canyon to try for rockfish instead. The bite was slow there as well. I let the current push me along at about 0.5 mph. When I reeled up to check my bait, I felt a little extra weight on the line, but I refused to get my hopes up. That made it all the more exciting when I saw color, and then I saw that it was a new rockfish species for my list!

Blackgill Rockfish (Sebastes melanostomus) - new hook & line species #675


After sending the fish back down with my descending device, a bank of heavy fog rolled in. Visibility was less than 50 yards. The combination of fog and boat traffic made me pretty uncomfortable, so I pointed in the direction of the beach and started paddling.

I passed by a private fishing boat on the way back, and they asked if I needed help getting back to shore. I assured them that I was fine, but it was nice knowing that people are looking out for each other. When I was about the 2 miles from shore the fog began to dissipate, and by the time I landed on the beach it was a bright sunny day. Funny how it worked out that way.



Miles: 10.26
Hours: 5:23
Water Temp: 68 F

That evening I had white perch on my mind, and a friend from Instagram said they were biting in Ventura, so a few of my fellow species hunters and I decided to head up there and try for them. One white perch was caught, but it wasn't by anyone who needed it. I caught shiner perch, topsmelt, jacksmelt, and white croaker.

Shiner Perch (Cymatogaster aggregata)


White Croaker (Genyonemus lineatus)


Sept 13, 2020

The next morning I headed back in the direction of San Diego, but I took a detour into the northeast suburbs of Los Angeles to check out a spot with an invasive population of pond loach (also known as Oriental weatherfish and Dojo loach). The Bobcat forest fire was burning just north of the freeway, and when I pulled up there was white and gray ash falling like snow.

I scouted out the stream before I got my microfishing gear out of the car. To my surprise, there was a HUGE loach just chilling in the middle of one of the deeper pools. I figured they would be hiding during the day. I got the gear out of my car and got to work finding bait. A small crayfish was the best thing I could find. The big loach was nowhere to be seen, but I walked upstream to a spot with more rocks. I saw a set of whiskers poking out from under a rock. The whiskers got excited when I put my bait in front of them, and sure enough their was a loach on the other end of them.

Pond Loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus) - new hook & line species #676


After the first I was able to catch two more loaches, and I saw a few that I didn't target. They're definitely one of the most common fish in this stream.

The stream had minnows as well. I guessed that they would be fathead minnows or some other invasive species, but I was happy to find out that they were native arroyo chubs. They were easy to catch, and this one in particular posed nicely for a photo.

Arroyo Chub (Gila orcuttii)


Next up is Catalina!