Mother Ship Kayak Trip to Mexico 5/16-18

[blackcloud9]

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegallery/data/2/Qualifier105KayakTripMexico05160800.jpg

Early season trip to get outta town for three days. The food on the boat
was excellent, and a hard working crew. Yellows and seabass were
absent from our party however.

Here's my version of what the kayaking group caught, as I
generally underfished the pack :)

Day 1 - Punta Colonet
-------------------------------------
Fished 5 - 40' of water, overcast foggy windy at the point, sunnier and
calm in the 'bay' where we all fished. One barn door 31# halibut, a few
nice lings in very shallow (5 - 15' of water), a couple nice calicos, plenty
of sculpin, sand bass and wide open brown rockfish in tight to the cliffs /
kelp very shallow. Late afternoon light tackle plastics session from
the big boat on sculpin and rockfish, 20' of water. Water 55 degrees and
stained.

Day 2 - Isla San Martin
-------------------------------------
Fished 20 - 100' deep in the lee kelp beds, windy gloomy and foggy
except where we were fishing, protected from the heavy gloom by the
island. A couple nice halibut were caught in shallow, quality calico bass
bite in kelp beds with many fish 4, 5, and to 7 lbs., a slow pick on nice
reds and sculpin in 80 - 100' of water on plastics too. A couple of lings.
Fish coughing up squid. Water 59 and greenish, lots of tiny jellyfish and
some sunfish around too.
After getting our fill of kayaking, from 5 - 7 pm we fished father offshore
from the Qualifier105 on a high spot 150 -180' deep for many very good
quality reds to 6 lbs.

Day 3 - Las Gaviotas/K38 Coast
--------------------------------------------------
Fished 10-40' kelp beds, water temp 63-64 degrees, sunny flat calm and
glassy. Hot! Fished 3 hours or so. Cookie cutter 12" sand bass, variety
brown rockfish, mixed with some quality calicos to 5 lbs. A few nice
halibut in shallow to 15#. Plate sized sunfish cruising and jumping outside
the kelp.

Biggest fish of the trip - Jared Lane 31# Halibut on a sardine at Colonet.

Note that the above report represents (conservatively) 22 ppl x 5 hrs
avg x 3 days = 330 angler hours on the water. So, there were plenty of
hours without fish.

To see more pictures from this trip ->
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/blackcloud9/Qualifier105/
If you have pictures from this trip, I can post them to the photo album if you send them to Larry @ LarryL.com (remove spaces), or post into a reply ....

COLONET, 6' of water
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/blackcloud9/Qualifier105/Qualifier105KayakTripMexico05160800.jpg

COLONET, new to kayak fishing and having a blast on a loaner Hobie kayak
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/blackcloud9/Qualifier105/Qualifier105KayakTripMexico05160801.jpg
COLONET, late afternoon goofin' off
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/blackcloud9/Qualifier105/Qualifier105KayakTripMexico05160-8.jpg

SAN MARTIN, miles of heavy kelp, boiling boiler rocks and calico territory
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/blackcloud9/Qualifier105/Qualifier105KayakTripMexico05160-6.jpg

SAN MARTIN, outside the kelp line consolation prize hoping for YT/WSB
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/blackcloud9/Qualifier105/Qualifier105KayakTripMexico05160802.jpg

SAN MARTIN, fun calicos
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/blackcloud9/Qualifier105/Qualifier105KayakTripMexico05160-5.jpg

SAN MARTIN Freezer Special Red
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/blackcloud9/Qualifier105/Qualifier105KayakTripMexico05160-4.jpg

SAN MARTIN Freezer Special Fat and Red
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/blackcloud9/Qualifier105/Qualifier105KayakTripMexico05160-2.jpg

LAS GAVIOTAS COAST, hot and glassy, halibut were shallow and I fished deep for them :roll:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/blackcloud9/Qualifier105/Qualifier105KayakTripMexico05160-1.jpg

[bajadog]

Nice report !!!!!

Fat reds.

Good taco meat.

Thanks for posting.:cheers1:

[aguachico]

Thanks for report. The pics of the reds are very sweet.

How would you rate you experience? Would you do that trip again? Did you expect to get into other species of fish?

Art

[slayersmith]

Looks like fun!

Great pics!

Take it easy!

Aaron

[yakrider]

atsa big 'ol red...
nice...

[kurt]

Thanks for the report. looked like a good trip.

[PAL]

It was a good trip, although there is a lot of room for improvement. Some people felt we were on too tight a leash - they kept us close to the boat. Two of our stops (nearly all three) could have been accessed from shore. That said, the majority of people on the trip had a great time. Among them were 8 first-timers.

[THE DARKHORSE]

Larry, I think I should have you do the lay-out for my posts from now on. I was going to ask you guys "how was the trip", but I'm left with very few questions, good job. I haven't thought of going to the taxidermy for quite some time, but I would love that big-red Jared is holding on my office wall(if I caught it). By the way, I love the hat.