7/28/13 - Solana Kelp, PB Calico
 

I hit the water at daylight and broke through some mild waves. (Mild by Del Mar standards). Got out to the Solana Kelp and started working a sabiki to quickly land 10 Green Macs. One Grunion hit the rig too.

I got ten of these for my bait bucket:
http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/p...pictureid=1555

I fished around for a while with no luck, moved my position and the third spot was the charm. Results included two Sand Bass, Five Calicos, One Sheephead and a few things that got away.

Here is the 18" Sheephead (Hit on cut Mac):
http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/p...pictureid=1552

Here is the 22" Calico (My Personal Best, Hit live Mac):
http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/p...pictureid=1553

Here is me getting ready for dinner:
http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/p...pictureid=1551

Of added special interest today, I was able to surf the kayak back into shore. Another personal best. Waves were bigger heading back in. I know you veterans think this is no biggie. All of my prior attempts to re-enter here have resulted in a roll. I have learned to keep the kayak parallel to breaking waves while leaning aggressively on the paddle towards the wave. I still get swamped but stayed upright and under control. I think I'll still stow everything for re-entry at this location nevertheless.

Nice calico! Congrats on the PB!

That's a fatty calico...Nice job today

Fat calico did you weigh that thing?

Nice!
 

Nice catch! Mind if I ask where you launched from? Thx!

Damn baby got back!

VERY awesome calico !!
certainly more fun & exciting to "catch", than the sheepshead.

but for "eating", i will take that sheep all day long over any bass. :evil:
.

Well done, that's a quality cali. Those north county beaches can be tough and like you noticed, nice on the way out and mean on the way back in. Solona is a nice place with plenty of structure and kelp. There is fun boiler rock fishing there. From your fist photo that looks like a Spanish mac (brown) and not a pacific (green) mac. The Spanish have weaker mouth and some annoying little blades (scutes) running up from the base of the tail. They're both good baits. If you want to really target the sheephead skip the fin bait and go with raw head on shrimp, ghost shrimp, muscles, clams, or even craw fish fished right on the bottom. Your catch rate will greatly improve. Mike

nice checker

Nice pics, nice catch!

Did you say you came in parallel to the waves? Isn't that why you roll? I thought the hard part of landing is keeping perpendicular to the waves, but the waves are coming from behind you... which is why landing is trickier than launching? I've yet to surf launch, but this seems to be what I hear/read?


Good info.. thanks.

For the sheepshead tip, I wondered about the frozen shrimp at my local asian market, head-on or head off. Do you do a short dropper loop? or carolina? Thx.

Nice fat one, good job!

It is impossible to stay perpendicular when taking large waves from the rear. It's completely different than taking waves heading out. I have tried many times and the kayak always wants to nose-dive or twist. Now, as soon as the big-one starts to push (or just before if I see it) I turn parallel and lean almost to the point of capsize towards the wave face. The crashing wave makes the tilted kayak skid sideways instead of roll. It's kinda-like drifting. The inshore leading edge of the kayak is up and thus does not dig and avoids a roll. You still get swamped.

Just paddle in backwards. You're always heading into the waves that way :p

how did that calico taste? thing must have been about 25 to 30 years old.

yes, unless you can time the waves perfect, and paddle fast enough to stay "ahead" of the incoming waves (some surf experts & strong paddlers can do this - me NEVER), if a wave hits your from rear during landing, you will turn sideways every time. and then if you don't lean hard into NEXT wave, that NEXT wave hitting you from rear/side, will flip you over every time !!!

because my yak (Hobie Outback) is a beast to PADDLE, and i am a weak paddler anyways, because i pedal 99% of time on water....

thus EVERY single time i have landed in LJ (my only surf launch/ landings location, in my 10 yr yakking career), with 1-2 ft or larger waves, i have ALWAYS been turned sideways by wave from back, then ridden the next wave in sideways, horizontal to coast line, leaning hard into wave, such that my arm/side are being swamped by the wave driving me towards beach.

i have almost been flipped many times, but so far, i have avoided the dreaded roll-over during LANDINGS.

i have rolled over twice during LAUNCH, when i was rookie, and clueless.
but have that figured out now, and don't really have much issue LAUNCHING now.
i usually get soaked everytime taking waves over bow, but that's obvioulsy much better than flipping and dumping gear into ocean.

BUT EVERYTIME i come back "IN" at LJ, i always get butterfly stomach & a bit nervous sitting outside the breakers, looking at the solid land where i desperately long for me & my kayak to SAFELY be setting. :eek:

when i'm floating in yak outside surf zone looking in to shore, i truly always think of Bewitched, and wish i could just twinkle my nose, and suddenly be over the surf zone, and on the SAFE dry beach that i can see, just a few yards away. :evil:

i know it's only a matter of time, until i flip over on the LANDING someday as well.
.

some people actually do that successfully. there were many posts discussing that method, about 6 yrs ago, on the LJKF website.

i have never seen it done at LJ. but apparently some can make it work in the surf landings.
.

Here is a great post with video footage of how to keep parallel with the wave during re-entry and also how the nose-dive creates a roll.

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/s...ad.php?t=19096