PB - 08/01
 

Had to work in the mornin got off at noon and headed to the beach for some bass'in, launched at tourmo to avoid the afternoon parking nightmares at LJ.

I met up with one of those crusty locals who had a kayak strapped to his van and talked him into going out....he said "ohhhh i got beer....it'll be bitch'in"

We went strait out to the deep (75'-85') outside kelp infront of PB point, where i had caught two small WSB's earlier in the week. He fished whole squid on leadheads and dropperloop while i tried to make bait (tons of smelt in the kelp but no macks)after 30min i figured them out and filled the tank with greenies (just becuase you can't see the bait on your FF doesn't meen that they are not there).

Anyway, i went back to the kelp and Crusty said that it was slow and he only caught two cali's while i was gone....but as soon as i got my finbait in the water i was getting lit up, cali's, grumpys nothin huge but fun.....and then it happened, I heard a loud thumping sound like someone beating on the kayak with a hammer and i look behind me and see Crusty completely bendo on his bass rod the pole completely in the water except for the reel and the rod was banging the side of his yak from the tail thumps.....the look on old Crustys face was priceless. He ended up fighting it thru the kelp to color before it goes racing off again for some top water action....he swore it was a big WSB the whole time he fought it "look at those head shakes", "OOOHHHH its peeling off drag", "UUUUHHHHMMMM i'm getting sprayed by my reel", "this is bitchin!!!"....I saw it dart under my boat before it broke him off...it was a 3ft wide mudmarlin but he was sooo stoked that i didn't have the heart to say anything.

After a couple more hrs of bass i finally convinced him to make the move back inside to pound sand for some bitties. We fished 10-15ft structured areas inside the cove (oldman's) with fishtraps and dropperlooped macs. we caught more bass and one spotfin corbina. We drifted south to pumphouse and found the submurged pipe (basically the takeoff at pumphouse) i dropped a mac down in 9ft of water and boom i get hit good fight good weight start pulling me into the small surf, put the hobie in gear and pulled him back out got him to the boat and its a small (maybe 10-12lbs) BSB!! It was pretty weird catching that guy so shallow at one of my favorite summertime longboard lefts. Mean while Crusty's completely wasted yelling "keep it, it'll be bittchen" "those things are delisious!!!" gotta love that guy!!!!

Rookie
 

What is a mudmarlin???

Bat Ray

Thanks...

Its the best game fish ever!:sifone:

whitedog,
word on the street is that you're the (mud) marlin master...how many have you caught this year??:reel::linesnap::farmer:

Tourmaline warning
 

Hey scallywag, I'm a newbie kayak fisherman and I'm wondering where exactly do you typically launch at Tourmo? PM me if you don't want to post it here. Just curious since I had a mishap a week and a half ago without shoes on the rocks there. the moral of the story for me was 'bring footwear'. This was only my 2nd time out in the yak. I launched fine, had a great time fishing, got bit on the bottom in the sand that I'm guessing was a halibut but I tried to set the hook too early out of excitement once the clicker started going off, and then headed in. When I hopped out at shore, I sliced the bottom of my foot clear down to the tendon. It didn't look good, kind of like the top of a brain:eek:. Luckily, 3 surfers helped me carry the kayak up the stairs and strap it to the car. :cheers1:A quick trip to the emergency room and the end result was the below photo. I get the stitches pulled Friday and hopefully I'm allowed back in the water soon!

I'd have to count up all that freezer meat to find out. Taste like chicken:cheers1::sifone:

I bet that hurts like hell.

I had a deep cut under my heel from a piece of steel that passed through my boot.
It kept me off my feet for awhile, there are lots of nerves on the bottom of the foot.

Heal up quickly, and try not to get it infected.

cool pic!!! nasty cuts and gashes are a daily occurance there, if its not the random rocks/rays then its a surfboard fin. Local surfers who frequent reefs have a near obsession with building up thier "paws" to avoid being seen or worse photo'd wearing booties in the line-up. with that said its always a good idea to slowly set your feet to the bottom even giving a little kick before you touch down to give those ever present rays a chance to swim away before you step on them.

As for the launch, i love the place, the people and the shallow water structure that is so easy to access. i would love to share some tips and tricks with you guys and hope to see more people fishing the area.
- in the summer tourmo parking lot is packed just like everywhere else, the advantage is you can pull to the side and wait at the end of the rows and start unloading and setting up you yak while waiting for a spot (it really doesn't take that long...
- depending on the swell direction and period the best launch area is between the base of the ramp and the cement drainage ditch to the north, sometimes even a little north of the drainage ditch.
- Fishing, this area to the north (the cove and around the point to birdrock) is great for structure fishing as there are all kinds of rockpiles, slabs, grassbeds with sand in between, when the vis is good and the surf is low you can easily see the reefs, and adjacent sand areas and it can be easy and productive to throw some swimbaits right next to the structure and swim them along the side, or throw spoon over the top...
- fishing for yellows using traditional LJ methods here can be a little more work because the area is like a mine field of small spaced out kelp/bullkelp stringers which makes trollin macks difficult, and landing a spunky yellow is a crap shoot if you don't have spectra (i'm a :farmer: even with spectra)
- the dominant winds & currents are usually running from N to S which means the kelp canopy is usually stretched out past the root bases (opposite of LJ) which gives the lazy fisherman the oppertinaty to tie up to the outside edge of the kelp canopy and fish the area much like a power boat anchored on the outside edge of the kelp in LJ
- bait is typically much more scarce out there and harder to find due to the random sabiki eating kelp stringers that are all over the place, the cure, bring a can of wet cat/dog food, poke some holes in it , poke your game clip thu the can and then hang it down 5-10ft when you tie up to the canopy....

Thats pretty much all i know about fishing that area, if anyone has more tips spit'um out. See ya on the water!!!!