Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

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Josh said, this was my "Fish of a Lifetime"

As a native San Diegan and lifelong sport fisher I thought I knew quite a bit about fishing off our coast. Over the past forty years I have fished off most of the sport boats in our great local fleet and as a Whaler owner for the past few decades I have seen my share of the kelp beds, islands and local banks. It was not until I made the move to kayak fishing that I began to learn the importance of the little details that are so critical to kelp bed fishing. On sports boats or skiffs you can run around chasing birds and throwing live chum to locate fish with relative ease. The advent of GPS and wed sites like Bloody Decks and BWE have made sharing current information and traffic jams on the high points and current hot spot a common occurrence.

I have drifted across the La Jolla kelp beds in a skiff hundreds of times before I realized the importance of silence and positioning within the kelp. Thanks to Josh and his dedicated teaching I have learned more about fishing the kelp beds over the past year than I learned in the previous forty years. Several years ago my father and I landed three White Sea bass off our Whaler on one perfect afternoon with offshore winds. This experience incited an interest in WSB that included many free diving attempts to spear one and countless hours in the kelp trying to catch the elusive ghosts one more time. :wsb:

2010 has turned out to be my year for WSB. After hiring Josh for a couple trips I got very close with several near misses. I will not soon foreget March of 2010 and the ball of kelp that turned out to be "the fish of a lifetime" pictured below. My office mates and family have appreciated the fine dining provided by the queens of the kelp and I enjoyed a great spontaneous tour of Hubbs Research Institute as I dropped off my WSB head. The marine biologists are doing some great work with Yellowtail right now with a good potential for viable commercial applications. 2 yr old fish are 15 pounds raised from fertilized eggs collected from their brood stock will all natural, no hormone induced mating or milking. Fertilized eggs float to the surface and are filtered out and raised in adj tanks. Too bad I cut out the cheeks of my first 2010 WSB as that is where the tags are. The fish head I have curing in my fridge now may be one raised by Hubbs more than a decade ago. Looks like I will be busy July 10 & 11 with Hubbs WSB contest with a special tribute to one of the true founders of local sport fishing, Bill Poole. http://www.hswri.org/index.php?bShow=9&cat=3

Josh may not run a landing or own a magnificent boat but he sure knows his stuff and if you are willing to put in the time and pay attention to the details he is a coach worth hiring.

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This is my favorite shot with the tail as wide as a basketball.