Solana Beach kelp beds (what happened to them?)
 

Paddled out from dog beach by the horse track inlet yesterday morning like I've been doing every summer. Funny thing is I never found the kelp beds just to the north like I used to... Was super bummer because I was planning on doing some calico fishing. Ended up catching some macs and flying lining one. Hooked a thresher shark for about 45 min on my medium heavy teramar / daiwa lexa 300 bass rod. Managed to get the shark to the kayak once before it ran again and I called it. Anyways still bummed the kelp beds were missing...

The kelp will be back eventually and it'll probably bounce back quickly when the water cools to a constant temp it likes.

Water's waaaaay to warm and the kelp dies.

It could be gone for years, but I hope not. Past el nino events have wiped out certain forests for extended intervals. The biggest worry is that the warmer water will allow invasive sargassum to gain substantial territory, making it hard for the kelp holdfasts to anchor to the existing rocks.

Warm water is not good for our giant kelp. We also had some big storms n swells this winter that tore the weakend kelp out. The small kelp beds in north county seem more suceptable because they are shallower than LA Jolla or Point loma. The little kelp beds of Terramar, Tamarack Ave, and the army/navy academy were gone for years.

Even when the kelp isn't visible at the surface there's usually still some deeper. You can see it on a FF. I haven't seen kelp on the surface in LJ this year but the yellow tail sure know how to find some to tangle in. The structure the kelp was on is still there and will hold fish even w/o kelp.
Mike

I try to be optimistic. Think about all the school bus kelp paddies offshore...

Kelp
 

I'm going out of solona tomorrow early I can show you where the kelp is I marked it on my gps, got limits of barracuda and a croaker last week and was only out for an hour. The kelp is about a mile out and north, almost in front of fletcher cove, it's a good size kelp forest still stringers all over and some nice lanes to cast in.:jig:

Where are you guys launching for this? Someone mentioned launching through an inlet? The one in cardiff.


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You find enough surface kelp to attach a yak to with a kelp clip?

launch
 

I usually launch from the dog beach inlet by the horse track. Flipped pretty bad coming in last weekend though, haha.

I was out last week in Carlsbad in front of the PP. I saw only 1 stringer of kelp. Lots of red crab though. No fish! :(

launch
 

32°59'59.3"N 117°16'41.7"W Here's one of my launch spots it has a really good channel I would be willing to teach anyone how to time it I have been surfing this spot for years....Let me know if anyone hooks up!

yes
 

Fullflavorpike yes definitely enough to get a kelp clip on out there

cardiff
 

Ccatcher I would highly recommend you don't paddle out through cardiffs river outlet there's a pretty brutal beach break most days in there and no real channel

mb
 

my bad meant to tag YakDout on that last reply:sifone:

The eyeball test indicates this little section of Cardiff beach usually has smaller surf, too. Big breaks north and south, but looks mellow right in this exact spot.

https://goo.gl/maps/jnCH8d61j522

Ever launch there?

I might try it with dive gear first, everything in the hatch and nothing fragile in case the world goes topsy turvy.

A little closer to the Pacific Coast Grill restaurant is a better spot, especially coming in. I used to do it all the time when the area was open to fishing. But now, this area is a no hook and line boat fishing zone from Seaside to Moonlight :(

launch
 

I wouldn't recommend going out through that spot the inside breaks pretty hard

but then again if you time the weather right any spot is make-able

There's plenty of better spots really close to here 33.025447, -117.287220

you can't really tell just by looking at the Ariel shot on this one but theirs a

really good channel at these coordinates

And as for the closure I thought the rule was you can only take pelagics from

tabletops to swamis, meaning wsb and yellows are fair game :wsb::wsb:

Yellowtail are pelagic


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yellows
 

dang just looked it up I was wrong hook and line is only allowed from shore if you want to get pelagics from the mpa you have to spear it

Unfortunately, this is the case. No boat fishing out to three miles. Spearfishing only for YT, WSB and I think Bonito.

Of course, you can travel out past three miles and look for kelp paddies and breezing tuna.

This used to be a fun place to fish since it is nearby, great parking and has lots of good structure. Grab a rod and a few plastics and hit up the nearby kelp for a quick afternoon of calico catch and release.

Originally it was going to be no shore fishing but the Park Service complained to Fish & Game after the MPA was locked and loaded and got it changed.

It's open north of Moonlight so launching at Ponto's on a low surf day and working back towards Moonlight is another alternative.