Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

First off, a huge thanks to Ryan Howell and Central Coast Kayak Fishing for putting on and organizing such a great tournament. It was obvious that a lot of preparation had gone into the tourney before anyone else showed up. :luxhello:

I made the trip up to the California central coast for the Cambria Slam Down II. I took the wife and kids with me, we were in Cambria from Thursday to Sunday. What an awesome part of coast it is up there. Next year I'll try to make a full week out if it.

On the drive up, I had to make the customary stop in Cayucos for some Smoked Albacore tacos at Ruddell's. Stop there on your way through town next time. You can thank me later. :drool5:

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I saw this sign at the Cayucos Pier. A nice gentle reminder that we're not in Kansas anymore Toto. :eek:

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Since I had the wife and kiddos, I ponied up for a hotel. Little Sun Inn. Only about $150 a night, free breakfast, snacks in the evening, great hospitality, 2 minute drive to the launch, and a nice view of the Ocean from our room. My first time there, but I'd recommend this place in a heartbeat.

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Day 1 we walked across the street to the beach. It was a low tide, which left lots of cool rocks exposed. I know the central coast can get some rough weather, but this certainly wasn't one of those days.

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We checked out a few tide pools. The kids got a kick out of that.

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Some random nature shots...

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That evening I walked down to check out the landing. Leffingwell is a pretty unique spot. Protected pretty well by natural rocks, it was a lake the first day I was able to check it out.

Looking South

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A nice concrete ramp down to the sand

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And we stayed to watch the sunset over the landing

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The next morning I woke up to do some surf fishing. The big perch didn't want to play, but I did manage to catch a crab, and some sort of small surf perch.

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Later in the day we went to go check out the Elephant Seal colony. Some cool facts: The colony has only been there since 1995. Since then, the population has grown to over 17,000 Elephant seals. They all come back to the beach every year. The big males can weigh over 5,000 lbs. That is bigger than a pick-up truck :eek:

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Here is one that is about 5 years old, and maybe 1,500 lbs. Apparently the big males come back in November/December. I'd like to see that in person.

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Saw this bad ass off-road touring rig from Holland. Too cool to not take a pic of.

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Later in the day we did the touristy Hearst Castle tour. Not really my scene, but the kids liked it.

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As often as I could I tried to get my hands on some local beer. I'm a bit of a hop-head, so here is some of the Central Coast selection I had on the trip. No, this wasn't all in the same afternoon :cheers1:

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Saturday was the day of the tourney. As usual, I'm kicking myself for not taking too many pics. Ryan had organized the tourney to a tee. Check-in was 20 seconds max, and we walked away with a free bag of tackle goodies and a printed out sheet of the rules :luxhello:

There were over 100 guys and kayaks on the beach. Pretty cool to see tat many yaks all in the same place, and all launch at the same time, because the tourney was a shotgun start.

The fishing was incredible. First time I dropped down I picked up a fish. There were times that your bait couldn't even make it to the bottom without getting hammered. It was like that for a solid couple hours. With that much fish coming over the rail, I forgot to take pics :iamwithstupid:

Here are a few I did take

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Within a couple of hours I had caught & released countless rockfish, and had 2 nice legal lings on board. Most of the fish were caught between 40 and 70 feet, so they released pretty healthy.

Roby called me over, he had caught a monster Cabazon. I hope he got a better on the water pic, because I had a spot of water on the lens.

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I fished til about 1, and then headed in. The launch wasn't looking as friendly as it was earlier. The predicted 7ft swell had come, and made for some tricky landings. If you timed it good, it was no problem, but it certainly got the adrenaline going! :eek:

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Here is a pic of guys packing up on the beach

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This was a length tourney. Each species had a points per inch (PPI) assigned to it. Your biggest of each species counted toward the length, multiplied by the PPI, and that gave you your point total. I measured a ling, a nice rockfish, and a 7" perch (which had a high PPI assigned to it). Like all tourneys, skill and luck play into winning, but so did strategy. The highest point totals were the guys that were able to submit multiple species for points. 4 species would put you in the running. Certain species have higher PPI assigned. Had I known what they were, I probably would have spent some time looking for a Greenling. They had a high PPI, and a minimum length of 15". Bring in a legal greenling, and you have as many points as the tourneys largest lingcod, which was about 36".

Awesome format. Definitely looking forward to trying to maximize the points next year.
Here is how the point system worked.
"Your total combination of all species that you catch will be your grand total.
Lingcod = 5.5 points per inch(ppi) Rockcod = 8 ppi Halibut = 5.5 ppi Salmon = 5 ppi Cabezon = 8 ppi White Seabass = 4 ppi Barracuda = 5 ppi Surf Perch = 14 ppi
Flounder = 10 ppi Greenling = 13 ppi Calico Bass = 8 ppi Sand Bass= 8 ppi
Sheepshead = 8 ppi Striped Bass= 6 ppi"

Rob, Hunter the 80's man member caught a monster ling. It was the biggest I've seen in person. Hopefully he got some good pics of it.

Here is my take for the day (plus about 50 released rockfish).

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Jorge & his haul

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Once we were back on land, and measured our fish, the food was a potluck. 2 things I learned about the Nor Cal & Central Coast Guys 1) They know how to fish. 2) They know how to eat! This potluck was insane! What a spread!

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Highlight for me was the fresh fish fry. They did a dill tempura/pankow with the lings and tasty rockfish that were just caught. I had probably 10 pieces, and I'm stealing that recipe for sure.

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Team Sewer was there in full force. Nice fishing with you guys.

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After we ate they had a couple of tables with lots of prizes for both the winners, and the raffle. Grand prize was a brand new Hobie Outback. Lots of cool swag, with big name sponsors.

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Here was the top 10

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The raffle was first come, first serve- where you got to pick your prize off the table if your ticket was pulled. The Kelp Clothing Shirts were the first items that people were taking when their number got called. I even got lucky and scored a Kelp Clothing shirt. :luxhello:

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The weather turned into typical drizzle central coast during the raffle, and I was happy to get back to the hotel for a warn shower, and to relax by the fireplace afterwards.

Spent the next morning doing some beach combing, and then started the drive home. Almost as soon as I got home I started doing some research and panning my next trip up to the same area. What an awesome area, and insane fishery. It looks like it can be as family friendly as you want it to be, but can be about as hard core of fishing as anywhere. What a cool combo.

Ryan, Thanks again for putting this tourney together. To all the Nor-Cal and Central Coast guys, it was nice to share the pond with you. :cheers1:

Looking forward to my next trip up there, and definitely looking forward to fishing this tourney again.

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Steve