San O 6/16
 

Got out to San O for the first time in a while to pretty snotty conditions. Onshore winds lasting thru the night, and not changing direction all morning made for some chop. Add in a couple of different swell directions and it made for one of those days you just wonder what you are thinking as you set up your kayak. Hit the beach right at low tide for a long drag over the reef to the water. Started paddling parallel to the beach in the narrow channel between the outside reef and the beach part, and realized my hat had fallen off on my drag to the water. 10 minutes later I am back at the end of the narrow channel, passing through the small inside surf. I get through that and know better than to let up now. A minute or two later, I am glad I knew better as I pass face first through a breaker. Wind was probably only 5-10 for the most part, with occasional bursts for a few minutes. The problem was that it had been blowing a long way in the same direction for a long time. It took me 2 hours to get out the 3 miles I was shooting for, with the occasional stop to catch some bait. Made some good summertime bait in 9 - 11" Greenies. Wind was blowing me right back at the launch, and I was not going to stay long if conditions did not improve. First drop in about 75' gets picked up for a Halibut probably in the teens which I released. Just continued the drift that I was on, all the way back toward the kelp line. About an hour later I get picked up with some big head shakes. Thought small shark for a few seconds, until it just went to dead weight with short runs. Ended up being a big gurl that was ready to pop with eggs at 31lbs 6 oz. Landing was uneventful except for 1 sneaker wave that I had to back paddle through. Sorry, it is a bit long to show the miserable conditions.
https://youtu.be/ZGO2Q0D9VhA
Ps: La Jolla was pretty poor conditions on Sunday, with very green water and about no light reaching over 85' all morning. Bait was a scarce mixture of grande Greenies and tiny Spanish.

I love that place and I hate that place and your video perfectly captures the reasons for both feelings. In most surf landings you can sit outside the surf line and paddle like hell between sets through the danger zone, but at San O those rogues can pop up anywhere within 1/4 mile from shore. I used to pick my days very carefully there and I would have aborted in the parking lot on the day of your video Greg,

Another slob flattie. You Sir, are The Butt Whisperer :D

:cheers1::notworthy:

Very impressive to get out there solo. Nice fish! You always make it look easy peasy.

Nice. At least someone did well. I slogged all the way out to the upcurrent end of the bed, found horrible green water and packed it in. I was home by 9:30.

Brass balls for sure. Good Job!!

Congrats Greg! Great effort and report.:cheers1:

Reading about footwear, sheepshead and fish finders, you'd think it was January and had been raining for two weeks straight.:D

I don’t get how when you launched you went through like 15 waves but on the way back there wasn’t one breaker? How is that?

Tides and timing.

stellar Greg! :cool:

Re-entries...
 

can be a bitch...

Attachment 23693

This is awesome^

Great share
 

Thanks Greg. Nice footage. It's also very nice that some hack is not talking the whole video!

1st of all, where do I buy your book?
2nd, thank you for not putting music to the video like some others. I like the sound of the ocean, it's soothing and relaxing makes me feel like I was there.

Yeah, I was using my GoPro 5 in the dive housing up until recently. It really hampered the sound, like most of the cameras before it. Now I am just using it as it came, since it is waterproof to like 10'. Captures a lot more sound, but it did magnify the wind sound quite a bit. Not that you are likely to hear anything but the fish thrashing, wave crashing or a bit of drag pulling in my videos. I am just not very animated (at least until I do the next dumb thing).

Nice Halibut ! Good job maneuvering the surf !

Legend Status! I probably wouldn't have even surfed that day! Well done sir! If I may, how deep are you fishing...

It's posts like these....
 

That fire me up to get back out there. Proof that questionable weather does not necessarily make bad fishing. Thanks for sharing the vid!

Started about 75' and drifted back to about 50'.

Always calm and cool