Quote:
Originally Posted by mtnbykr2
This is actually a great point, although we all should be extremely attentive to our suroundings when out on the water....
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You'll be fine with tankers as long as your not out in the middle of the main channel. Personally I like to fish the edges and drops anyway. Tankers are big and easy to see. Just keep in mind they can not stop or change directions. Party boats will almost run you over for fun, just to see you squirm, and watch the small boats and jet skis as a lot of those guys are just oblivious when it comes to how to run a boat in the ocean, and will run you down out of pure stupidity.
The real thing to watch for is wind if you launch at Cabrillo. If whips around to the southwest and starts blowing directly at you from the direction of launch or PV you might want to head in. They don't call it Hurricane Gulch for nothing.
I used to launch my wood kayak on the outside and fish rockfish out on the edges of the Catalina Channel..
Sometimes as far out as six or even eight miles... Fun fishing... but...
Even on perfectly flat days the wind would often come up at noon, and then you'd have a long paddle fighting the wind just to make the cut at the lighthouse.
That day in the pics Looks nice but by the time I got to the lighthouse it was blowing full bore, rough as hell, and it took everything I had to paddle from the lighthouse to the beach. Worst conditions I've ever paddled in.
I've seen it get even worse from my skiff, several times I've got stuck at Catalina, when it was just impossible to cross the channel due to the wind at PV.
I had a trip a few seasons ago where it got so rough off Pt Ferman I wasn't sure I was going to make it. That after trolling Marlin all morning in flat calm seas. The conditions can change very fast. The breakwall cuts the waves but not the wind and PV just creates a wind effect that concentrates the wind and makes it worse. I'm just saying no matter what the forcast is watch out for wind. If you fish there enough you will see what I mean.
Sorry for the chicken shit posts in your thread, once the aggro-dudes got involved I figured it would go down hill. What can you say it's the internet. Lots of finger pointing and little substance.
Pedro is actually a pretty great place to fish especially if your just starting out. It's probably the dirtiest water in California, but it's also the easiest place to catch big halibut in So. Cal.. Back in the 90's I skiff fished it a lot. Caught a bunch of halibut down there, and even once landed a seventy pound black seabass in there. If I was just concerned with running up Halibut numbers I'd probably still fish there more, but I don't really need the fish (I still have tuna halibut and seabass in my freezer) and these days about all I do down there is catch and release wall banging for lunker bass and occasionally hooping.
Personally I prefer the Long Beach end around the oil islands and the flats for em, there's a good hole to the west of white Island and I have found the west and north faces of both islands to be good at times, but you can get butts in many spots up and down the harbor, and Pedro can be pretty decent. My buddies and I used to call the Pedro end the Sewer because after a good rain you can see all kinds of shit in there. Diapers, condoms, syringes, you name it. One piece of advice I will give you is if you get cuts on your hands always disinfect them really well when you get home. That area especially after rains get's a high bacteria count, and you can get some pretty funky infections if you cut yourself fishing there. I like to carry superglue and glue my cuts closed right away when fishing the wall, as it sure beats a nasty infection.
At any rate good luck.
Jim