Quote:
Originally Posted by Orca Winfrey
After monitoring the weather all week, King Saba and I decided the wind conditions weren't too bad for the Cabrillo area and launched from the ramp around 8ish. We headed east past the harbor lighthouse towards the kelpy areas along Navy Way. We picked up some decent calicos at a rocky terminal island wall along the way. Mine were on a Savage Sand Eel. Not sure what Saba got his on.
We continued on to the leeward side of the island that ran north-south and had to downsize the baits as the fish were smaller. My go-to harbor/bait, the pumpkin Tiny Brush Hog worked well and a school of short barracuda even liked them.
As we made our way to the wall that ran east-west, the fish got hungrier and larger. Saba got some decent calicos and a nice sandy. All on swimbaits and Tiny Brush Hogs. I also got a nice calico at the shallow water kelp line and Saba got a nice sandy there. We knew that the winds were going to start picking up soon so we decided to head back leaving the fish still biting; we just didn't know how much they would pick up by.
When we got past the leeward side of the island, we felt the full force of what Magic Seaweed said would be 8-10 mph winds. Fooled again by MSW! I later found out the winds were in the high teens with gusts above 20.
I was paddling for my life in my Prowler 13, but I was only inching along. I kept looking at the lighthouse for reference but it was always in the same position. Meanwhile Saba in his turbo-finned Revo was cruising along and he even stopped to fish some structure while I struggled to catch up.
He finally realized that we were going to be out there till midnight so he offered to tow me in the rest of the way. Some nice boaters spotted us and stopped to ask if we needed help, but Saba with his new Hobie invincibility complex said "No".
Even with his help, it must have taken us 2 hours to make it back. I wanted to die.
On the plus side, we had a blast. Saba caught around 20 and I caught around 10. I now know my limits a bit more and I know not to stay out longer than I should even if the fishing if good. Oh, and weather reports are just approximations based upon complex statistical calculations.
Thanks again for the tow Saba. I would have said "yes" to those boaters
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I hit that paddle problem on Friday at Mission Bay, trying to fight and outgoing tide while I was trying to get back into the bay. I made it but man I was working hard, in the meantime Vito cruised by on his Hobie and didn't look like he was working to hard at it, at least he was moving a lot faster than I was.