To go or not to go...

[dsafety]

I am a fair weather yakfisher so mine will be conservative recommendations. In case you are interested, here they are.

Check the Scripps forecast. If it is three feet or more, or rising so it will be in that range, I usually stay home. In borderline situations, I look at the swell interval. Most of us can launch and land in larger surf if the interval is long, say 12 to 15 seconds. With a long swell interval, it may be doable even if the surf is four feet. Just time your launch and landing for when there is a lull but be prepared for those times when you guess wrong by having everything lashed down and put away.

For me, landing in big surf is much tricker than launching so the forecast for the end of the fishing day is something I always look at.

Forecasts are forecasts and not always totally accurate. The images from the web cam, if you can see them in the early morning light are always worth checking out.

Bob

[-scallywag-]

swell:regaurdless of the surf reports 99% of the time the launch is flat. anything from the W-NW under 11 sec and over 4-5ft usually has me packing light or not launching at all ....longer interval from the same direction (w-nw) will not really effect the launch even if it's 7-10ft at scripps. in most of our fishing kayaks with a little practice, 3-4ft is a piece of cake.

wind: this is the limiting factor, anything over 15mph is a little rough in the hobie and it starts getting difficult to fish. if there are 15+mph S winds I wont fish. Strong E winds (offshore) schedualed to blow all day keeps me off the water too. My favorite wind conditions are light E in the morning shifting to light W winds in the afternoon

[bentrod1]

...thanks you all for your bone and (most importantly) gear saving advice and suggestions!

-Bret