Oceanside Artificial Reef Saturday

[PapaDave]

Originally Posted by Mr_Fixit

Max,

Mixed. I did find Reef 2. I have some minor coordinate issues with one or two locations, but that is easily resolved. Since I am relatively new to Kayak fishing, there were a couple learned lessons here.

First, the current and wind caused me to drift rather rapidly. The sparseness of Reef 2 resulted in very few catches.

My first catch was a decent Calico caught on a flyline I was dragging in the off chance a YT was around. Since it was so early in the trip, he was released.

Second catch was a Sculpin on a Squish jig. Third and fourth was a very small Sculpin and another small fish I have no idea what it was. The last two were on squid. The unknown fish had a small mouth, was silver/grey in color, and had rather large scales. Reminded me of a carp. I also caught a pretty good size Mac on the Squish. I was going to flyline him, but he flipped out of my hands and returned to his family.

Other than that, I spent the day trying to stay on or near the rocks with little success. After doing this for a few hours, I headed into the harbor to drift around in there with no success.

So, lessons learned: 1) I need an anchor (Purchased and being delivered today). I think that should help a lot for staying put, or at least slowed down drastically. 2) I forgot my oars for some reason. Realized it after I purchased bait. Went back, tied up my yak, ran to my car to get the oars, and then headed out. By the time I left the harbor almost all my live bait was dead. I am not sure what went wrong here, but I am thinking that the greatly reduced waterflow through my tank could have caused this. Needless to say, it was a bit frustrating.

I think in the future I am going to head out with someone. Being alone is ok, but being with someone else is much more fun. We can share knowledge in the process.

Some of the reefs are off the mark or have additional piles nearby.

Was pretty nasty out there weather wise, not easy to fish the reefs when it is like that.

Not sure an anchor is a good idea, my experience with anchoring a kayak in the ocean is it swings to the side after a wave sweeps by and then the next wave catches you sideways. I moved to a drift anchor, that will do the job nicely. You will still drift but not as fast.

The bait at the Oceanside receiver is lousy a lot of the time, It dies out quick regardless of water flow. Even in a 25 gallon well with a pump connected to 12V they die pretty quick. When that happens, try cutting the head and tail off the fresh dead and drifting that over the rocks. Or flyline a chunk as you drift over the spot. Both have had good results for me.

Also, if it looks to be rough, don't go, it can be frustrating to try to fish the reefs and sometimes isn't fun, the reefs will be there the next time.

Also, the outer reefs will sometimes harbor some 50-100 BSB, try one of those on your bass setup.