Newport, 8-18-17 - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

Amish Ed · 08-18-2017, 12:22 PM

Launched with Landwhale at about 6:45 to low clouds and no wind. Water was warm (no FF today as I was feeling lazy), clear, and holding lots of floating eel grass.

We spent most of our time on the buoy line. Fish were short biting quite a bit, but we picked away at mostly short spotties. I did get 2 keepers in this area, and a short butt too. Today the fish were mostly on the deeper side, unlike the last few times where they were mostly shallow. Wind came up about 8:30, but it wasn't much of an issue as it was slack tide. In the first 1/2hr I went from 3 functional rods to 1. One had a line issue and the other the level wind is busted (grabbed the wrong rod when loading up).

About 9:00 we moved over to fish the channel off the Harbor Patrol docks. First couple drifts (over by the yellow stick buoy) yielded lots of short strikes and not much else. Then I did 2 drifts from the buoy to the docks and got 6 spotties. a few more drifts for nada, and then 2 more drifts for a spot each. We wrapped it up early (10:00) as Steve's yak was taking on too much water and I needed to get home.

Only used 1/2oz Coolbaits underspins all morning. One was plain and had either a 4" houdini Paddlerz or 4" bad shad Paddlerz. The other was chartreuse/white with a 4" chartreuse copper Kalin grub. All of these caught some fish, but the bad shad combo did best. There was lots of fin bait around, so I'd assume that helped. Tempo for me was faster than normal, winding at a moderate speed seemed to get the fish to commit. Where as when I wound slowly, I would get short strikes. Also, Hot Sauce made a noticeable difference too. I was constantly reapplying.

Over all it was a great day to be out and having not been out in 3 weeks made it that much sweeter.

08-18-2017, 12:22 PM	#1
Amish Ed Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Grants Pass, OR Posts: 1,903	Newport, 8-18-17 Launched with Landwhale at about 6:45 to low clouds and no wind. Water was warm (no FF today as I was feeling lazy), clear, and holding lots of floating eel grass. We spent most of our time on the buoy line. Fish were short biting quite a bit, but we picked away at mostly short spotties. I did get 2 keepers in this area, and a short butt too. Today the fish were mostly on the deeper side, unlike the last few times where they were mostly shallow. Wind came up about 8:30, but it wasn't much of an issue as it was slack tide. In the first 1/2hr I went from 3 functional rods to 1. One had a line issue and the other the level wind is busted (grabbed the wrong rod when loading up). About 9:00 we moved over to fish the channel off the Harbor Patrol docks. First couple drifts (over by the yellow stick buoy) yielded lots of short strikes and not much else. Then I did 2 drifts from the buoy to the docks and got 6 spotties. a few more drifts for nada, and then 2 more drifts for a spot each. We wrapped it up early (10:00) as Steve's yak was taking on too much water and I needed to get home. Only used 1/2oz Coolbaits underspins all morning. One was plain and had either a 4" houdini Paddlerz or 4" bad shad Paddlerz. The other was chartreuse/white with a 4" chartreuse copper Kalin grub. All of these caught some fish, but the bad shad combo did best. There was lots of fin bait around, so I'd assume that helped. Tempo for me was faster than normal, winding at a moderate speed seemed to get the fish to commit. Where as when I wound slowly, I would get short strikes. Also, Hot Sauce made a noticeable difference too. I was constantly reapplying. Over all it was a great day to be out and having not been out in 3 weeks made it that much sweeter. __________________ Amish Ed You can't catch it again if it's dead!