South LJ 3/3 and 3/4 - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

blackcloud9 · 03-06-2007, 07:58 PM

Saturday and Sunday I launched near Big Rock in tiny surf and gin clear
water after fishing the beach for some halibut from the sand.

Saturday the rockfish deepwater bite was goin' on at 120 feet or so,
somewhere off Bird Rock. I released between 8 and 10 lingcod and
managed 4 vermillion, a couple sculpin and some bass, all on 2 oz plastics.
It was dead in my usual hardbottom haunts outside off of Marine St area.

Sunday was a beautiful day and I wanted to drift for halibut. Loaded the
tank with 10 smelt and some big macs on the inside and headed off Bird
Rock area to 60-80' of water. Water temp was showing 60+. Got a number
of sand bass and nice calicos on bait, before having 2 mutu lights
straightened out using smelt. Changed to bigger hooks with macks, and
got freight trained on 12" mack into the kelp which eventually broke off
and another something big came unbuttoned in the stringers.

Jeez

I need some practice. At 2 pm the wind kicked in strong from the North
and I was outta bait.

Free divers saw some wsb ... big ones out there.

Dennis · 03-07-2007, 02:20 AM

Very nice... Thanks for the report, Larry.

Slay Rider · 03-07-2007, 05:09 AM

I’m probably interpreting the regs wrong but it is worth discussing. As I read it RCG Complex (including all species of Rockfish as defined in Section 1.91) are closed to fishing from Mar-June in waters less than 180 ft and in waters deeper than 360 ft.

180 ft-360 ft = OK

steamroll · 03-07-2007, 05:47 AM

Nice report Larry.

Iceman · 03-07-2007, 06:20 AM

From the DFG site, no minumum depth of 180, just a max of 360.

[QUOTE]

Rockfish The recreational fishery for rockfish (Sebastes sp.) is open to boat-based anglers from March 1, 2007 through December 31, 2007. These species may only be taken or possessed4 in waters less that 360 feet (60 fathoms) deep (except in the Cowcod Conservation Areas – see below). The fishery for these species is open year-round to divers2 and shore-based anglers. The daily bag and possession limit is 10 fish in combination of all species within the RCG Complex (includes all species of Rockfish, Cabezon and Greenlings) per person, with a sub-limit on bocaccio (1 per person, minimum size limit of 10 inches total length, also included in the 10 fish RCG Complex aggregate limit). Yelloweye rockfish, canary rockfish and cowcod may not be retained (bag limit: zero). [/QUOTE]

Useful Idiot · 03-07-2007, 08:36 AM

When I was dealing with the MLPA kayaks and float tubes were considered shore based anglers. From what I can tell that would mean rockfish is open all year. Anybody got a contact at DFG to shoot an email?

Iceman · 03-07-2007, 08:48 AM

It has changed............Idiot

Quote:

Boat-based anglers are fishermen that fish from boats or vessels of any size or any other type of floating object, including kayaks and float tubes.

Useful Idiot · 03-07-2007, 09:24 AM

oh well, worth a shot...

Spinal Tap · 03-07-2007, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackcloud9

... Water temp was showing 60+.

Can anyone that went out on Sat. and Sun. confirm Larry's temps?

I dove both days and my friend's boat's meter read 54 degrees while my dive watch registered 55. My numb hands said "too f'ing cold".

I also didn't see any kelp. But I didn't go as far as Bird Rock.

Not much to report. Since there was no kelp, I dove shallow for bugs and reef fish, but didn't stay long due to the cold water. I did see a small school of huge greenbacks in about 20'. These suckers were about 1' long and about 3' tall.

Nate

wavster · 03-07-2007, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spinal Tap

Can anyone that went out on Sat. and Sun. confirm Larry's temps?

My transducer is mounted outside my yak and the highest surface temps I got this week
was around 56. I paddled as far south as North Windansea.

Is his transducer mounted in his hull? That would explain higher readings.

Holy Mackerel · 03-07-2007, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spinal Tap

Can anyone that went out on Sat. and Sun. confirm Larry's temps?

I dove both days and my friend's boat's meter read 54 degrees while my dive watch registered 55. My numb hands said "too f'ing cold".

Nate

I dove both Sat & Sun Bird Rock area.... I also had 54 degs on my dive computer both days... maybe he found a temp break ?

chris

blackcloud9 · 03-07-2007, 12:49 PM

Wow, lots of replies. They're just rockfish. Yes, season is open, and
lings start April 1, not that anyone much cares. Rockfish taste bad,
those yellows are yummy.

My transducer is mounted inside the hull and the midday sun was out so
could've been reading a little warm. I believe I saw the 60 ish reading
sitting inside the kelp stringers, where its very calm with little no
current to stir the solar surface warming.

Nate, that's you that always swims in at Big Rock from the boat with your spear-dive gear, right?

Spinal Tap · 03-07-2007, 12:58 PM

Larry,

I don't know if it's always me. I have done it a couple times, but usually I'm north of that area.

Where did you talk to the freedivers? I'm going out again tomorrow. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Nate

nmbrinkman · 03-07-2007, 01:00 PM

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/show_plot.p...eas=wtmp&uom=E

Temps seem to fluctuate throughout the day... I've been using this for a year now and this seems to be a pretty standard thing.. Could be surface temps affected by the sun, tempbreaks, etc...

lamb · 03-07-2007, 01:52 PM

Nice going on reds Larry! On Sunday, we couldn’t find reds in 160 – 180ft, spots where we were casthing them last few years. We only found the tiny ones at the canyon edge…

We were really looking forward to eating a few.

I was reading 57ish on Sunday… Lil warmer yesterday. It’s getting there.

I also found those buoy readings to be right on the ball last 1+ year I've been watching… The LJ one shows what the temp is outside the kelp.

La Jolla Buoy

Torrey Pines temps more to get an idea what’s coming our way with downhill current from the canyon…

Torrey Pines Buoy

Both we can thank NOAA for... They have an awesome site going with a lot of data... Pick your buoy and drill down - http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/maps/Southwest_inset.shtml

blackcloud9 · 03-07-2007, 04:38 PM

Here is the LJ buoy temp link I use:
http://cdip.ucsd.edu/?nav=recent&sub...em=temperature

... and that is surface temp like 5 miles offshore - brushing 61 degrees at times lately. It's certainly a few degrees cooler underwater where you guys are chasing fish.

Nate, there is another avid free-diver spearfisher guy who lives in Bird Rock and often swims in from a boat with his gear, and walks home. I usually talk with him on the beach. Anyway, if the current is not ripping, the floating kelp area is like straight SW of Hogan's point out in 50+' of water where the whites were allegedly chillin'.

That is the area where all the bait was concentrated, straight off Bird Rock Ave. Its no secret .... last Sunday there were like 20 boats all drifting outside that area for bottom fish.

The buoy forecast is showing some surf for the weekend, but I should be heading out on Sunday mid AM to that area if kayakers want to join up for light tackle rockfish, send me an email at Larry@LarryL.com . 20#spectra and light bass gear fishing 120'. Blast.

Spinal Tap · 03-07-2007, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackcloud9

Nate, there is another avid free-diver spearfisher guy who lives in Bird Rock and often swims in from a boat with his gear, and walks home. I usually talk with him on the beach. Anyway, if the current is not ripping, the floating kelp area is like straight SW of Hogan's point out in 50+' of water where the whites were allegedly chillin'.

Larry,

I know a handful of guys that are spearos that live in the Bird Rock area. I know a guy that "swims home". Did that guy tell you he saw the fish?

BTW, where is Hogan's point relative to Bird Rock? I'm not familiar with that land mark.

freediver · 03-07-2007, 10:04 PM

There are no WSb at Bird Rock, or any where close to Bird rock.Maybe up at Torrey Pines you could fing a few.
No posts, no pictures= no crowd

blackcloud9 · 03-08-2007, 06:35 AM

Freediver, everyone knows that *most* of the white seabass hang out in the canyon up by the point anyway, and, the rest mostly in North County. (Now I will get hate mail from North County.) Sheesh. I've never caught a decent WSB south of the Seal Pool.

I don't know what I'm talking about, hence, I clearly can't be giving anything away. You must know something that I don't .... its posts like that which really get people's attention. You've got mine, so, please tell us more.

Any reports of mine, "hearing that someone may have seen one WSB" are "alleged", and, I will deny all knowledge of said statement on the witness stand. Arne will represent me.

Regarding S La Jolla, even on the most crowded day, there seems to be no one around. It can be lonely, and, dangerous. Spectacularly dangerous. Bird Rock reefs are crappy surf spots too. : )

freediver · 03-08-2007, 08:02 AM

BC, I apologize. I did dive the Bird Rock area on Tuesday. My post was to hint that there were some fish there. I had my riffe stolen a few months ago so I was shooting my back up AB 60

. I missed an easy shot at a female. Guess I need to do some target practice because it definitely shoots sloopy.

03-06-2007, 07:58 PM	#1
blackcloud9 Kayaker Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Big Rock, WindanSea, La Jolla Posts: 413	South LJ 3/3 and 3/4 Saturday and Sunday I launched near Big Rock in tiny surf and gin clear water after fishing the beach for some halibut from the sand. Saturday the rockfish deepwater bite was goin' on at 120 feet or so, somewhere off Bird Rock. I released between 8 and 10 lingcod and managed 4 vermillion, a couple sculpin and some bass, all on 2 oz plastics. It was dead in my usual hardbottom haunts outside off of Marine St area. Sunday was a beautiful day and I wanted to drift for halibut. Loaded the tank with 10 smelt and some big macs on the inside and headed off Bird Rock area to 60-80' of water. Water temp was showing 60+. Got a number of sand bass and nice calicos on bait, before having 2 mutu lights straightened out using smelt. Changed to bigger hooks with macks, and got freight trained on 12" mack into the kelp which eventually broke off and another something big came unbuttoned in the stringers. Jeez I need some practice. At 2 pm the wind kicked in strong from the North and I was outta bait. Free divers saw some wsb ... big ones out there. __________________ Larry. Hobie Revolution 13. 25 years of kayak fishing La Jolla. https://larryl.com/photos

03-07-2007, 02:20 AM	#2
Dennis Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: South of La Jolla... Posts: 1,193	Very nice... Thanks for the report, Larry. __________________ Hmmmm.....

03-07-2007, 05:09 AM	#3
Slay Rider Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: 1 Posts: 108	I’m probably interpreting the regs wrong but it is worth discussing. As I read it RCG Complex (including all species of Rockfish as defined in Section 1.91) are closed to fishing from Mar-June in waters less than 180 ft and in waters deeper than 360 ft. 180 ft-360 ft = OK __________________

03-07-2007, 05:47 AM	#4
steamroll Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 385	Nice report Larry. __________________

03-07-2007, 06:20 AM	#5
Iceman Administrator Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: 1-2 miles off the point Posts: 6,943	From the DFG site, no minumum depth of 180, just a max of 360. [QUOTE] Rockfish The recreational fishery for rockfish (Sebastes sp.) is open to boat-based anglers from March 1, 2007 through December 31, 2007. These species may only be taken or possessed4 in waters less that 360 feet (60 fathoms) deep (except in the Cowcod Conservation Areas – see below). The fishery for these species is open year-round to divers2 and shore-based anglers. The daily bag and possession limit is 10 fish in combination of all species within the RCG Complex (includes all species of Rockfish, Cabezon and Greenlings) per person, with a sub-limit on bocaccio (1 per person, minimum size limit of 10 inches total length, also included in the 10 fish RCG Complex aggregate limit). Yelloweye rockfish, canary rockfish and cowcod may not be retained (bag limit: zero). [/QUOTE] __________________

03-07-2007, 08:36 AM	#6
Useful Idiot Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 286	When I was dealing with the MLPA kayaks and float tubes were considered shore based anglers. From what I can tell that would mean rockfish is open all year. Anybody got a contact at DFG to shoot an email? __________________

03-07-2007, 09:24 AM	#8
Useful Idiot Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 286	oh well, worth a shot... __________________

03-07-2007, 12:49 PM	#12
blackcloud9 Kayaker Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Big Rock, WindanSea, La Jolla Posts: 413	Wow, lots of replies. They're just rockfish. Yes, season is open, and lings start April 1, not that anyone much cares. Rockfish taste bad, those yellows are yummy. My transducer is mounted inside the hull and the midday sun was out so could've been reading a little warm. I believe I saw the 60 ish reading sitting inside the kelp stringers, where its very calm with little no current to stir the solar surface warming. Nate, that's you that always swims in at Big Rock from the boat with your spear-dive gear, right? __________________ Larry. Hobie Revolution 13. 25 years of kayak fishing La Jolla. https://larryl.com/photos

03-07-2007, 12:58 PM	#13
Spinal Tap Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 132	Larry, I don't know if it's always me. I have done it a couple times, but usually I'm north of that area. Where did you talk to the freedivers? I'm going out again tomorrow. Any help would be greatly appreciated Nate

03-07-2007, 01:00 PM	#14
nmbrinkman Work Sucks! Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: San Diego Posts: 559	http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/show_plot.p...eas=wtmp&uom=E Temps seem to fluctuate throughout the day... I've been using this for a year now and this seems to be a pretty standard thing.. Could be surface temps affected by the sun, tempbreaks, etc...

03-07-2007, 01:52 PM	#15
lamb Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 2,563	Nice going on reds Larry! On Sunday, we couldn’t find reds in 160 – 180ft, spots where we were casthing them last few years. We only found the tiny ones at the canyon edge… We were really looking forward to eating a few. I was reading 57ish on Sunday… Lil warmer yesterday. It’s getting there. I also found those buoy readings to be right on the ball last 1+ year I've been watching… The LJ one shows what the temp is outside the kelp. La Jolla Buoy Torrey Pines temps more to get an idea what’s coming our way with downhill current from the canyon… Torrey Pines Buoy Both we can thank NOAA for... They have an awesome site going with a lot of data... Pick your buoy and drill down - http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/maps/Southwest_inset.shtml __________________ [------------------------ <)))< ....b-a-a-a-a

03-07-2007, 04:38 PM	#16
blackcloud9 Kayaker Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Big Rock, WindanSea, La Jolla Posts: 413	Here is the LJ buoy temp link I use: http://cdip.ucsd.edu/?nav=recent&sub...em=temperature ... and that is surface temp like 5 miles offshore - brushing 61 degrees at times lately. It's certainly a few degrees cooler underwater where you guys are chasing fish. Nate, there is another avid free-diver spearfisher guy who lives in Bird Rock and often swims in from a boat with his gear, and walks home. I usually talk with him on the beach. Anyway, if the current is not ripping, the floating kelp area is like straight SW of Hogan's point out in 50+' of water where the whites were allegedly chillin'. That is the area where all the bait was concentrated, straight off Bird Rock Ave. Its no secret .... last Sunday there were like 20 boats all drifting outside that area for bottom fish. The buoy forecast is showing some surf for the weekend, but I should be heading out on Sunday mid AM to that area if kayakers want to join up for light tackle rockfish, send me an email at Larry@LarryL.com . 20#spectra and light bass gear fishing 120'. Blast. __________________ Larry. Hobie Revolution 13. 25 years of kayak fishing La Jolla. https://larryl.com/photos

03-07-2007, 10:04 PM	#18
freediver Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 7	No. There are no WSb at Bird Rock, or any where close to Bird rock.Maybe up at Torrey Pines you could fing a few. No posts, no pictures= no crowd

03-08-2007, 06:35 AM	#19
blackcloud9 Kayaker Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Big Rock, WindanSea, La Jolla Posts: 413	Freediver, everyone knows that most of the white seabass hang out in the canyon up by the point anyway, and, the rest mostly in North County. (Now I will get hate mail from North County.) Sheesh. I've never caught a decent WSB south of the Seal Pool. I don't know what I'm talking about, hence, I clearly can't be giving anything away. You must know something that I don't .... its posts like that which really get people's attention. You've got mine, so, please tell us more. Any reports of mine, "hearing that someone may have seen one WSB" are "alleged", and, I will deny all knowledge of said statement on the witness stand. Arne will represent me. Regarding S La Jolla, even on the most crowded day, there seems to be no one around. It can be lonely, and, dangerous. Spectacularly dangerous. Bird Rock reefs are crappy surf spots too. : ) __________________ Larry. Hobie Revolution 13. 25 years of kayak fishing La Jolla. https://larryl.com/photos Last edited by blackcloud9; 03-08-2007 at 07:29 AM.

03-08-2007, 08:02 AM	#20
freediver Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 7	BC, I apologize. I did dive the Bird Rock area on Tuesday. My post was to hint that there were some fish there. I had my riffe stolen a few months ago so I was shooting my back up AB 60 . I missed an easy shot at a female. Guess I need to do some target practice because it definitely shoots sloopy.