DP long Haul, Mystery Fish and MOLA"S

[steveooo]

Sorry, Long Report.
Went out of DP last Saturday for the loooong haul, looking for a T. Paddled out through the biggest bait balls I have ever seen. Literally these balls had to be the size of 15-20 football fields. I chased birds and bait all day, dragging a couple of magnum Rapallas por nada. I had clearance from the wifey, so I stayed out long. I paddled out so I was with the boat fleet 11 miles off of the hospital in Laguna. Literally halfway to Catalina. I did get to see some cool stuff out there. I had a BIG school of porpoise swim through. At the same time I see my rod tip start to dance. My line went slack and I was a little confused. I look down to my left and 2 feet below my Yak was a dolphin holding my Rapalla in its mouth. It was cool to see the dolphin that close. I could see scars on its body, even some that looked like squid suction cup marks on it's head. He stayed right below me, looking at me for about a minute. He then let go of my Rapalla and shot up out of the water and dove over my bow. So freaking cool!! I also saw a bunch of Mola Molas. I reached out and touched one of the smaller ones, And paddled around the 200 lb models.

I also found a mystery fish swimming around on the surface. He had obviously had a bad day and had a couple of holes from somethin nasty. It looked like a cross between a giant lizard fish and a Spanish Mack.




Lots of PB's got into the T's on the BOM's, but it was obvious that they had no interest in the Rapallas.
I started the Paddle back to the faint image of the point off dana harbor. 5 hours later I am back on land and exhausted, but satisfied that I did not miss out due to lack of effort. I went 28 total miles for the day, trolling 2 big lures for most of that time. I entertained myself on the paddle in by listening to the Radio chatter on 72. My favorite was when they started talking about that "crazy guy on the kayak", and they were speculating on how I got out there. I kinda was beginning to wonder that myself.
I drank almost 5 gallons of water, but was still very dehydrated when I got back to the harbor. Needless to say, I am still recovering from it. Fun day, I still suck at shark fishing, and I'm tired.

Steve

[wavster]

Originally Posted by steveooo

...I drank almost 5 gallons of water, but was still very dehydrated ...

5 gallons or 5 liters? That's a lot of water (and 40lbs of extra weight).

Great effort. Bummer you didn't get what you were looking for. Sounds
like a great experience, with the dolphins and mola molas.

[Zed]

Holy 3-hour tour!

That Dolphin:
"Excuse me, I think you dropped this. It has some sharp points and it could hurt someone. Here ya go, bye!"

Awesome report, and you ARE that crazy kayaker.

Z

I'm looking into your mysteryfish. That's a good one.
leaning toward a hake/whiting

[esdees]

Wow, that's pretty cool. Can you imagine trying to paddle back after fighting a big shark for a couple hours?

[glenniesan]

Nice one! Sounds like quite the trek! Sounds like a great opportunity to widen the experience level! Nice pics.

[steveooo]

Originally Posted by wavster

5 gallons or 5 liters?

5 Gallons, probably more if I had time to do the math. Brought out my 10 liter MSR Dromedary bag full, filled it from a super cool boat out in the fleet and drank it 2 more times. I was sweating like the only hooker at a Shriners convention, or a cub scout at neverland, or like a pig, or like a whore in church, or like a fat kid at cannibal camp, or like a Yellowtail at... you get the picture

[Dan]

Originally Posted by steveooo

I was sweating like the only hooker at a Shriners convention, or a cub scout at neverland, or like a pig, or like a whore in church, or like a fat kid at cannibal camp, or like a Yellowtail at... you get the picture

You Canooks are funny lol

28 miles is pretty awesome Steve.

[mg2969]

Very kewl
How long were you actually out for ?

[Handymansd]

It just goes to show why I am thinking my next pig will be peddle powered!!

Great photos of the mola, and an epic fun ride!!.

Steve, That's F-king amazing!!!! Yani

[lamb]

wow Steve, that's hard core.

Glad you made it back safe.

What the hell is that fish??

[Zed]

still leaning toward Pacific whiting/hake.

[bajadog]

Epic paddle!!!

[tylerdurden]

Great mola pic. I've tried to get a good pic of them many times and failed. I really enjoy taking and seeing good underwater shots of fish.

The T sharks didn't seem to like the plug trolled behind the kayak this year for me either. They did enjoy slapping the crap out of the live macs though .

[THE DARKHORSE]

I can imagine to someone with a paddle kayak hearing of a "28 mile trip" being a little skeptical, you must be on a Hobie. From the sounds of things you aren't scared of long trips so I might keep you in mind when I'm fishing the "Nine" all summer for Albacore and Dorado if they come in hard.

[Mike McFann]

All I can say is "WOW".

Bet you will be a wee sore for the next few days>

[Oolie]

tomcod tomcod.

[h2ofishfo]

i can only imagine if u had tshark 2 tow back u would probaly would think about dumpin it

[Donfish]

Definatly a Pacific Hake. They are usually down in the 700' + range mixed in with the sablefish. They usually have metallic green and Rusty brown/red Bars on them but definatly a bad day for that fish. Swordies like em.

You are an Animal being that far out Great report