On the road at 6:00, parked and unloading gear by 7:00 at Palos Verdes, the penninsula at the southern edge of Santa Monica Bay, near Los Angeles. Rolled my Ocean Kayak Scupper Pro down a steep path to the beach. Surf was higher than I expected. I plowed through a few medium-sized breakers; my buddy got munched. He tried again, got out, and we set up our fishing gear, then began alternately trolling and drift-fishing in a southwest direction. The cliffs of the penninsula are covered in nasturtiums, which grow wild there, and multi-million-dollar Spanish-style villas sit at the top of the bluffs. Other than the surf, the only sounds were mockingbird calls, audible from half a mile away. I landed a calico bass (little did I know that it would be the only catch that day). We paddled a couple of miles in the direction of Rocky Point, drifted some more, got some tentative bites from hailbut, but hooked nothing. A pair of dolphins played near us, and groups of pelicans soared by from time to time. Occasional sets of six-foot swells rocked us. We trolled back and bided our time at the surf zone. I rode the back of a breaker in most of the way, then fell behind and was overtaken by the next small breaker. I got sideways; then the wave suddenly spit me out, swinging my bow back toward shore. A third small breaker took me onto the sand. My buddy caught a breaker far out and surfed it in perfectly, offsetting his earlier dunking. We busted our butts wheeling the yaks back up the long, steep road to the top of the cliff. Tomorrow: stalking the elusive barracuda. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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