[Paddlewise] Extreme Kayak Fishing

Kayakers,

I had a hard decision to make this weekend.  Three of my best kayak fishing 
buddies decided to fish out of Newport.  For a few weeks now, I've been 
wanting to get into the good fishing that has been hitting off San Onofre.  
However, my fishing buddies were not interested in launching there, and I 
knew I was going to have to go at it myself.  Still, I didn't want to miss 
the camaraderie of being with my buddies on the water.  On the other hand, I 
really wanted a chance at the barracuda that had been hitting well at San 
Onofre.  This time I sacrificed being with my buddies for a chance at the 
barracuda.

As I put my gear together Saturday night, something told me to bring the 
landing net, which was strange because as a minimalist, I almost never bring 
my net.  I release almost all of my fish anyway.  Anyhow, the net was packed.

At about 6:30am on Sunday, I arrived at San Onofre.  The surf forecast was 
right on.  There were overhead sets coming in, and a lot of the surfers were 
staying on the beach.  As I geared up my kayak, one wave ski surfer who said 
he was an experienced fisherman told me that I wouldn't catch anything, 
because I started too late in the morning and was using jigs instead of live 
bait.  Blah, blah, blah, and yeah, yeah yeah.  Another wave ski surfer and a 
board surfer told me I was crazy to launch a sea kayak through those waves.  
Blah, blah, blah, and yeah, yeah, yeah.

I wish all of those nay sayers would stay home until they sucked the worry 
warts off their thumbs!

Anyhow, I was happy to demonstrate launching my sea kayak through the surf 
with barely getting my hair wet.

The sport fishing fleet was about a mile off San Onofre.  When I arrived 
there, the fleet moved another three miles down and off San Onofre.  I wanted 
to be where the fish are, so I followed them.

While drifting through the fleet about three miles off the coast, I caught a 
lot of stares.  A lot of boaters who don't know how well sound travels over 
water were making comments about me being crazy for being out there.  Blah, 
blah, blah, and yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have done a lot of kayak fishing, and I am embarrassed to say that I had 
never caught a legal size barracuda from a kayak.  I've caught my fair share 
of bass from a kayak, but not a lot of anything else.  I was there to catch 
barracuda.  So I was disappointed when I all saw being caught by the boaters 
were small sand bass.  I was bored with bass and wanted barracuda, so that is 
what I fished for.  I was dropping a UFO #1 in yellow, green and white to the 
bottom and winding it back up as fast as I could over and over.

After about 15 minutes I was beginning to think that I might have to explain 
to my buddies how I was skunked.  Then as the lure was about four feet from 
the side of the kayak, I saw a huge flash and a big yellow tail.  I knew it 
was a yellowtail, and I saw it strike and take the jig.

I had 20 pound test on my narrow frame Penn Jig Master reel, and I let the 
fish take all the line it wanted, which was a lot.  I knew there wasn't any 
structure below for the fish to break the line off on.  It went deep.

Fifteen minutes passed before I saw color.  I wasn't in a hurry to pull it 
in, because I wanted it to be nice and tired before netting it.  Now I knew 
why something was telling me to bring the net!  I saw color a few times, and 
each time the fish went deep again.  I knew the line was strong enough, but I 
was concerned about the fish spitting the jig, because the lure had only a 
single hook, and I had filed off the barb to make releasing fish easier.

Finally, it was time to net the fish of my lifetime.  With the seven foot 
rod, I let the fish have about six feet of line and I brought the fish to the 
bow and just below the surface.  I held the rod in my left hand and the net 
in my right.  As I brought the fish to the net, the fish spooked and made a 
short run.  I knew that if I didn't land this fish, my buddies would never 
believe me.  If I lost it, I wasn't even going to tell them.

I brought the yellowtail back up, and on the second try, it went right into 
the net.  I can't even begin to describe the feeling of having that fish 
safely in the net.  I let out a scream, and boaters in the area cheered.  The 
yellowtail was 33 inches long, and I put it between my legs in the cockpit.

At that point I was ready to go, but the weather was just too nice.  The sun 
was shining, and there was a nice breeze keeping me cool in the heat.  So I 
kept fishing.  I saw a kelp paddy that no one was on, so I casted to it.  I 
felt a light hit but the hook didn't grab.  Then I let the jig drop a bit and 
started reeling again.  A yellowtail followed the jig to the kayak.  A lot 
more casts on the paddy and nothing.

I did end up catching my first legal barracuda, which was anti-climatic after 
catching the yellowtail.  Before heading back, I caught another legal 
barracuda and lost a third.  The barracuda were quickly released on the jig 
with the single barbless hook.

Paddling back I knew I still had the overhead surf to contend with.  When I 
was in front of the beach, I stopped about 100 yards out from the breakers.  
I thought I was safe there.  After opening the spray skirt to start securing 
gear under the deck, I saw an overhead set of waves on the outside.  With no 
time to turn around, I paddled backwards to get past the breaking point.  
After all of my gear was secure, another overhead set came in, and I followed 
the last wave in.  Closer to the beach, I surfed a more manageable three foot 
wave toward the beach and had a dry landing.

On the beach I tried to find the wave ski surfer who told me I wasn't going 
to catch any fish.  I was going to make him take a picture of me with the 
yellowtail.  Unfortunately, he was gone, but someone else volunteered, and I 
had my picture taken with the fish of my lifetime.

Man, I love kayak fishing!

Duane Strosaker
Irvine, California
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