I went to Capitola again on Saturday, this time determined to actually do a little fishing instead of just paddling around.  I bought some new line (17-lb test) to replace the line which had rotted away (probably only 8 or 10-lb test, anyway).  I also bought some pre-packaged “surf leaders” to use instead of rolling my own.  Back in Florida, I would’ve just used about a 1-ft leader with a weight above the swivel.  These rigs had a swivel, about a foot to a foot and a half of line, and then a carabiner like snap on the end (they probably have a name, but I certainly don’t know it).  There were also two loops evenly spaced from swivel to end, but their function eluded me…  I put my  1-oz weight above the swivel and attached a hook at the bottom.Weather-wise, it was a great day to Paddle.  I actually got out of bed and started motivating the rest of the troops (a.k.a. friends who wanted to go to the beach) at around 9:30, but by the time everyone got ready, got lunch, and got on the road, we still didn’t make it down there until around 1:30 in the afternoon.  I’ve seriously got to work on these people’s roll-out-of-bed-and-go skills.  The little shop at the end of the pier only had 1-day fishing licenses, which I was a little peeved about.  A 1-day license runs around $12, and a 1-year license is only around $36.  I also got some frozen shrimp to use as bait… and then I was off.

The ocean current made me drift a bit more than I was expecting, making it a little tough to just drop the weight down into the holes in the giant kelp forest.  It was also a lot shallower than I thought it was going to be–I’d guess around 30 to 40 feet (I was thinking twice that).  For the first few tries, I was literally letting the bait sink to the bottom, then pulling it up immediately so it wouldn’t get dragged over the kelp my boat was crossing.  After a few rounds of that, I got wise and tied my kayak off to some kelp.  It’s pretty slimy stuff, and sometimes it breaks while you’re trying to tie it, but it does a pretty decent job of holding you in one place for a bit.

Armed with this new technique, I fished… and fished… and got nothing.  Not even a bite for the longest time.  I saw a few crabs clinging to the upper leaves of the kelp and a few tiny little fish, but nothing big stirring beneath the waters.  After a couple of hours, something big (I’d guess at least 2-feet long) swam past me about a foot under water, but I don’t know the species out here well enough (read: at all) to know what it was.  My line was about 30 feet deep at the time, so I had no chance to pull it in and try to lure it over (assuming the thing liked shrimp).  It was reassuring to see something big moving around, though.  I’d seen a couple of guys in wetsuits and fins waddling down the beach earlier with spear guns–I wonder if it’s legal to spear out of kayak out here…
I did get hung up several times, but the 17-lb test turned out to be a wise choice–it seems stronger than the breaking point of kelp, which meant I didn’t have to re-rig nearly as often as I was expecting.  I eventually did get one bite, but that was it.  I was probably only out there from about 2:30 to 5:00 or so (high tide was at 3:00, but I’m not sure what effect that has on anything yet), so one bite seemed like a pretty good first effort.

A couple of my friends were also out, just paddling around, so we decided to paddle out to the big orange buoy off the Capitola pier (someone in the shop said it was a mile out, but I have my doubts).  While paddling back in from the buoy, I guess I got going a little too vigorously… my paddle knocked my fishing pole (which was sitting in one of the rod holders just behind my seat).  It popped out of the hole and into the sea with a quick and final plunk.  I was moving to fast to stop and grab it–all I could do was twist in my seat and watch as it disappeared into a hundred feet of water.
On the bright side… at least I’d only bought a one day fishing license.

With nothing else I could do, I paddled back into shore.  While my friends were returning their boats to the rental shop at the end of the pier, another couple of kayaks beached.  One of them was outfitted with the exact same “surf leader” I’d been using, only with a completely different configuration.  There was a medallion-shaped weight  at the BOTTOM of the rig, with a couple of jigs tied to each of the loops between the swivel and the  weight.  In hindsight, that seemed much more practical for dropping bait into kelp beds.  The jigs were rigged in such a way that they looked fairly weedless, so next time I may dispense with the shrimp and just go plastic.  After I buy a new pole, that is.  It would be easy to say that the ocean kicked my ass on Saturday… but hey, a pointless day spent out on the water doing anything is better than sitting at home and watching  TV.  And at least I learned a few things:

• kelp = anchor
• bring more beer next time
• stow pole while paddling long distances
• so that’s how you rig it