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I launched from Del Monte Beach, near MBK, at 8am. Flattest ocean I ever paddled. No wind and zero swell. Nice and sunny too. It was like a lake and I had to take off my paddling jacket it was so hot.

I hadn't fished there before and I wanted to scout the area before the MBK Tourney next Sunday. Original plan was to try for halibut but we found some interesting structure; there are some shale beds out there near the yellow bouy. It started slow with a few blues, olives, and a starry rockfish.
Then we decided to do some major searching with our fishfinders. Found a good looking spot and Bingo! It was nonstop action on a wide variety of rockfish.

The big krocadile was killing it. But a lot of fish were also hitting the shrimpfly above it too. I also got a lot of fish on my special swimbait. Its a modified Gulp swimbait on a 3oz leadhead with a hoochie skirt. I'll attach some pics of these goodies.

Caught a new Personal Best vermillion from a kayak. It went for the kroc around 10:30 in approx 120 FOW.  I thought I had lingzilla on there but it turned out to be a double: big old red and a 14 inch copper. This beast measured 21.5 inches and weighed 4lbs 14ozs. It definitely looked like it could've weighed much more because it had a huge head and skinny belly.

Other highlights of the day included a double of a 23 inch lingcod and a 13 inch stary. AND almost my first white seabass! Well, I caught a big, weird fish and couldn't ID it. I took a picture and sent it to my friend then called him immediately. We ID'd it as an ocean whitefish. Very beautiful fish and the first whitefish I've caught. But, man, I totally thought I caught a WSB (even though I had resigned to releasing it because it wouldn't have been legal if it were a WSB. This one was about 19 inches and WSB must be 28 inches to keep.)! Well, at least now I get to tase whitefish for the first time.  

Jeff also caught a new PB vermillion, just a few ozs smaller than mine. It was part of a double hookup and went for the 6 inch white scampi on a 4oz leadhead. He got it on the paddle back in. Thats always a great way to end the day.

I kept the big red, a copper, a brown, a blue, and the whitefish. All other fish made it back down safely, but I had to use the Shelton Release a few times. We both caught over 30 fish each. I got some serious bass thumb today!
The wind came up around 1 but it wasn't that bad. It was a long paddle back to the beach. I am too used to fishing in places where you only need to paddle like a 1/2 mile. We paddled a total of 6 miles today though.

Really glad I brought the GPS...got some reefs marked for the tourney now!

PK

Pic 1: the hot lures
Pic 2: mystery fish
Pic 3: confirmed ocean whitefish
Pic 4: my big red
Pic 5: Jeff's stringer
Pic 6: major bass thumb
Pic 7: time for some stabbin!