"KAYAK FOR THE KIDS" 7/26

A fellow kayaker, Captain Wade from Team Hobie, put's on a benefit kayak tournament called Kayak for the Kids, where all entry and donations go towards Rady's Children Hospital. I made time on my schedule to firstly donate my time and money to a great foundation, as well as testing my fishing skills since my first tournament.

I signed up for biggest Halibut and Bass divisions, and without being able to pre-fish this tournament, I relied solely on past experiences on this location. Loaded up my Cuda 14, with my bait tank and fully loaded poles. I'm always impressed at how well the Cuda performs under weight, as I smoothly moved along the bay waters, silently looking for fish.

Fellow Jackson Kayak member Jarrod McGehee joined in as well, with his fully rigged Cuda 14.

We were greeted with some fairly calm weather out in San Diego Bay at Tidelands park. About 20 other kayakers would comprise the tournaments entries. I was able to make quick work on some nice fish, but not until mid-morning, after dragging along some dead bait and swimbaits, was I able to bring in a nice halibut and toad spottie for measuring!

Finished out the day with 1 legal spottie to be measured and sweet halibut in hopes of being in the running. Surprisingly, I was able to win the halibut division, and took 2nd runner up for the bass division! Not bad for my 2nd tournament entry ever! 

It was definitely a great event, and look forward to fishing this again next year!

7/6 - LJ

0-1 ft waves at the launch in the morning, with little to no wind. pretty much lake-like conditions for most of the day. greenbacks were out in force, made about 10 before heading out to troll around. while trolling, saw a big mark coming through on my ff. was about to drop down, when it only got BIGGER! took a look under my yak, and what do you know, a HUGE whale just cruising along right under me! kept paddling along, throwing the surface iron at some puddles here and there. tossed the iron until it popped off and went bye-bye :(.  lots of other yakkers out, so I tried to paddle away from the crowds. got sliced through twice on 40lb test, think the sharks were out in force. stolen bait by dogs many a times as well :mad:. on one bait, as it was getting nervous, it was hit hard. reeled in the slack and it popped off. as i was reeling in my hook and line, a mack hooked itself. then another bigger fish started chasing it! looked like a barracuda (or a small yeller), but then then a dog came and stole the show...made a little more bait but then got slammed by a calico taking my sabiki with him. left around 4pm, as boat traffic picked up. all in all a pretty busy day, but fun to be on the water.