After not quite a year in this sport -- I bought my first farmer john wetsuit today because I'm thinking about moving out of the bays.  I got a 2.5 mil NRS "Farmer John"wetsuit and some "booties" that seem appropriate for walking over rocks or sand. Most of the folks who fish down here in SoCal wear waders when they fish but I've only seen the ones who fish on the inside.  Since I seem to be traveling around a bit and I want to venture "outside" more .. time to get a training, a radio and a wetsuit.

 I have my surf launch and landing "lessons" booked for next week and I'll be learning on the "outside" at Cabrillo here in SoCal.     

Finally the question -- I did not spring for the Cobra Marine MR HH90 radio.  It's $54.  That seems like a reasonable price.  It's got a switchable 1/2 or 2 watt output.  Anyone have any opinions on that radio?

ps -- last week I did some fishing out of Santa Cruz.  Didn't do any catching, but still had a great time and met up with a few local fishermen from NCKA who were really nice.

Dave

Had a great time at Cabrillo on the inside this afternoon in spite of the wind.   I caught my first legal halibut today  (released), a short wsb (released), and a 17" spotted bay bass which I kept and ate for dinner.  I was OTW at 3:30 and fished until sundown.

The halibut was  22" and a smidge but I didn't feel  secure with my measurement on my homemade board slopping around in the wind and waves so figured it was better to release the fish.   I was gentle with it and did all I could to take care of it.

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I caught all the fish on plastic swim baits with 1.5 ounce leadhead.    Basically I just put in at the boat ramp, drifted out towards the green buoy, pedaled back against the wind -- repeat.  I got bit every time and had several fish on that I didn't manage to land. I got the short wsb near the green buoy and I got the spotted bay bass right up next to the jetty in the kelp near the entrance to the marina.

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This odd story, there was a little skunk wandering around at the tip end of the jetty by the boat ramp.  I pedaled over to take his picture and he decided to go swimming!  He started swimming right towards me and I decided it was time to pedal away!  I may have been chased by a skunk, but I certainly wasn't skunked.  What a great day, the the bas was quite tasty for dinner!

btw == I'm coming up to Eureka with my hobie on June 13-17.  I hope to fish Trinidad harbor and .. .. ??   

I fished Freshwater Lagoon again today with almost identical results as Tuesday except it wasn't raining.     Was OTW at 1:30 and off at 5:00.  I caught four of the hatchery trout.   One fish was 12" the other three were smaller.   I caught all of them trolling a red spinner.  The fish seemed more spread out today, not concentrated in the southwest end.  I caught the 12" fish almost in the middle of the lagoon, the others were spread around from the west side to the southeast side.  I circumnavigated the entire lagoon while trolling.  It was a tad windy but that's not much of a problem in the hobie.

There were lots of people  fishing. One guy in a bass boat, two guys in inner tubes, and quite a few shore fishermen, mostly in waders, fly-fishing.    They guy in the bassboat was bass fishing and had three, one was pretty nice. (maybe 4 lbs). The guys in the inner tubes were trout fishing and had about the same luck as I did.  They mentioned that the lagoon was stocked on Monday.  One of the shore fishermen said he had tried Stone Lagoon earlier today and had no luck.  (like me, yesterday)

This was my last hurrah for this trip.  I'm headed back to San Jose tomorrow, then LA on Saturday.   It sure is nice up here. My wife tells me it's 80 degrees at home!  I think I like it better up here. -- So it's 299 to I5 tomorrow to avoid the Garberville mudslide!

I'll be back up in June.   

Dave

I'm a socal guy on spring break.  I came up to visit my daughter in Eureka and brought my hobie sport all the way from L.A.  My goal for Spring Break is to try fishing the Humboldt Lagoons.

I stopped by the DFG office in Eureka this morning to get a steelhead card and bought $30 worth of tackle (lures, etc) at Pro Sport Center before heading out today to freshwater lagoon. (I know, no steelhead in that one.)

Of course I got soaking wet, but had a great time.   I got OTW about 12:30.  First I tried bass fishing along the north east end of the lagoon using a rapala like lure and some plastics.  I saw an otter feeding in the shallow water which was a real treat for me -- took a picture but it did not turn out.    I did not see any fish and had no bites. There was a fellow in waders fly fishing along the north west shore.  I did not see him hook up.

When I was up last Christmas I talked to some guys who had caught trout while trolling spinners so I decided to try to cover a lot of water and trolled a spinner while pedaling across the lake towards the south west side.

Did I mention it was raining and I got soaked?

When I got to the south west side, near where 101 comes down to the lagoon, I some fish hitting the surface so I trolled about 10 yards away from shore and caught my first trout on the spinner.  It was 11 inches.  I released it.  It wasn't much longer and I caught another, exactly the same size.  So I just went up and down that area trolling that spinner.  I caught a third, but this fish looked like it hat been hit.  It was scarred, and it wasa little smaller,  10".   All along that bank there were small trout jumping.  I assume they are the planted rainbow trout but I noticed all of them had their adipose fin.  (I thought hatchery fish had that clipped?)   I decided I should cover more water and started on around the south easter side but had no more bites and did not see any fish, so I went back to the spot that produced and caught a final fourth fish that was 11" long. 

By now I was soaked and getting cold so at 4 :14 I decided to pedal back to the care at the north end of the lagoon. I think if I'd have stayed I could have continued catching fish that size there.  It seemed to produce, consistently.  I took a few pix with my soaked cell phone camera.  Will try to attach. [Had trouble posting pix ... will try shrinking and try again, later.]

So -- I have a question .. if you were me, would you go back to Freshwater tomorrow or check out the recently breeched Stone Lagoon or Big Lagoon?  I took a look at both and have not decided which one to try tomorrow!  I love it up here.