season closer 12-31

 foelaunched in avila beach for the last day of rockfish season for 2011 until may 1st. i dont like fishing the kelp beds down there but the north county was to big and windy. wanted to fish the open rocks in deeper water but the offshore winds were to strong to paddle against. now to freshwater or sandy areas for halibut until may 1st when rockfish season opens back up.

cambria- leffingwell

launched at leffingwell in cambria to less than admirable conditions, the wind was blowing white caps over the bow of our kayaks and no one was stoked on the slow fishing. brought home three rockfish and the only one worth mention was this 15.5 " grass bass. thats swift letting me know its still moving.

primos truth cam

just got a new camera, went for the primos truth cam 60 because i wanted to start getting some videos. so far it has been pretty good its infrared too so it wont have that whiteout flash effect that i always have with the older flash models, but i miss the color night photos.

saturday at windmills

launched at windmills on a 5 ft. day lots of movement in the water but a slow day fishin overall. released a 21 inch ling and took home this 26 incher and 1 black and yellow. the outer reef was breaking and we pretty much took refuge inside and in the channel.

shell beach in december

                                                                  fished the outside without much luck, started inside and got 1 black and yellow. decided to call it a day but on my way in the waves were so flat that i decided to fish real close to the rocks and found this decent cab in 10 feet of water, it put up a good fight and made the trip worth it.

another day at the windmill

started off sat. morning standing at spooners cove watching the outside break with ten foot faces and the inside looking like a washing machine. decided to check cayucos and the wind was easily 25 mph offshore and unfishable. the day was growing to late for me to fish, so came back the next day to windmills to find a sunny glassy cove with a smooth launch- this was the result

once upon a game trail

       it seems that there are more bobcats in this area than i thought, they keep showing up on every camera trap set. along with the opossum there were several shots of deer and california wood rats but none of the wood rat photos were close enough to post.

an opossum pronounced possum

kayak fishing- windmills

spent another morning on the water, the wind was howling offshore and we took for granted that it usually dies out and has a lull until the onshores turn on, this was not the case, the moment the offshores quit the onshores started blowing it was bazaare. the good news is we got some fish, nothing major but at least we weren't skunked.

rocky canyon trail

chalk dudylea

The family and i decided to try a new trail close to home, ended up at rocky canyon and realized it lives up to its name, the trail was riddled with rocks and i had to hold up the back of the jogging stroller to make a smoother ride for our son. my wife spotted theese succulents and at first i thought somebody planted them in one spot until i realized they were all the way up the mountain, then i looked them up at home and realized they are a native succulent called a chalk dudylea.

view of lingering storm clouds

red fox

i found a trail behind some houses that had reported hearing a mountain lion 2 nights before so i figured i'd give it another shot. didn't get any lions but this red fox was a nice surprise.

dry creek bed

this was actually a failed attempt at trying to get a mountain lion on the trap, i hiked for a couple miles through the oak canopy to try to find a promising and remote spot to place the cameras where they would be safe, as this is public area. after hiking for awhile i found a spring that had numerous tracks around it but it was adjacent to a pretty popular trail so i concealed them best i could and only let them soak for 2 nights because i was worried about the cameras being stolen. as you can see there is quite a bit of activity for the short period of time.

an example of the busy trail

the smelly kids in class

another first, pig in daylight!

suprisingly this is my first skunk on a trail cam i've seen them alot and there tracks are abundant but this stinker won the race.

k9's and felines

sort of a lot of photos for a trial cam blog but thats what they are for might as well share.

this is the same trail used by an array of different species, no scents were used to bait these critters but there is a spring nearby.

cayucos cabezon

only got to be on the water for an hour but this was the result. better than the couch.

another day on the water

 embarking on the trail to windmills launch spot for kayak fishing.

another gopher cod for the frying pan, fish tacos!!!!

kayak fishing

paddled out of port san luis, slow morning not many bites, got two of these it's either a gopher cod or a black and yellow hard to tell because it's dark brown and yellow

elk and coyote

second coyote in the background marking his territory

large elk and coyote

kayak fishing port san luis

 fished the breakwater had some ling luck.

this one was 22 1/4'' just barely legal since i had the big one it was this fish lucky day i let it go.

32" 12 lb ling.