The first half of early September was not a pleasant one with fires looming large on the landscape around my house. With the threat now passed I decided a trip to the coast in my kayak was due. With warm stagnant air settling over much of the state I decided a trip to the strait for some rockfish seemed like a doable adventure. The exchanges were fairly large but the wind and swell were all favorable so I zeroed in on a 3 hour window around the high slack.

Dense fog greeted me and as I made my way out onto the fishing grounds I suddenly found myself in the company of two pairs of Grey Whales. They hung around with me for much of the day often feeding within 100 yards.

The first 45 minutes was a bit of struggle finding only the odd Copper Rockfish, Greenling, and Lingcod. Eventually I stumbled onto a massive school of Black Rockfish and it was lights out for 90 minutes straight. The average size of these fish was amazing and I don't think I remember having that much fun in a long time. Doing it all on a 6' medium bass spinning setup made it even more sporty.

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