Into The Third Dimension
Kayak sailing on the Monterey Bay.
Story/Photos/Videos by Marc Owerfeldt

We were looking for salmon out of Moss Landing but the best part of the day was the sail back home.


Posted on May 9, 2020

Jason arrived and things looked promising. The fog had come in, it was cold at the launch - typical salmon weather.

We paddled two miles out and started trolling. Almost glassy conditions and low winds. Marine life had picked up considerably over previous trips, every once in a while anchovies were breaking the surface and whales were working all around us. You could hear even the slightest sound on this windless morning and I paid extra attention to the catch of my paddle to avoid any type of splash or other disturbances. Then something incredible happened: we saw two large dorsal fins swim by. I thought that those must be Orcas but later, after additional reasearch, changed my mind and now believe that two Great White Sharks, about 10-12 feet in length, were swimming not far from us.

5 miles later we arrived at the Petrale Sole spot, neither one of us had seen any interest in the anchovies we skillfully trolled behind our boats. The corona lockdown had eased off a bit and there were a few other boats on the water but not a single salmon catch as far as we could tell.

We switched to deep dropping for Petrale Sole, a welcome respite from trolling, but the Petrale weren't home either. Just a few Sand Dabs accepted our offerings. Since we were zero-for-two I guided us to a nearby reefy area and we immeditely hooked into a school of Canary Rockfish. They are beautiful fish and I was happy to bring something home for the dinner table.

Since we were about 7 miles offshore we had one more shot at salmon by trolling back to port. I wanted to try something new. A westerly breeze had started to blow and I decided to troll under sail power. At first I was not sure about it at all.

It is one thing to control a sea kayak in ocean swells by paddling, another thing to also fish while doing this, and a third thing altogether to handle a sail while continuing the first two activities.


INTO THE THIRD DIMENSION

This is how I shall call it, the Third Dimension of fishing from a sea kayak. Fortunately, winds were fairly light at 5-10 knots and Jason was there to help out should I make a mistake and go over. A few nervous moments to set the sail, to counter the first sudden pull by the wind, and then I started to get the hang of it.

Sailing back to port.

The sail worked out really well and I managed to troll at 3 mph on this downwind run without even paddling (and much faster when I sheeted in and started paddling). This was my main takeaway from this trip: the sail is a really useful tool for trolling applications and to get back home if you plan well.

A peak below.
Jason on his Revo 13.
Sailing away.

Crossing the Monterey Canyon.
Kayak sailing.
Canary Rockfish and Sand Dabs.

Later that same day I read that all the salmon action was 8-10 miles north of us in an area called the Soquel Hole.

"The Salmon bite was good at 36'52/121'56 and 36'50/122'00. The majority of the Salmon were caught 20-70 feet down. There were some deeper fish caught in the afternoon. The wind was down all morning."

The magenta line shows the path we traveled.

Distance: 18 miles
Duration: 8 hours 40 minutes