Tag Archives: Fish Tails

Village Talk

02.01.21 An octopus walked into a bar…

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This story is about our dumb luck friend Charlie… for the record, he even named his new boat Dumb Luck. This story took place easily five (5) years ago, if not longer while fishing the kelp beds off of the Strands out of Dana Point California.

The day started off as usual, we rolled into the Pure Watersports parking lot late (thanks Joe), Charlie was impatient and nothing went to plan. At some point we launched and charged north towards the headlands. We were in search of sheephead and big bass.

See… we do a lot of shit talking. I am pretty confident that the majority of the banter exchanged between Joe, Charlie, Tommy and I is largely nonsense. So with that knowledge… imagine how this would go down:

Charlie blurts out \”I got something\” over the radio. For the most part, we didn\’t think much of it. Then we heard him start screaming… not the big fish kind of screaming, more like laughing and terrified at the same time.

We couldn\’t understand what was going on… not that it mattered because he started heading our direction. As Chuckles started to get closer, we realized that he had an octopus on his line. This is where it gets hilarious.

Apparently Charlie does NOT like octopuses… As he was trying to figure out how to remove an animal with 8 arms, a beak and squirts ink on ya we chimed in and said… \”Whatever you do, don\’t let it touch your kayak!\” SMACK!

That was the sound of the octopus sticking onto Charlie\’s kayak which provoked Charlie to climb onto his seat and threaten to abandon ship and swim back. We laughed so hard. Fortunately for Charlie… the big bad mini octopus (yeah that is right, it was small) worked it\’s way to the bottom of his kayak and eventually let go and swam off. Both Charlie and the octopus (that is a good title for a book) were safe and unharmed.

Thanks again Charlie for a good laugh!

Village Talk

01.19.21 Do you get wet?

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This story is about my first La Jolla kayak fishing experience.

I have been fishing damn near my entire life, however I have only been kayak fishing for a less than a decade. So in my first couple of years as a kayak angler, I had a lot of new experiences.

  • Getting stuck in the kelp
  • Octopus on your kayak (another Fish Tails story coming soon)
  • Surf launches (several Fish Tails stories coming your way)
  • Pooping (too many to tell, but I will tell some anyways)

For those that have launched their kayak out of La Jolla knows that there is a large surf zone that you have to punch through to get to the fishing grounds. Usually it doesn\’t take much effort to get past the surf zone, but the odds are high that you will get wet or soaked in the process.

Fortunately this funny story has nothing to do with me eating shit in the surf zone at La Jolla… instead this story is about a quick conversation I had with an old lady at 5:30 in the morning pulling my yak towards the shoreline.

Wayne Johnson… a Dana Point local kayak angler out of Pure Watersports – Dana Point asked me if I wanted to fish La Jolla with him. This guy has been yanking on big yellows, white sea bass and halibut from a kayak for quite some time… I figured I could learn a few things so I said yes. So we met in Dana Point, loaded up the kayaks and headed south to La Jolla.

We circled the neighborhood to find a decent parking spot and began to unload the yaks. Wayne was quick to be ready and started to head down to the water. As I slowly worked my way to the shoreline, an old lady stopped me and asked me…

  • Old Lady: \”What are you doing with that canoe?\”
  • Me: \”I am going fishing mam\’m.\”
  • Old Lady: \”Here?\”
  • Me: \”Yes, right down the street.\”
  • Old Lady: \”What about the surf?\”
  • Me: \”We hope for the best.\”
  • Old Lady: \”DO YOU GET WET?\”
  • Me: \”Most of the time.\”

The look she gave me was worth the drive. She was confused and annoyed with me all the same. To be fair… she called my kayak a canoe. This story makes me laugh.

Village Talk

01.14.21 Charlie\’s dumb luck stole my money

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Re-told from the events that occurred on July 15th back in 2017.

I\’ll set the stage for ya… it is the July Fishing w/ Friends kayak fishing tournament that is held out of Pure Watersports in Dana Point, California. The event is merely a small gathering of like minded individuals that like to place a small friendly wager to see who can catch the biggest fish. Truth be told… we probably all do it for the feast afterwards.

So Charlie, Tommy, Joe and I started our day like usual… late, slow and always annoying Charlie. See… I am an anxious person, but I am nothing compared to Charlie. No matter what we do… he is annoyed with us, yet he likes to hang out with us. We don\’t get it.

We lazily pointed our yaks towards the \”Pipe\”, a known underwater rock structure just outside Dana Point harbor and Doheny Beach. We fished it with our usual amount of banter, breakfast beers and Pop-Tarts. At some point we were over it and moved on to another spot closer to shore. As we worked our way back towards the harbor mouth we stopped to bullshit some more.

An extremely lazy Charlie had a Shimano Waxwing dangling just below his kayak when something started to happen. Now… let me be clear. Charlie was NOT fishing. Now the photos may suggest otherwise, but this f\’n guy wasn\’t even fishing.

Charlie was screaming, cursing, laughing and perhaps in a slight panic (we all know the truth). He was hooked big. We all backed away and let him do his thing. A short fight later… this freaking guy has a giant White sea bass draped across his lap with that shit eating grin on his face.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I mean look at that freaking tail.

Though we may be talking shit on Charlie and making fun of how he landed that giant White sea bass… he got the last laugh that day as he giggled all the way back to the dock and took all of our money.

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