For those interested, here is a list of my gear that I have found works well for me. This is, of course, an affiliate link and your enjoyment of these may vary:
We woke up on a very cold Sunday and headed out to La Jolla Cove. It was a later start at about 7:00 AM. We got there and noticed the tide was in. I got hit in the chest with a couple of breakers on the way out, but nothing dangerous.
I headed out to where I could see some fish jumping, while The Fisherman stayed in just past the buoys, catching some mackerel for bait. I ended up catching a large mackerel with my squid and decided to troll the fish in hopes for a larger fish to go for it. The Fisherman, with a bucket of mackerel, caught up with me and we started trolling around. He saw a lot of barracuda going by, so he started casting his iron lure and got a lot of action.
He hooked a HUGE barracuda when an even bigger sea lion came up and grabbed it, just as The Fisherman was about to gaff it.
The struggle ensued, with the sea lion taking my mackerel and getting my line tangled on The Fisherman's back. With the sea lion circling The Fisherman's kayak (and almost as big as his kayak) and surfacing for air, which sounded like a whale's blowhole, The Fisherman's barracuda head (which was what was left of his catch) got caught on some lines that were from the sea lions previous thefts.
The struggle continued for several minutes, with me trying to get around to untangle my line from The Fisherman, while The Fisherman struggled to untangle his line before the sea lion capsized his kayak, some 3 miles from shore.
We finally got the line free and pulled up our respective fish heads, bitter that the sea lion got a nice brunch. We waited for the sea lion to plunder other boats before we started dropping squid over the side again.
The Fisherman ended up catching a red snapper and I caught a sculpin. We later saw some smaller harbor seals hanging out and they didn't bother us at all, just napping and floating near us.
We paddled back to shore and saw some jellyfish on the way. Using his GPS, The Fisherman estimated we paddled about 8 miles total. It was our furthest trip out yet.
Not a huge catch, but we got plenty of action. It was not a bad day and I got to try out my new (used) kayak. It worked rather well, even though its nose rides out of the water since I am seated in the rear seat.
