Oh boy...what a day!!! Boardfisher1 (Cal) and I have been talking about doing a marathon boardfishing day...parking a car at Cardiff and launching at Swamis about a mile and a half north. Plans were to hit the outside of the kelp where the big boats play, stand-up boardfish with the drift all the way down to Cardiff and then make our re-entry at the nice mellow flat beach at Cardiff. We decided that the 4th of July would be THE DAY!

At 5:30a we met up at Cardiff...a line of cars and RVs already waiting for some slumbering park ranger who would probably open the gates an hour later.



I left my car in the empty restaurant parking lot hoping it would be there when I got back and piled all my stuff into Cal's van for the trek north. Cal and his ritual early AM java...



After a few pleasantries with the local AM boys in the lot we hit the water. To my dismay a ton of styrofoam had washed up with the high tide. IT was everywhere and it was disgusting! And surprisingly there were several pairs of flip flops in the mix. YUCK...this stuff was floating in the ocean????????????



My rig...



A Mishfish-eye view of my rig...sur la mer...



We high tailed it through the thick kelp and hit the outside by about 6:15a. Gorgeous sunrise...some fun looking waves (I was trying to ignore them and not get swamped on the paddle out) but not a lot stirring...



Conditions are perfect...glassy and not a lick of wind. It stayed that way for most of the day. I found a nice open channel in the kelp for some fly casting...



Couldn't have been glassier...



Made a few cast down the edges of the kelp and low and behold...plaid! I think Whipitgood or Corbinafly gave me the lucky fly at a Trout Hugger's Ball last year. Good mojo!



"Say ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."



Did a lot of paddling and a lot of casting...unfortunately not a ton of catching...it was slooooooooooow. The benefit of standing up paddling is that you can see cool stuff like this crab hanging out on top of the kelp.



About midway through our trip we find a nice honey hole... Cal's already caught a few plaid and cudas a bit further out to sea but now we're seeing a little more consistency. The tide's filling in and water's starting to move. Now we're starting to see a bit more bait. I get this nice plaid on a swimbait.



Hello my darling!



With bait cruising the surface I bust out my fly rod again...and BAMMOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Fish on! I did my best to keep it out of the kelp...a tough chore as this horse drug me around...2.5lbs of beautiful checkerboard!



Cal had borrowed my "Green Bean" rod that I bought just for kicks at Fred Hall this past March. It's about 15" long, rigged with 6lb. and absolutely zero backbone for fighting fish...but what the heck! Cal's got good mojo and pins a 3" swimbait on. Low and behold...he's full bendo!!!!



Whatever it was swam straight into the kelp and after numerous attempts to coax it out Cal gave it one last pull and the swim bait comes flying out of the water...without it's tail. I'm thinking...small cuda ( Cal had already caught several) but most likely a fish of the plaid variety.



After all the "hot action" Cal breaks out some snacks and we hang in the kelp for a little R&R...



Then Cal cruises off in search of more prey...and he finds it...mack and more plaid on the Green Bean!



Cal seemed to have the hot stick and cruised off while I made my way slowly with my fly rod. Cal has headed off in the direction of a party boat...and things start to get interesting. As I'm paddling up towards Cal I notice there seems to be a little commotion. As I get closer Cal's headed back towards me and says, "Watch out for Captain Ahab...he's not too friendly!" Apparently Cal had cruised up and was fishing about 300' from the party boat, Sea Trek, out of O'side. When all of a sudden someone starts yelling at him, telling him to move away from the boat but in must nastier language. And then the guy, who Cal assumes is the captain, starts launching a lure at him, trying, I imagine to hit him or scare him off. Now, I'm not sure how a guy like Cal, on a stand-up paddle board, with a 2.5' rod throwing 3" swimgbaits poses a threat to the party boat from 300' away but clearly this guy is having a herd of cattle over Cal being in the vicinity. So, we politely paddle waaaaaaaaaaaaaay around Mr. Unpleasant and continue to fish on the other side of him. I heard him say, "Yea, that's right...keep paddling honey." (On a side note: after talking to my DFG buddy who I just happen to have dinner with on Wed it turns out that lobbing an iron at Cal is a felony and if we had called the Coast Guard ol' Mr. Unpleasant would have been in a little trouble. I think the owners of the Sea Trek will hear from me sooner than later so this doesn't happen again.)

Cal "acosting" the Sea Trek...



After that the fishing was a little slow with Cal pulling in a few more small plaid but nothing for me. The surf was up a bit as we cruised into Cardiff. I fished the inside for a few minutes...



...but with head high sets rolling through I called it a day...5.5 hrs after our launch...and headed home for lunch and a nap on the couch. Lots of fun...I can't wait for the YT and bonita to move in closer to shore. I hope to see more of the SC crew out there...besides the Sea Trek we only saw one other boat. Happy Fourth everyone!

Oh yeh...here's a video of Cal hooking up!