By Paul Lebowitz

Is there a chill in the air? Is winter on the way? Don’t even think about hibernating until springtime. Throw on a wetsuit or a pair of paddle pants and a splash top and go! It may be time to shake things up, to adjust to seasonal realities, but no way is it time to hang up the paddle and fishing pole.

Take for example northern California’s Sean White. Although his advanced latitude tosses some bitter weather his way, the Great White Kayak Company owner’s boats don’t sit still long enough to gather a single speck of dust.

“There’s not a month alive without action,” said White, who fishes his local striper lake until the bitter end, and chases rockfish during weather windows until the season closes. After that he shifts his focus to clams and dinosaurs. Clams?

“The kayak is a clam-bed express,” said White, who rides it to isolated tidelands to collect horse-necks, excellent chowder fodder. He might have some Dungeness crabs on the side (in 2006 the season opened on November 25).

White isn’t be the only diehard hunting ‘dinos,’ more familiarly known as sturgeon. The armored bottom-feeders have a set of fans that includes Santa Cruz Kayak Fishing guide Allen Bushnell and kayak sturgeon specialist Erik Kunz.   

“We look for sturgeon in San Pablo Bay after the rains come,” said Bushnell, who added that the fish prefer murky water over channel edges, shallow flats and shell banks and bite best on a big tide swing. Kayak sturgeon hunting requires specialized equipment including quick release anchors and a retractable noose for releasing under or over-sized fish (consult the California Department of Fish and Game for current regulations).

Only strong, experienced paddlers should challenge the ripping currents and rough, wind-generated chop common on the bay. There’s a high misery quotient, but Bushnell said getting a bite, releasing the anchor, and going for a ride is a thrilling experience.

Down south off sun-soaked Malibu, winer is business as usual for Kayak Sportfishing guide Jason Morton. His only concessions to slightly colder water temperatures are to fish deeper and more deliberately.

“The bass tend to go lower in the water column and are a bit more lethargic, so I use slower retrieves and sometimes tip swimbaits with a little something extra such as a squid strip or a scent product,” Morton said.   

Halibut are Morton’s bread and butter. Although the volume of smaller fish falls off, Morton said his largest flatties tend to come in Decmeber in 40 to 70 feet of water.

“At 40 to 70 feet I catch sand and calico bass too,” Morton said. “Deeper is no-man’s land where it’s halibut or nothing.”

Of course, in Southern California rockfish are usually an option through December, and there’s that special Southern California delicacy the spiny lobster. “I hoop net all winter baby!” said Morton.

At La Jolla it’s big fish or bust. There’s no better time than winter to connect with a bruiser homeguard yellowtail. Actually, off-season ‘LJ’ has a lot more going for it than a trophy yellowtail fishery.

“The winter months are some of my favorite times to be out there,” admitted guide Jim Sammons of La Jolla Kayak Fishing. Sammons pointed out that San Diego enjoys more calm, beautiful sunny days during the so-called cold season than the area experiences during its often gloomy summer. But don’t get Sammons wrong, just like the next guy (maybe more) he loves to get some big game on the line.

“The opportunity to pull on a homeguard yellowtail in the middle of winter is awesome,” Sammons said.

If you want to go after your own, think deep. Unlike the summer months when a live mackerel fished on the surface is the typical ticket for a yellowtail sleigh ride, during the winter it’s more reasonable to fish that bait near the bottom on a dropper loop or sliding sinker rig. The other off-season mainstay is the so-called yo-yo iron.

WINTER IS THE SEASON FOR BIG ‘TAILS IN LA JOLLA – The biggest yellowtail of the year are just around the corner. If 20, 30, and 40-pound and up homeguard yellows aren’t enough to keep you fishing, then maybe the lack of crowds and calm, sunny days will do it. This massive 52-pound beast of a yellowtail was caught by Larry Laumann in 2005. PHOTO COURTESY LARRY LAUMANN

DINO-MITE? – Even the bitter conditions experienced in coastal California’s northern latitudes can’t keep kayak anglers off the water. Once the rains fall, they’ll take to muddy San Pablo Bay, haunt of dinosaurs such as this sturgeon caught by Erik Kunz. PHOTO COURTESY ERIK KUNZ

BASS ATTACK – The freckled spotted bay bass might look cute, but the little fish sports a mean disposition. Action for spotties and their cousins the sand bass will be solid right through the winter in Southern California’s bays.

To yo-yo, simply allow the jig to flutter to the bottom, then burn it back toward the surface using a high-speed reel. Monotony is sure to set in after a dozen or more muscle-cramping retrieves, but don’t stop. The next drop could be the one. Sammons suggests focusing on the northern edge of the La Jolla kelp and the southern side of the La Jolla submarine canyon in 100 to 200 feet of water. Hook-ups might be few and far between but when you get one, you’ll be in for a battle.

It’s just the opposite on the Southland’s bays, where non-stop action is the rule. Bay bassing is often spectacular during the winter. The bigger sand bass filter into the deeper waters, where kayakers drift the long-line ‘wind-n-grind’ with swimbaits. The technique is nothing more than tying on a 3/4 to 1.5 ounce leadhead and swimbait, and then letting about half the spool of line pay out. Chance are when you put the reel in gear, a fish will already be bothering the bait. If not, reel in slowly.  

On the channel margins, and in shallower, warmer bays such as Mission and Newport, kayak bassers such as Drew Clark of PlasticNavy slings freshwater-style baits at feisty spotted bay bass. The diminutive bulldogs hit everything but topwater lures.