Manresa beach, 9:15 or so.
Sigh. Frustration.
There is a kind of urgency to fishing when I am short on time. I'm not centered, and am easily bothered by hangups. At the moment, I'm short on sleep too, which really doesn't help.
I went down to Manresa this morning, and found a low tide (as expected), and some nice holes. I ended up fishing just one of them. 8wt rod, with short T14 head. I've decided I don't like that short head now.. it is difficult for me to cast well. After fishing one side, I switched to the other, talking to a spin-fisherman on the way. He hadn't had much luck, but a couple of fish, anyway. Thought I'd try using the 250gr sinktip line instead, which was on the SA reel in my pocket, but when I went to string it up, I ended up with sand in the reel, and had to trudge back up to the car to wash it off. I need a small backpack or something, that can hold a water bottle. Through a conversation with another fishing guy up there, I decided to string up the 9wt and put a striper fly on; one of my whistlers. Back down to that hole again. Arrgh, turns out I can't really cast that fly well with the 10wt Hi-D head. The fly is rather heavy with water, and the leader is WAY too long. Maybe it was mostly a leader problem, but a heavier line sure wouldn't hurt. And.. I've left the flybox up at the car, so I don't have anything useful to switch to. Sigh. Back to the car, time to drive to work. A bunch of highschoolers are showing up at the beach. Senior "cut-day", apparently.. going for a 4-day weekend.
So, the conditions were right for perch, though getting down here earlier would have been good. The swell was mild and very wadeable. Not the "WOW" of Sunset or Palm beach a few days ago. I need to have leaders and flies tied and all ready to go, or I'll be tempted to use what's on hand just because I'm in a hurry.
Maybe if I beg nicely, I can go fishing tomorrow morning, saturday..
OK, I feel better now, writing about it.
Notes to self:
Keep the reels off the sand!
Don't go fishing when time is short.. (suuure.. sign of a true addict)
Stick to perch for now.. try for stripers later.
Sometime, try the 33' head on the 12wt with the whistler or other big
fly, to see if I can cast it in the water. (but don't let it distract
from the perch fishing for too long).
Tides for today:
2005-05-27 05:52 PDT Sunrise
2005-05-27 07:55 PDT -1.38 feet Low Tide
2005-05-27 15:53 PDT 4.14 feet High Tide
2005-05-27 19:46 PDT 3.34 feet Low Tide
2005-05-27 20:18 PDT Sunset