Friday, October 7th, 2005
Zoom, and skunk.
Tom at the San Jose Flyshop kindly lent me one of the new RIO 'OutBound' lines to try with my 10 footer 9wt rod. The idea here is that it is a longer head, so you can aerialize more line, then have it shoot out and fly further than the usual heads. The docs refer to using it with 2-hand rods, casting overhand, but I heard that it works with one-handers as well, and was interested. This one is a type 8, pretty fast sinker, with an intermediate running line.
I drive down to Seacliff, as it is close. Foggy, clearing to sunny, then getting foggy again. The fogline is just hanging out by the beach. I rig up, noticing that the leader butt that Tom has on straightens out really easily. I need to find out what he is using; It acts like amnesia. I tie on a new leader, and a couple of flies -- a zen worm and a fantasy fly that my son Linus tied (with some help) a couple of months back, figuring that perch might like it. I also get out a heavy, nasty-to-cast lead-eye bunny fly, as a flyline test needs to include casting hard-to-cast flies.
The waves are up, and it looks like the beach is beginning to get carved up again. Good. I go down on the east side of the cement ship, and pull line from the reel. There is some curl in the running line section, but it straightens out easily, with a little stretching. I start casting, and.. hey, this is pretty cool! After getting used to it a bit, I can say that this is the best casting line I have used on this rod yet -- though to be fair, I haven't tried that many lines. I'm possibly setting some personal distance records here, for beach casting. Would be interesting to measure it.
But no fish.. some kelp but no fish. I have one hit on the flies, but it really could just have been an excited piece of kelp. They feel like that sometimes. There are a few likely looking spots, but the fish aren't showing, from what I can tell. Maybe they are further out. I turn around close to where Aptos creek comes down. Time for the bunny fly. I tie it on, fully realizing that if it hits the rod tip, the rod will need repairs. A couple of casts later, I'm happy. This is really pretty easy. I may just have to keep the line, or at least buy one soon. It is maybe not the greatest perch line (I should just figure out how to make long casts with the leadcore + amnesia), but surely a good line for striper fishing or similar, and I'd like to try it some more on the beach here, when I find some fish.
I put the perch flies back on, and cast some more. Still no fish. I come close to calling it, and heading back up to the car, but I'm annoyed enough about the lack of fish, that I pull the line out again and cast some more. To no avail, though. On the other hand, I'm having fun casting with this setup, so I'm entertained nevertheless. As opposed to so often with the shooting heads, the leader actually turns over the fly nicely at the end of the long cast.. I mean, I can see it do that. Really pretty neat.
I head up, pack up, and go to work. Boring diary page, with no fish to show.
Tides for today:
2005-10-07 02:05 PDT 3.77 feet High Tide
2005-10-07 06:06 PDT 2.88 feet Low Tide
2005-10-07 07:08 PDT Sunrise
2005-10-07 11:41 PDT Moonrise
2005-10-07 12:48 PDT 5.48 feet High Tide
2005-10-07 18:42 PDT Sunset
2005-10-07 19:46 PDT 0.05 feet Low Tide
2005-10-07 21:08 PDT Moonset