Wednesday, October 12th, 2005
10:00 - 12:30 or so. Outgoing tide, approaching low tide.
The muses of fishing called this morning, compelling me to head north on Hwy 1, in search of a new beach. Conditions in Santa Cruz have been pretty calm, so I was hoping to find more beach structure (and fish!) at the more exposed beaches north of town. The weather was sunny in town, but socked in fog by the ocean. I passed through Davenport and stopped briefly to peer out into the fog at Scott Creek, a place I'll want to check out maybe the next trip. I kept going though, and parked the car at Waddell Creek beach, a place otherwise frequented by surfers, windsurfers and kite-surfers.
Gear for today is the 10 foot rod, with my new OutBound line on. Maybe
not the greatest line control in the surf (although maybe not so bad
either), but sure a lot of fun to cast. Flies for today are the large
zen worm, and the small green & orange Linus-fly. I also have my Ross
BG-5 reel on too. A consignment deal; the thing was hardly used, and at
half price. Overkill for perch, but it has a really nice feel to it and
matches up with the 9wt rod just great. If I ever get to Mexico, I now
have my bonefish reel! However, I'd like to start working toward a
lighter perch setup, a 7 or 6wt, I think. I'll just have to see what presents
itself.
The beach is pretty flat, with large foamy patches. I thought I saw something like an outbound current over to the right, so I started casting there.. but no hits from fish, as far as I could tell. Whatever structure is there, it is on a large scale.. something of a sandbar out there, causing the waves to break.
I then walked south on the beach, past where the surfers launch, and
started casting again. Maybe 15 minutes later, the rod tip goes heavy,
and something nice and strong is tugging on the other end. Pulling
hard! I keep the tension on the line, and land a nice perch, about
11.5 inches (29cm) long. The hook seemed precariously stuck, so I let
the waves help push the fish up on the beach, into position for the
obligatory photograph.
I continue casting in this area, and work south. I have another fish on, but it shakes loose. Then no more. I take a time-out to deal with a nasty tangle in the leader. A bunch of birds are sitting on the beach, and I don't really want to disturb them. Eventually they move off, though. Mostly gulls and 3 pelicans. There is something that looks like a current a little further south, so I head there, but it doesn't yield any fish for me.
A large-ish guy from the parking lot comes down to watch, and I end up chatting with him for a while. He used to flyfish a bunch, but somewhere he lost the motivation for it. Frank I think his name was, friendly.. he told me about him fishing for Jack Crevalle off Mexican beaches. I ask him to take a few pics of me casting in the surf, and he nicely obliges. That sort of thing is always a bit of a gamble, as some people sure don't know how to handle any sort of camera, but this turned out ok despite him consistently framing me in the center of the screen (fixed with a bit of cropping). A bit of vanity maybe, but it makes the diary pages more fun, and I enjoy seeing pictures of myself doing things I like to do. I took a few more pictures of the beach with the Nikonos before heading up to the car. Hopefully they'll turn out well so I can add them to this page.
A couple of people in the parking lot asked how the fishing was. One guy was surprised that I'd catch fish on flies in the surf, but he was assuming fly = dry-fly. I get the impression that a lot of people do that, and aren't aware of flyfishing with sinking lines. Of course, dry-fly purists may act like that too, um, yeah.. hehe.
A very nice morning.. sure felt good to breathe in that fresh sea air.. I can just feel the body getting the feel-good endorfins going. Drove back to town, where the sun is seriously out, making my dirty windows rather obvious. Note the cat-paw on my windshield.
Tides for today:
36.9667B0 N, 122.0167B0 W
2005-10-12 00:29 PDT -0.12 feet Low Tide
2005-10-12 01:25 PDT Moonset
2005-10-12 07:13 PDT Sunrise
2005-10-12 08:16 PDT 4.43 feet High Tide
2005-10-12 13:01 PDT 2.98 feet Low Tide
2005-10-12 16:13 PDT Moonrise
2005-10-12 18:24 PDT 5.03 feet High Tide
2005-10-12 18:35 PDT Sunset