9:15 - 11:15. Heading toward a 3.75' low-tide. Overcast & foggy.
Cra-aaazy out there! The surf at Manresa is huge, but very far out, causing there to be these giant foamy areas. The sound is impressive. There is a lot of yellowish foam out there too, which doesn't look that pretty, but it isn't really thick. I have a problem, which is that the memory card on my digi-camera is full, and I can't use it for pictures. I take the Nikonos with me.
I rig up with the 10 footer and the outbound line. It is coldish, and a bit windy, from my left fortunately. I go down the path and head straight down to the beach. Within 5 casts I catch a nice perch, in the 8" range. Nice, and a good start. It took the surf-miki. I photograph it, hoping that the picture will turn out well, but notice that on the second picture I run out of film in the Nikonos. Not good. The surf is a little scary, but not too unpredictable. What happens is that the large foamers come in, pretty fast, and when 3 of them come in on top of each other, it is all of a sudden kindof deep, and with the last wave I do the crab-walk retreat back up to the shallow area, which soon turns into sandy beach as those waves recede. Rid'em cowboy flyfishing, for sure. The beach patrol car appears behind me, and I hope I don't become a beach accident statistic today.
After some sloppy casting, I pause to figure out a nasty tangle in the leader. My casting doesn't feel too good today; the setup feels heavy.
I cast some more, and work myself northwest along the beach. Did I say that my casting really sucks today? My hands are cold, and feel like they have less strength than usual. My left hand has trouble on occasion grabbing the slippery line during the haul which also takes power out of the cast. I'm wishing I was using a 2-hander. I think about going up for the spin-rod. I keep casting, and feel a grab, but it shakes loose fast. For a while, I try casting the rod 2-handed, which works, but I don't get the distance I would like. I'm not seeing anything that would suggest fish being in any particular place.
After struggling down the beach for a while I turn around and head back. I even reel in the line, but when I'm back to where I started, in front of the parking lot, I strip it out again and start casting. The water here looks clearer.. not so much of that yellow foam here, and a bit calmer though not much. A few casts later, the line goes heavy, and I have a good fish on. Wow, this one is really pulling hard.. I'm almost giving line here, folks. I keep the tension on, and land a very nice perch. Dangit!... no camera..!!!! Yup, its the classic "I caught a great fish but the camera wasn't working" situation. A handsome perch, it measures from the butt to just over the first gold bars on my rod, which works out to be 12 3/4 inches. A real beauty. It took the smaller zen worm fly. I'm really excited about this fish, but bummed that I won't get to look at a picture of it during the coming days.
Well, back it goes, and I should probably quit on a good fish, but hoping for more I keep on casting a while longer. I have one more fish on, but loose it during some fumbling with my cold hands and the slippery wet line (I gave it slack). I need to give some thought to how to keep my hands warm during the coming winter months.
Having caught that one good fish, the struggle felt really worth it. I'm not thinking about getting the spin-rod anymore.. catching it on fly-gear was very satisfying.
Tides for today:
2005-10-24 07:21 PDT 4.29 feet High Tide
2005-10-24 07:24 PDT Sunrise
2005-10-24 11:20 PDT 3.75 feet Low Tide
2005-10-24 14:29 PDT Moonset
2005-10-24 15:27 PDT 4.45 feet High Tide
2005-10-24 18:18 PDT Last Quarter
2005-10-24 18:19 PDT Sunset
2005-10-24 23:24 PDT 0.65 feet Low Tide