Monday November 7th, 2005
Ah, monday; busy weekend means that I need to de-stress before heading in to work. This seems to have become something of a pattern, at least if I can't get out fishing over the weekend.
Weather today is overcast, with chance of rain; we got a little rain last night. I drop the boys off at school, and drive down to the beach (fly fishing gear is of course all packed in the trunk the night before).
The surf looks nice today and the water seems clear. Probably high-ish tide
-- I forgot to look at the tidetable, not that it matters... I mean I'd go fishing
anyway, damn the conditions. The beach is pretty flat, with some areas that look
slightly fishy-er than others.
A lot of surfers are here too.
Anyway, I go down and head along the surfline. I catch a pretty good size perch within a dozen casts, then work myself down the beach, not staying in one spot too long, unless I feel grabs. I like the feel of the foamy flats areas; reasonably predictable surf, and the great sound of those waves coming in.
Pause -- look around -- deep breath.
Here and there, I catch a fish, which keeps me going. I drift in and out
of fishing-trance; sometimes concentrated on the fishing, sometimes letting
my mind wander. The beach is steep behind me in some places, but mostly it
is fairly flat. Further down the waves are taller and harder to cast in,
and the areas don't look productive, for fishing. The sun is giving the
cloud cover some beautiful color and texture.
I ended up catching 5 perch today, in about 1 1/2 hours. One of them jumped off right as I'm lifting it out of the water, but it counts as far as I'm concerned. Mostly they were in the 8" range, but the first one was more like 10". It pulled hard, and at first I thought it was a bigger fish.
Tides for today:
2005-11-07 03:59 PST 4.11 feet High Tide
2005-11-07 06:38 PST Sunrise
2005-11-07 07:01 PST 3.85 feet Low Tide
2005-11-07 12:34 PST Moonrise
2005-11-07 13:10 PST 5.35 feet High Tide
2005-11-07 17:04 PST Sunset
2005-11-07 20:39 PST -0.32 feet Low Tide
2005-11-07 22:15 PST Moonset