well, I'll write about what I did, and maybe some more once I'm feeling inspired. 7:00 check-in, get your free handouts and t-shirt, then off to the beaches.
I decided to drive north, having had such lousy fishing down here in the monterey area.. well, Manresa anyway. I stopped at Davenport and tanked up with muffins, figuring I'd get hungry soon enough.
I drove all the way up to Pescadero 35 miles, rigged up, went to the beach and found it impossible. Didn't even try casting.. too steep, big surf, etc. Rigged up the spinning rod and went back; still impossible. I then drove to the south end to look around there.. met a flyfisherman who was going up the estuary to fish for steelhead (as long as the seals aren't in, it might be ok). He suggested to go another 5 miles north to San Gregorio, as it was flatter there.
Good idea.
At San Gregorio, I had to cross the river/creek where it flowed out, to get to the southern, and better looking, part of the beach. there was a flat section that looked fishable, after which it got steeper by the cliffs. Halfway to the cliffs I had a strong hit, which stayed on about 5 seconds. Dang! Today, I should have fished barbed hooks. Too late to fix that one. I fished south a bit more, but no more hits, I think. A guy gave me some sandcrabs he had dug up (lots of them there) to put on my hook, but I let them back into the sand when he wasn't looking. I managed to bang the rod with the weighted surf-miki 3 times today, which felt really bad. Whacking the rod is very rare for me. One whack chipped the finish on the middle section, but it didn't break during casting after. Hopefully there isn't structural damage.
On the way out, I met another flyfisherman who was heading up the stream looking for steelhead. Really lousy fishing, so far, apparently.
I looked at a few places on the way down; gazos creek, bean hollow -- some of these places look interesting from a fishing-from-the-rocks for rockfish / greenling / lingcod perspective. I stopped at a little beach just north of the Pigeon Point lighthouse. The wind was blowing hard here, so I brought out the spinrod for some exploratory fishing. This was a pretty beach with clear green water, some steepness and high waves, but in the north end by the rocks it was a lot calmer, so I cast there. Second cast I had a fish on.. turned out to be an 8" silver perch (I think -- smaller eyes than a walleye). Unfortunately as I held it up and was reaching for the camera, it wiggled off the hook and went back in the water, so no picture.
Ok, so I have finally caught a fish in '06. Yay!
I tried casting at Waddell on the way down, but nothing there, at least not close to where the parking lot is. Beach didn't feel right, so I packed it and drove back to Santa Cruz.
How did the other folks do? Well, some didn't catch anything and some did very well, fishing bait in the Santa Cruz - Capitola area. Some folks found big fish "south of the cement ship". Guess I'll try some of those beaches next. The winning perch was huge.. over 16".
Maybe next trip I'll try some of that Berkeley pileworm bait they handed out samples of, grin.
Oh, yeah, before going to the yacht club, I stopped by at the Santa Cruz Flyfishermen's "Confab" event, to say hi. Chatted with Elaine Cook a bit, then tried my hand at the contest where you tie a woolly bugger, blindfolded. What a hoot!