Friday April 28th, 2006
hey, so wow, I went fishing today, and caught some fish.
Manresa beach, around 10am. Surf looks ok, weather is overcast. I rig up and head down.. flies for today is an orange fly with brown tail, plus a rusty squirrel clouser. (I'm out of surf-mikis and need to tie more. In the meantime I have a bunch of other flies to use up). I debarb the rusty squirrel, thinking I'll probably regret that later.
Anyway, I head down and start casting. I go south a little, but not much, before heading north. There is a bit of kelp salad in the surf, and some larger chunks too. I then notice a woman on the beach looking at some pink thing thats floating in the surf.. looks like a large sweater or something. Wow, its a bunch of intestines! I'm guessing leftovers of a baby gray whale, after the local pod of orcas had their way with it (this happens regularly during the gray whale migration ).
Turns out the lady was swedish too.. odd way to meet, over whaleguts.
Ok, passsed the floating guts, and the next cast I feel a fish on, but it shakes loose. My appetite is whetted. I work myself further toward the trestle, and have another hit which sticks. A nice walleye, and what feels like the first real flyrod perch of the year. Whohoo! A little later I have a good SOLID hit, and almost get the fish all the way in, before it shakes loose. It took the rusty squirrel, as I could see the orange fly but not the fish, so at this point I'm wishing I hadn't debarbed the squirrel. Dangit. Next cast I have another fish on, almost as strong, and it shakes loose too. Well heck, looks like perch season has opened for me, finally. I end up with one more fish landed -- a small barred perch -- and one more hit felt.
Time to tie more flies, think about barbs, and go fishing again soon. Yay.