Monday February 18, 2008
After yesterday evening's "fish on" I got kinda excited, and managed to get an outing for myself this morning. Alarm at 5:30, and out the door. Geez, its dark out.
I'm at Scott creek at around 6am, still really dark, and a little scary. I rig up the Winston XTR / Outbound 8wt fast sinking line, worrying about high tide, big waves, and getting swept out to sea. Its overcast and dark, but once the sun gets out it gets light quickly. I go down there and try it, but its the usual Scott Creek, steep with too big waves. Guess I'll have to try some other time at low tide.
I drove on, and stopped at wadell. I cast a little bit, but no good.. flat and no fish. Murky surf.
I drove on and stopped at Gazos creek.. cast there too. Pebbly surfzone and no fun. Also I'm running low on gas. There's a gas station right there, but I decide to hit it on the way back.
Next stop is that little beach just north of Pigeon Point lighthouse. The water is real clean and turquoise colored here. Beautiful. Another guy is rigging up to bait-fish off the rocks. I cast, mostly up by the cove as the waves are pretty big here too.. fun casting but no grabs. Nice to be out.
Last stop is San Gregorio beach.. on the way there I worry about running out of gas. I don't have the state park year pass yet, so I pay for parking. A couple of guys are on the beach fishing, using gears and grubs. Beach looks nicely fishable, so I head over. The guys say there are some fish, but just small ones.. I sand and cast. Move down the beach. Takes a while, but finally I have a solid grab! "Fisk, fisk!" .. and it stays on. Nice barred perch. '08 skunk is gone, hurray! Forgetting I have the net on my back, I let the surf carry it up the beach. The fish comes off the fly at my feet, and I manage to keep it there long enough to take a pic. A good 11-incher, almost as long as my boot.
A little later I get another one, a bit smaller but respectable size. It too took the grub. I'm still not remembering to use the net, and handle the fish instead. Now my had smells of fish. I conclude my fishing outing after 2 more takes which stay on 5-10 seconds. Solid fish here, no dinks for sure. My grubs are getting thrashed.
Talking to one of the gear-guys, I hear that Gazos creek, Wadell and more are now closed as protected areas. Ooops. Glad no DFG guys saw me cast there. Need to see the regs to know where I can fish still. The guy was worrying about San Gregorio getting closed too. I'm all for the MLPA areas -- I think setting aside some spaces for the wildlife to be left alone will be very beneficial in the long run. Still, I'd hate to see my favorite beach closed.
On the way back, I stop at Gazos' gas station, but it was closed. I stopped at the Pigeon Point lighthouse to take some pictures. The cloud cover is burning off, and its now nice and sunny with blue sky. Tried to talk to Deva on the cellphone, but it kept dropping. I make it back to Santa Cruz with little gas to spare. Got lucky there. Also, I managed to get one helluva headache, as I didn't bring enough food for such a long trip. I thought I'd get back sooner, and not at noontime. I'll be packing a good bag lunch for the surfperch tourney next weekend.
Tides for today: --------------------------------- 2008-02-18 01:46 PST 2.83 feet Low Tide 2008-02-18 05:30 PST Moonset 2008-02-18 06:53 PST Sunrise 2008-02-18 07:40 PST 5.95 feet High Tide 2008-02-18 14:47 PST -0.92 feet Low Tide 2008-02-18 15:27 PST Moonrise 2008-02-18 17:50 PST Sunset 2008-02-18 22:01 PST 4.58 feet High Tide