I haven't for the life of me been able to get myself out of bed to surf fish in months. I can blame it on finishing work at 9-10pm, and the local surf fishing having sucked for years, but c'mon I live 10 minutes from the beach now and I go there less than ever! Well after listening to enough press conferences with HC Mike McDaniel talking about
handling adversity I decided to make a bigger effort to shift my sleep schedule back a few hours to hopefully get out surf fishing before work more mornings than not.
4.5' @ 7 seconds was the swell forecast, so I didn't have high hopes for fishability, but the tide is gonna stay around 0900 for the next few mornings so I hit the sand at 0800 if just to scout for holes and crabs and maybe even fish. This was also the first time using my new Fenwick HMX 9' 1/4-1oz rod, replacing a broken 9.5' 1/4-3/4oz. That transaction took place a few months ago and I'm horrified it took so long to test this new one out. I also took a small risk on a stupid internet deal I found for a $1 spinning reel from Temu. Feels at least as good as a Sienna or any other low-mid priced 2500 reel, but we'll see how long it takes to break it.
Surf was breaking pretty far outside for the tide being so filled in. Thankfully the new rod can huck a 1oz weight like JaMarcus Russell, pre-NFL draft, so it wasn't an issue. And 1oz was just right to maintain a gentle downhill drift in the current. Not too much in the way of structure, though there was some trace of a trough on the outside, right in front of the parking lot.
Got a couple short bites off the bat, then got a no-hesitation hook up. First YFC of the year, always love to see 'em.
Got a couple more perch pecks in that trough before it went totally dead. Walked south a wee bit to where the beach was steeper, and the break was gnarlier, and found another hole or two on the outside, but nothing playing.
That was it. 45 minutes. It was all enough to make me wanna go back again. Nice warm morning, water not too cold, empty enough beach. Surf will be slowly reducing to nothing over the next few days while the tide will only shift forward 15 minutes or so each day, so it'll be the perfect stretch of time to cover a little more ground, maybe find the other croakers. Also picked up a 7'6" 1/16-3/8oz Celilo from that Okuma deal that Mike posted, so that will be super fun to hook up with when the swell mellows.
