Saturday Fishing 6/16

I woke up Saturday with a plan in mind. I searched Google Earth for some new spots I could fly fish on the Silver Strand and decided I was going to try a spot I'd never fished. I had to drive through an uppity housing development to a park. And park. Being that the tide was still kinda low, and it was a shallow beach I only caught weeds on the few casts I made on my fly rod, but I'll be back, at a higher tide, with a floating line, and some surface flies - Corvina hunting.

With the tide in the second half of its swing I had to make something of it, so I hit 'old faithful' and set up camp inside the baylet, near the bathrooms. I took fly and bass gear. I also took some freezer burned fish that was in my fridge, killing two birds with one hunk of frozen fish. I wanted it out of my freezer, and hoped it'd chum something up. It didn't. My intention, again, was to get croakers of larger size than I have been. It was a beautiful day, and sadly, I'd forgotten to put on any sunscreen before leaving home. I got righteously sunburned.

I picked up one dink, um, mini-dink spotted bass not to long into the morning. No pic. Not long after that fish a trickle of teen-aged lifeguards turned into an encampment about 15 yards to my right. Which would have been fine, except most of them got into the water. Before it turned into Beach Blanket Bay Watch, though, I landed a pretty stout spottie, causing two of the younger, less self-composed life guards came running over to see what the heroics were about. Again no pics - it was a spottie, and I guess I was a little embarrassed about posing the little fish for a pic. I guess they were giving potential junior life guards a swim test - apparently by appointment, because they'd show up one at a time, with mom in tow and take their shot. One kid failed so miserably I thought he was going to puke when he got out of the water, and I heard one of the less-sensitive kids in the water make a snide remark. And I was about three times further away than the kid and his mom were.

A while longer, and after hearing the kids in the water (actually the same kid) wondering aloud why I don't fuck off and let them splash around in the whole bay, I headed around to the point I often fish. As I was following the waterline around the bay, I noticed a sit-com version of middle American family shadowing me on my left - with fishing gear. I was hoping they'd stop at one of the picnic gazebos, like they're supposed to, and toss their bait from there. But nope, they got in line behind me, and trudged along to where I wanted to throw flies. I was encouraged when the boy yelled, "Dad, did you bring the hot dogs?" I have yet to meet anyone from the RV park across the street who doesn't throw hot dogs into the bay for fish.

That kind of ruined my mood, plus fly fishing near a bunch of unpredictable meat chuckers is dangerous and irresponsible. I've chucked meat, don't get me wrong, it's just never been lunch meat. Okay, I'm a little snobbish about what I'll use to catch fish. I prefer artificials to bait. So I walked back around the bay to a point near where I'd started. Plus the Life Guard camp had quieted down. I should have been honest with myself, packed up, and went home. But it was a great day, the tide was still moving, and I was having fun. But I didn't catch anything else.

I was out on the sand, launching flies, for about three and half hours, and just got worn out, so I called it a day. I needed food, and had chores to do. Not the greatest day of fishing, but not a bad way to start a day. I went home got groceries, barbequed some chicken and veggies and watched The Last King of Scotland.