Quick hat related side-bar: I have a lot of hats, mostly Padres hats, but they're old and pretty dirty. They've been worn on countless fishing trips, and have been on the bottom of boats, encrusted in salt, and just generally mistreated. The type of hat I like, the New Era 3930 batting practice cap, has been kind of ugly the last couple of years. I only have old ones. So, I grabbed two grimy hats out of the closet, and chose one to wear. The other I took into the bathroom, put it in the sink and filled the sink with water. When I got back from fishing, the water in the sink looked like tea. Nasty. That was the cleaner of the two hats too, I wore the other one.
When I got to my spot the parking lot was full, so I circled a couple times until someone left. The plan was to work around the perimeter of this park. One side is a calm, wind-sheltered marina, and the other is the bay. The bay side is more exposed to wind and boat-traffic turbulence. I've been doused a couple of times by rogue boat wakes. I even took a nasty fall a couple of years ago because the dry, grippy rock I was fishing from became wet and slimy when a rogue wake doused me while I was landing the fish. Got a nice gash in my shin. I wasn't ready to quit fishing, so I stopped the bleeding with a dirty bandanna and went on fishing while blood trickled down my shin into my sock.
I started fishing the marina side because I'd had more luck there, an it's not as affected by the elements. In fact I had a big heavy fish break off a couple trips back. I started tossing my lure as close to the boats across the channel as I could. The bottom slopes towards the boats, and the slope and the shade of the boat provides something for the fish to hang near.
This spot is in the middle of a tourist destination and oddly, people are often surprised to find someone fishing there. Yesterday I overheard a little girl and her father talking. The girl asked her father if he thought I should be fishing there. He father replied that he was pretty sure it was ok. Then the girl explained that she was worried I'd fall in if I hooked a big fish. Pretty funny. I turned around and looked at the father and he just smiled and shrugged a little. That sort of stuff is not unusual when fishing downtown.
I kept getting nibbles and short, sharp hits, but not sticking anything. It was a little discouraging but also showed that fish, some fish, were biting. I thought they might have just been defending territory. Eventually though, I felt the dull pull of a spotted bass. He put up a surprisingly good fight once he got going. Considering how small he was, it was a great fight. He was quickly released.
Often, especially during spawning season, when you hook a spottie, there will be a couple followers. Normally other spotties. When I caught this first little spottie, I was standing a little higher in the rocks than normal, and had polarized sunglasses on, so I could see the bottom pretty clearly. This spottie had a follower that wasn't another spottie, I'm not exactly sure what it was, but it was bigger, sleeker, and faster. It looked like a croaker or mullet; long and silvery.
I worked my way down the rocks towards where the bay flows into the marina. I decided I'd give the outside a go, because the tide was starting to flow, and that's usually a good trigger to feeding. Unfortunately, it was very windy on the exposed bay side. Even more unfortunately, the wind was coming from the same direction as the tide. If I was in a boat, that wouldn't have been too bad a thing. But it's hard to cast a light lure upwind with a baitcaster. I threw low sidearm casts to keep the line from bowing out in the wind, but I wasn't getting much distance. I did have my picture taken 3 times though; another thing that happens a lot downtown. Japanese seem take a particular interest. I eventually tired of the short casts and line management issues, and returned to the shelter of the marina.
Once I got back into the marina, I started getting more hits. It wasn't too long before I got a dull, heavy pull, followed by the rhythmic pull, pull, pull that makes a shore fisher's day, the unique fight of a halibut. Luckily I'd set my drag to something other than complete lockdown. Spotties don't often pull drag, and you have to keep them from burying their heads in the rocks - which, since you're standing on them can be difficult - so no drag. Since I snapped of that big fish a month ago, I use drag on the marina side now. This hali pulled drag quite a few times, before I let him dart back and forth for a while, so I could reposition myself on a rock closer to the water. Luckily there was a spot to "beach" the toothy bastard as well. Just as I was getting the halibut to the rocks I tweaked my back a little. So, hoisting the fish for a pic went right out. Luckily I positioned him, and he stayed.
That is my best shore fish in quite a while. Since the corvina I picked up in Mission Bay last year.
I picked up a nice spottie after that, but really, it was anticlimactic after the halibut. So, nursing my back, I packed it in and headed home, thinking about the lamb pitas I was making for dinner.
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