Bay Area Winter: geology, shore fishing etc. Part I

[giantbrookie]

With the new base in Castro Valley we've started fishing off the ocean shore for the first time since before 2005 when we had moved to Fresno. I can't say we fished a lot in the Bay or the Pacific Coast prior to 2005, now did we reach a point where I thought we really knew what we were doing. Nonetheless we had our share of success. Similar to High Sierra fishing it seems to me that finding the right spot can make up for quite a bit of skill ("location, location"). Over the years I remember going to the beach for recreation or (mostly) geology I remember seeing lots of people fishing the surf but few people catching much. I remember the first time I saw a place where lots of folks were catching lots of fish it was probably in the late 80s(?) or maybe early 90s. This was somewhere in the Pacifica area--I stumbled upon the spot doing some geologic investigations. That evening I told Judy about it and we went out and bought some surf casting rigs. Our debut trip went quite well. I recall catching some large striped surf perch, a cabezon, and a kelp greenling. I can't say we ever equaled that. Judy was always frustrated by how many snags we'd get at that place, too. Over the years we'd average one or two trips to saltwater a season before we moved to Fresno and our saltwater gear was stored in the garage, gathering black widow webs.

Fast forward to 2017. I moved the saltwater gear up to our Castro Valley home (trout gear resides in Fresno for now). Toward the end of January we found time to head out to somewhere on the Marin Coast that I had remembered from years ago. What had caught my eye here was a visit back in the early 90s to look at geology (this is actually a hike-to beach). There was this guy perched on a rock throwing a drop line with a weight, and a single hook baited with shrimp. The guy was pulling a large surf perch out on nearly every toss. It was amazing. I returned with Judy (possibly not the same year) and we didn't do so well. I recall that I was the only one of us who caught anything: one smallish to medium striped surf perch and then I had an errant cast into the wash zone that got stuck---it wasn't a snag but turned out to be a legal striper (18") that had been cruising in the foam zone scarfing sand crabs--it grabbed the shrimp and became my best shoreline catch to date. Funny that it would be over 25 years before we'd return...

So the family returned (1/29). We had only two rigs among the four of us, so we shared them. Lee had the only action, catching 5 smallish to medium striped surf perch on his debut and kept 4 of them for dinner. I was the only other one with a nibble (perhaps on two casts) but I struck out. Fishing was apparently pretty slow. There were several other folks fishing, some for a long time, but all told, all others fishing there managed a grand total of one fish. We had a good meal with the 4 surf perch we kept and Lee became seriously interested in shore fishing.

5790DawnLeeBeachSF.jpg

Two photos from this trip have been posted earlier on Old Ranger's thread at: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=15482#p116036

We followed this trip with a cold and wet trip to the Pacifica Pier (not my old Pacifica area hot spot) and caught nothing. Everyone on the pier was crab fishing. Lee got off the pier and promptly caught one but if fell off in the wash as he was bringing it in so he couldn't tell what sort of fish it was nor how big it was. Lee decreed that we should return to the Marin spot but in the meantime we had to get two new rigs so we'd have one for each member of the family.

We then had some weekends where there were other activities and we couldn't go out (or it was dumping rain). Finally, the weekend before last the weather was good and we were ready to go but Lee came down with a bad chest infection so we had to pass on another trip. In the meantime I set up Lee's and Dawn's new rigs with a new terminal tackle set up I've been wanting to try.

Finally this past weekend rolled around. I was occupied Saturday (3/4) doing a geology field trip with one of my classes, but we could go Sunday (3/5).

5893Ascent1113.jpg

The weather report didn't look so good though. Lee, however, insisted we go no matter what the weather. This time Judy had a cold and I was also nursing some sort of cold, but I took Lee back out to the Marin spot. I used the new set up I had picked for Dawn (still haven't rerigged Judy's and my old set up). It was indeed cold and windy with occasional showers. Lee got down to business and caught a bunch of sand crabs which we used as bait. Fairly early on I had the long awaited tap-tap, jerk-jerk, and hooked a good fish. It felt pretty darned strong, so I wasn't surprised when I dragged a very nice sized (14"+) pile surf perch out of the water. This is the 2nd largest fish I've ever caught from shore. Unfortunately, neither of us scored another fish. I had one other nibble but I got antsy and struck too early rather than waiting for it to hook itself. Similar to our first visit, other fishing folks were giving it a try. Nobody else had any luck. Both of us had a hard time staying warm. I ran over to check up some geology I hadn't been able to look at the last time owing to a calf injury. This was too bad because a recent landslide had completely buried the outcrop I wanted to see.

By mid afternoon (we had arrived a bit after 11 am) we gave up and headed home with our one large surf perch to prepare dinner. Lee cooked dinner. He filleted the large surf perch and then cut the fillets into three pieces each which he breaded and fried. He also made a pasta with Alfredo sauce and chicken and bacon pieces. Regrettably we hadn't photographed the fish when it was sparkling silver after catching it, but we took some photos back home and we also took a "calibration" photo of the fish in the same pan as the surf perch from the earlier trip.

5909PileSmurf.jpg

Lee is now anxiously watching the weather report and hoping for a trip next Sunday. We're not sure we'll go back to the usual spot. Stay tuned.

[oldranger]

Go Lee!

[TahoeJeff]

Good job on the surf fishing!
Here is a site with a ton of good resources and a great message board:
http://www.pierfishing.com/
Don't let the pier fishing name dissuade, as its about 50%-50% pier-shore.

[RichardCullip]

Thanks for the surf fishing report and a reminder of Sunol Regional Park. I remember wandering around there on field trips while getting my BS in Geology from SJSU in the late '70's. Fun times for sure. Not sure my old legs could handle walking around it now days.

[rlown]

Nice report GB (and Lee)! Used to shore fish for rock cod off a rocky ledge in Pacifica in the late '80s (it was a climb down and climb up kind of experience.) It was a great spot and even picked a few lings up during the endeavors. It was still 10' down to the water from our rocky perch. Used those sandbag weights to get out and down and not get snagged between the rocks.

One of our trips to the spot was the day after the '89 quake when they shut down work the next day due to damage at our building in Mtn View. It took me an extra hour to get there as most of the overpasses were shut down due to the quake.

Thanks for the story!

[copeg]

Nice! Thanks for sharing. Started surf-fishing a few years back - fun stuff! Pacifica Pier area has never been that productive for me (relatively speaking at least). Haven't gotten out much as of late, but your post is making me crave a trip to the coast

[Troutdog 59]

Thanks for the report John, and welcome to a new fishing addiction. Glad to hear your son is enjoying fishing so much these days. That's priceless!! I have surf fished for years and love it. Then again, I can typically find something good in any kind of fishing, but that's just me. There is just something about the waves sweeping by you, reading the surge, the sea life in the surf zone, and the salty spray that is just magical. I even have a current post on the Pier fishing web site TJ mentioned. Why? Because its perching season!!! You will probably recognize the call name. I typically surf fish to the south of you in the Morro Bay/San Simeon area, but I'm also found a few days each year fishing for perch and stripers in the Monterey Bay and for surf perch and rock fish in the Point Reyes area. Point Reyes may be my favorite just because of the unspoiled nature of those beaches, and the fact the Red Tailed surf perch can be quite hefty in that area. Perching with a medium action steelhead rod, 8 to 10 lb test, and a c-rig with either a grub or bait (such as a sand crab) is my typical surf perching outfit. Another good web site with some nice "how to" articles is a so cal web site So Cal Surf Fishing or SCSF.

[AaronRDavis]

Thanks for the report. I just relocated to the Bay Area, so it's neat to see different activities it has to offer.

[giantbrookie]

Nice report GB (and Lee)! Used to shore fish for rock cod off a rocky ledge in Pacifica in the late '80s (it was a climb down and climb up kind of experience.) It was a great spot and even picked a few lings up during the endeavors. It was still 10' down to the water from our rocky perch. Used those sandbag weights to get out and down and not get snagged between the rocks.
One of our trips to the spot was the day after the '89 quake when they shut down work the next day due to damage at our building in Mtn View. It took me an extra hour to get there as most of the overpasses were shut down due to the quake.
Thanks for the story!

That spot sounds like the point north of Linda Mar. I recall seeing something that looked like that doing field work several years ago. My favorite spot is a bit tamer. It's S of Linda Mar (north shore of Pt San Pedro but not far out) and it requires a pretty benign scramble of about 40' or so that gets you right down to the water's edge. Because of the orientation of the shoreline it doesn't get the direct surf, so it's mellow in that respect, but you lose a lot to snags.

[giantbrookie]

Thanks everyone for the links and info. As a matter of fact, Lee is the one who has been doing a lot of the online research on this. We sort of combine this info with my recollections of where I've seen the highest success rate of folks along the shore during my many years of geo-wandering.