Bay Area: satisfying the "off season" fishing itch, part II

[giantbrookie]

The last post ended with "to be continued" and was titled "part I", so Lee and I figured we'd better make good on the promise of part II. Here it is.

After various combinations of tough weather, heavy surf, and various family members getting hit by various ailments, Sunday looked like a banner day: sunny and warm (high 60s) with rather calm seas, and everyone in the family healthy. I spent part of Saturday getting all four rigs set up and pre-packing our daypacks, so when we rolled out of bed a bit late Sunday, having lost an hour to the daylight time switch, we were able to get off fairly fast. Well, but maybe not. We had planned to get some grass shrimp at a local bait shop, but I guess nobody has grass shrimp, so it was back home to pull some frozen shrimp out of the freezer as the 2nd bait to go along with the sand crabs that Lee was so good at harvesting on site. After driving to the Marin Coast and encountering the expected crowds---why not for such a gorgeous day—and hiking down to the beach it was probably close to noon. This is a scenic spot facing San Francisco and in this good weather it was little surprise that we found quite a few folks there on arrival. There were a fair number of rods in the water, too, but there was more than enough room in the “middle” for us to set up (ie plenty of rods down the beach to the west and to the east). We also needed to claim a nice set of rock benches for our HQ during our stay, so we sat down on some nice outcrops of pebbly sandstone.

I set up Dawn first (with shrimp), while Lee went sand crab catching. Soon, I cast out for Dawn (she can’t quite cast the heavier surf set up herself yet) she said she was hit and started reeling in. She was not accustomed to retrieving on the beach so she asked for help and I reeled in and brought in her first saltwater fish, a striped surf perch of about 8” or so. Shortly I had everyone set up and I got off my first cast and returned a slightly smaller striped SP of about 7”, which would be the smallest fish caught by the family. Action kept up at a moderate level for awhile, at least for me, with all subsequent fish caught on sand crabs. I caught 2 nice pile SP in the 12-13” range. Nobody else was getting action, so Dawn and Judy spent a lot of time catching sand crabs and building the bait supply. After I pulled my second pile SP up, Lee mentioned that this might be karma for him catching those 5 SP a month and a half ago when nobody was getting so much as a nibble. Sometime after this Lee got hooked a fish and this one didn’t seem that big, but he was still jazzed when he reeled it in, even though he knew on sight he’d have to release it. It was a juvie cabezon of about 9” or so. Then came the best fish of the day. We had gotten to the point where things were slow enough that we cast out, dug a bit of a hole and propped the rod up in it (instead of holding the rod the entire time) and did other things while watching the rod. Lee was in the process of digging the hole after a cast when he got hit. He knew this was a bigger fish, and when he hauled it up onto the beach we found it was a 14” rubberlip SP, the first time any of us (ie including me and Judy) had caught a rubberlip.

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While I was running to help Lee unhook the fish, I noticed my rod was down and figured some people had run into my line and knocked it down, so I ran to get my rod reset before going back to Lee. Just to check that is wasn’t knocked over by a strike... At first I wasn’t sure I if I was snagged or not because I really seemed to be hung up out there. However I found I really could pull the load off of the bottom. This felt very heavy. I anticipated a really large fish, but it turned out I had picked up a double on the hi-lo: one really nice (~12”) striped SP and a medium sized one in the 10-11” range.

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Action then tailed off dramatically. I suppose we should have left earlier, but the weather was so nice and there was always the promise of catching something interesting. For the last hour and a half we fished the only success was my smallest pile surf perch (somewhere in 10-11” range) which we released. I’m not sure how the other groups of fishermen on the beach fared. Lee reported that a group on the west end of the beach seemed to be having good action, apparently for jacksmelt.

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Eventually we threw in the towel, got some ice cream at an ice cream shop in Larkspur Landing and headed home.

Lee filleted the fish (he’s become really good at this) which proved to be enough for two dinners worth. Lee who had cooked the fish meal last week (pile surf perch fillets breaded and fried w side of fettucine alfredo) did the same this week, doing the fillets in a teriyaki sauce. Judy and I shared a bottle of Pinot go with it to cap off a fine saltwater fishing expedition.

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One of the charms of fishing in the ocean is the variety of the potential catch. On this trip we caught 4 different species of fish: 3 different surf perches and a cabezon. Next time? It may be totally different; we may end up with rock fish and kelp greenling. You never know. Of course the higher opinions of this trip are those of me and Lee. Dawn’s statement “I miss the high country” summed up the fact that she is still biding her time until the High Sierra thaws. To some extent, so am I, too, but this sure makes the “off season” more fun. This is not to say that we’ll quit heading out to the ocean when the high country season comes, either. There are other things to look forward to later in the year at the coast.

[rhyang]

Nice outing. I miss the high country too, but getting out to the beach before dawn and watching the seals, pelicans, dolphins and the occasional whale is pretty awesome too. The ocean to me is a raw force of nature, not unlike the granite of our Sierra.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[TahoeJeff]

Another great surf fishing outing! I too really like the variety of the ocean, you really don't ever know what you may catch.
I've found that perch can be mushy and a little bland. How were the ones you guys caught?

[giantbrookie]

I've found that perch can be mushy and a little bland. How were the ones you guys caught?

I found the first set of small striped SPs we cooked up whole back in late Jan. to be a bit mushy but with decent flavor. In contrast, those we've done since have been very nice with more flaky meat. Part of this, however, may be the cooking method. I recall cooking the group of small ones whole, whereas the last two times Lee filleted them and cooking the fillets seemed to bring out the best in them, both in flavor and texture.

[Fly Guy Dave]

I know that beach! I've never fished there, but I used to go surfing there quite a bit. Great place.