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I have two that stand out and they were from 3 seasons ago. Took a chance on a spot that had always been good to me in Aug, but hadn’t produced in several years. It was late in the summer but there was a light N breeze. New Moon. First night only 4 fish between 16-20#s. Nothing crazy, but encouraging. Next night, same conditions... tide changed and my buddy and I had probably 30 fish between us from 20 to just under 40#s. We were friggin’ ecstatic. The next night I was solo. It was pitch black, foggy, and no surf... perfect for landing big bass. I can honestly say I caught well over 30 fish that night by myself. All the fish were between 18 and again, just shy of 40#s. And they would only hit big dead eels, not live ones. I fished the same conger for 4 nights straight. Kept it on ice and kept finding new places to hook it in the head. I was seriously toying with the fish at one point, just lobbing the eel out and working it like a spook or pencil, just messing around, catching 30# bass. You could hear them walloping the eel on top in the fog. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. 4 hours straight. My hands were so raw from reaching down their throats to unhook them. It was just surreal.
The other was two months later in October just after Joaquin passed. Was lucky to get some timely info and hit it just right. The wind shifted out of the NE to the NW, swell was still big, but thousands of 3-5” peanuts crammed into every nook and cranny along this stretch. I got there the first night and stuck a few teen size fish on pencils and then the bite dies at dark. I was back the next morning posted on the same rock. Caught a teen size fish at false dawn. As the sun came up I saw a massive flock of gulls in tight to the rocks down to my left. Jumped in my car and flew down there. Got on the rocks with two other fishermen and we proceeded to slam countless fish in the 20-30# range, all on top, on the white 3 oz Guppy, all morning long. My buddy Jimmy stuck a 49” fish on buck tail. The fish were so tight to the beach, their backs were porpoising out of the water. I’ll never forget seeing all those big fish stacked up right at my feet. At times I was standing parallel to the beach, casting my pencil onto the gravel and dragging it into the water just to have a 30# fish side swipe it and start heading for the Block. All beautiful fish with shoulders, deep purple hues. Definitely a school of deep water fish that got pushed in by the storm. That was a wild 5 hours of fishing. And like that it was over by noon. If you got there later it was only small fish, the bigger fish moved out with the tide. I’ll never forget standing amongst some of the area’s best surfcasters, sharing a beer, and having a sense of complete and utter peace and satisfaction.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device
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