California Fishing

[DZ]

Just got back from a 9 day trip along the coast of California. The was a family trip so I wasn't fishing but as a surfcaster I did check out the shoreline structure and pier fishing. Pier fishing is primarily done by food fishermen taking a variety of very small panfish and a few flounder - they called them "flatties" but they looked very much like our fluke or small halibut. There were also some surf fishermen fishing primarily on the sand beaches - most wet wading and bait fishing. No one fishing on the rock structure which struck me funny until I saw some of the state and National seashore information boards placed on the boardwalks. They had a few describing the various life forms in 'tide pools" and how it was wrong to be walking through tide pools because it would damage to life chain and you could hurt crabs, seaweed, etc. Extreme environmentalism run a muck. Could you imagine a movement to prevent surfcasting in boulder fields around here because we could be stepping and killing seaweed and other tide pool creatures? The sea mammal (sea lions, seals) population is almost considered sacred. The things are huge and everywhere and I'd be afraid to fish after dark with them around. All in all I consider us very fortunate here on the right coast because the left coast has many obstacles to a surfcaster.
The craft beer was fantastic - nice to go back to the original West Coast style IPA's. The hazy New England IPA's are also in vogue now in California. The they call them Northeast style IPAs - I told them they are called New England style back here.
I was in San Francisco around 20 years ago and at that time considered it one of my favorite cities. It's really gone downhill... literally - downtown smells of urine everywhere. Huge population of homeless living on the streets - very few public facilities for them or tourists. For perhaps the most liberal city in America I was appalled at the lack of concern. California on a whole is also very expensive - gas over $4 a gallon, simple breakfast over $12 each. They tax everything. Beautiful state but it obviously has many issues to address.