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On October 18, 2004, the tide's low was 3.0-ft at 7:08 am with a high of 5.9-ft at 1:28 pm. It was foggy and cold. Sun broke through mid-morning and stayed until we left at 11:30 am. I fly fished from 7:15 am to 8:00 am and got the small one shown. During the same time, Dennis Tunstall got 5 using grub gear. The fish were mostly hold too far for flies. I switched to grub gear for the rest of the day and I ended with 27 smaller surfperch all barred except for one walleye. We had to master choreography in the surf today. It was a dances with seaweed day. The beach was cluttered at the high tide line with seaweed including some massive clumps. Conditions got worse as the tide came in and picked up more weeds. We did well considering the conditions. Debris was moving to the South so by starting to fish just North of the weed edges got us into clear casting until the next debris cluster arrived. The fish hit hard for their size. It was a fun, relaxing day!
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On October 14, 2004, the tide's low was 1.3-ft at 4:46 am with a high of 5.7-ft at 10:56 am and an afternoon low of 0.1-ft at 5:37 pm. It was foggy and cold. Sun broke through mid-morning then a new marine layer blew with the winds. The surf was NOT as rough as last time. I didn't fly fish at all. I used grub gear all day (7:00 am to 3:00 pm) and fished with Dennis Tunstall who used the same. We got NO hits in the first 30 minutes. I started thinking that it would be a slow day. The next stop North changed things and from there the bite got steadily better. The fish were mostly in near-shore troughs. At times, they were holding very close and at other times far out. We found that there still can be a lot of willing barred surfperch in this season. I caught 85 total for the day with 20 from 1 to 1 1/3-lbs, 12-inches. The largest one is shown (close-up). Dennis caught 50 but he was getting all the action at times. His largest was the same size (no picture). I also caught a nice male. It was great to experience this kind of action so late in the year!
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On October 11, 2004, the tide's early low was 0.5-ft at 3:18 am with a high of 4.8-ft at 9:45 am and an afternoon low of 1.6-ft at 3:33 pm. I started at the same beach as my last few trips and was on the water by 6:40 am. It was a clear morning and swells were overhead with a lot of foamy water. I could not see any significant structure. The hydraulics were strong and wading was difficult. There were some slightly deeper areas. It was slow to start and I caught a small barred surfperch within 30 minutes. I caught two more soon after including my largest for the day (shown at the left). I used Surf Miki on point and Zen Worm on dropper. The slow bite stopped with the sun on the water. I switched to my spinning rod with grubs and picked up one more but that was it. I decided to drive way north to fish another beach. The swells there had similar pattern but were smaller and wading was easier here. I worked north fishing the deeper areas and their edges in foamy flats. Smaller fish to 9-inches were there. I got 15 barreds over 3 hours and ended with 19 for the day. I switched to a Zen Worm using my grub gear for the last 5 perch. I did well considering the conditions - it was nice to have some action all day. I saw several larger barred surfperch caught by bait fishermen at the first beach. It got me thinking that real food is working better now.
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