Hey, the world did not end (it was supposed to end on 05/21/11)! So I went fishing. Got there on a low tide and started on foot checking the rips and reefs. Boy was it cold, south wind with overcast skies, water in low 60s.
Nothing in my usual spots. A lot of my holes are filling in with sand which is bad (I know that sounds funny if you think of it). But really! The big northwestern swells scour out the bottom of the intertidal zone and send the sand offshore, out a few hundred yards, and as the seasons change, the gentile summer waves bring the sand back in.
The last two years, there has been a lot of sand hanging around even after the swells during the winter, which is probably due to the sand replenishing projects, done to protect the tourism. In full sight from shore and buffeted by ocean winds, huge barges will sit offshore and pump sand up onto the beach for months, so the beaches will stay nice and sandy for the tourists. The problem is that this behavior upsets the environment, and definitely there is less structure for fish to come in and hang out and spawn near, which, as I have witnessed over last few years, results in less predatory fish inshore in the intertidal zone.
I trudged South and found an awesome rip tide covering a submerged reef. I worked my self out to waist deep water on the sandy side and started casting over into the deep spots. Pow! I got a nice 18 inch sand bass. Great fight, felt like a halibut at first. After landing the fish, I worked the rest of the reef and ended up losing two lures to the rocks...oh well.
While hunting the break zone, I saw a bunch of shovelnose sharks in the water. One of them I chased, when the water receded and it was exposed. It was swimming in only a couple inches of water and returning to the waves as I crept up to it, and I could have jumped on it, but it sensed my presence at the last minute, and took off like a rocket. Whoohoo!
I dug for some sand crabs for the heck of it, and that was fun, great to feel like a kid again. Now I know the pattern to look for in the wet sand. Sure enough, bigger bumpy patches on the shoreline will yield crabs, not the same pattern made by the cockles, but the smooth lumps where you dig your hand into the wet sand and bring up a cupfull with a few wiggling feet of cartilage scraping your fingers. Fish the crabs out, put these on a hook, and cast out into the waves....pretty soon you could enjoy a nice fat Corbina.
The surf was pretty big, about 3-5 feet, and I spent three hours walking the beach. Needless to say, I was getting tuckered out so I picked up my board and left. No surfboard fishing today.
