Surf | Hunter {Striped Bass}

TIDE | New Jersey : :  -0.3 low at 10:32pm and 5.2 high @ 4:03am | Sea Temperature 56°
Moon Phase : :  Last Quarter on the Wane |  Surf Fishing : : Drove/Walked the Beach
Retrieval Speed : :  crawl     |     slow    |     medium     |    fast    

Fall Striped Bass Fishing : : All the lights in town may blink yellow but the fishing is a go

I arrive on the East Coast amidst the onslaught of a Nor'easter storm. I checked in with my friend Kristian to see how the fishing has been. He texts me back, "Best Bass fishing in the last 4 years from the surf, there will be bass and beer".  Every where I go all I see is trucks with big Surf Poles and fisherman in Waders walking around. You can feel the energy in town and in the tackle shops.

There is a heavy buzz slowly surrounding me now with anticipation of catching a Striped Bass. Like an addict that just scored you can't wait to feel that first hit from the surf.

The sand eels are in heavy in the surf and the Striped bass are gorging themselves with them as they migrate down the coast. We pick up a few Ava 17 lures, put on our waders and load up Kristian truck. With all the tourist gone and half the town up North the fishermen take over the beaches. You can drive your truck onto the beach in search of fish. We put the truck in 4 wheel drive and see some birds working and head over to a nice cut in the sand bar.

Kristian lights a cigarette and casts out into the rough surf.  As soon as he puts the reel in gear he is on. First cast he gets a double header. One on the teaser and the other on a AVA 17. I look right and my dad's 10 foot pole is bent in half, he is on also. Next thing you know 6 guys infiltrate our fishing hole and we are elbow to elbow. The fish are feeding recklessly for about a half hour and we pick up a bunch of fish. The weather turns worse and gets real "snotty". Heavy surf, winds and sideways rain in your face make it tough to cast. I'm cold, my waders have a hole in them and have been leaking 56° water for the last 3 hours but I don't care, we all got fish. I'm definitely not in California anymore, but loving it.
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Striped Bass: Kristian: 3 |  Bob 2 | Scott 1 (all catch photo and release)
Foraging ON : : Sand Eels in the surf, using AVA 17 and 27 lures
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During the Thanksgiving weekend Striped Bass Tournament Colin Dempsey's winning fish had a stomach full of sand eels. You can see from his photo on the left how the bass have been just gorging themselves with these eels as they migrate south for the winter.

Sand Eels are a schooling fish, small, slender and are typically found shoaling over the seabed or buried in the sand below the surf. The species range from about 4–12in.  

The Ava 17 with Green/Chartreuse tube with a Epoxy Sand Eel Teaser fly were deadly all week.  

Osprey | Hunter

TIDE | San Diego : : 5.6 high @ 10:39am and a 0.3 low at 6:22pm | Sea Temperature 61°
Moon Phase : :  Last Quarter |  Fuel : : 1.762 gallons @ $3.97 a gallon = $7.01

osprey |ˈäsprā; -prē|   aka fish hawk
noun ( pl. -preys)

Osprey's are fishing birds and can be seen hovering above the water searching for prey. They search for fish while flying 30-100 feet above the water. Once they have spotted their prey, they hover, then fold their wings, descend quickly into the water feet first. Strong, curved talons and specialized spines on the bottoms of their feet help them hold onto the slippery fish. If they catch the fish, they quickly take off, and will re-arrange the fish in its talons so the fish faces head first, thus presenting a more streamlined profile facing forward into the wind. Then they fly to a perch to devour it. Sometimes the talons lock into place when a heavy fish is grabbed and can only be released when the fish is pushed against a hard surface.

Ospreys can’t swim and have been known to drown, especially if they get their talons stuck in too large a fish and can’t take off

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+ I am magnetized towards Salt Water and all it has to offer. Surf, Solitude, Sustenance… I truly feel lucky to have more time these last few years to be surrounded by all its glory. Its hard to describe in words watching a Osprey descending out of the sky at full speed and pluck a 20 inch fish off the top of the water 5 feet away from you.

The fish was so big the Osprey had to temporally land on a nearby piling. I followed them in my boat and was able to snap off a few photos while it devoured its meal. Out of all the bass I caught today none of them were as big as the one the Osprey grabbed.
.................................................................................................................................................................................................5 Spotted Bass, 1 Calico Bass,  2 Sand Bass {kept 1 sand bass for dinner, 18inch 2.5lbs)

Stomach Contents : : large 2inch stone crab

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{ H y b r i d   |  M o m e n t s }  I made a half fly half plastic curly tail grub. I set it up on a high low rig with a 3inch swim bait on the bottom and the fly as a teaser on top. The fly floated above the swim bait as a reeled it across the eel grass flats. I felt the first initial bite and then half way in I got a second hit from the follower bass.
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field notes 004 | lobstering

TIDE | San Diego : : -0.3 low @ 2:57pm and a 4.2 high at 9:16pm | Sea Temperature 61.0° F

Moon Phase : :  Full Moon  | Time on Water : : 5:00pm—8:30pm 

Day light drains from the sky and the night slowly covers the coastline. At boat landings tucked into small sheltered bays and harbors, engines grumble in idle, coughing up blue smoke that tastes like steel

We lower and stack the hoop nets onto the deck of my boat. As we push off the dock a warm Sana Ana wind sweeps across the bay, flattening out the swells that pass into our bow. Sheet glass water reflects luminous colors from the sunset making it seem as if we were advancing through an oil slick. We pass the last inlet buoy signaling us to open up full throttle. The boat raises up to plane and our captain guides us towards the hunting grounds.

With eyes fixated on the horizon line he navigates us through the mind field of lobster buoys. As we drift over the edge of the reef we begin baiting all the cages and snapping the glow sticks. We drop our string of nets and circle back to the first one. The lobsters have been hiding all day in the reef and are hungry. They sense the nightfall and begin to move out and scavenge for food. A half hour before dark we tend to pull up the most keepers. Then usually an hour after dark we have a good second push. 

 ............................................................................................................................................................ { M e a s u r i n g  |  U p }  I talked with a Fish and Game officer recently and he said that if you have any question in your mind on if a lobster is border line legal let it go. With fines that can cost you a few thousand dollars its not worth it. With so much commercial and recreational fishing pressure on lobsters your slitting your own throat by taking shorts  ............................................................................................................................................................

{ T a c t i c s }  the art of lobster fishing is deciding where and when to set the traps

+ drop hoop nets about 30 to 45 minutes before sunset

+ bait nets with large salmon heads and large cut mackerel

+ carapace has to measure at least 3 1/4 inches

"if your hoop net is directly on top of the reef be careful of menacing eels lurking in your nets"

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{ T i p s }  Before leaving the dock fill out your lobster card, Month, Day, Location and Gear Code. Our State and Fish and Game are hard up for money and giving out $450 fines for not filling it out  ............................................................................................................................................ 

{ F  a  l  l   B  i  t  e  s }    

Lobster Tacos : :  Sauteed lobster in garlic lemon butter and green onions on a flour tortilla with black bean, avocado, cabbage, salsa and ranch dressing drizzled on top  ............................................................................................................................................ { M o v e m e n t  |  H o m e  R a n g e } The average California spiny lobster in San Diego’s Point Loma kelp bed travel about 400 meters a night scavenging for food, through there was a range of 50 meters to 1 kilometer. The take-home message is that lobsters move a lot and are more active at night.  Lobsters also move among habitats more than expected. Lobsters journey from kelp forest to surf grass and do not return to any specific shelter—a special rock crevice, ledge or rock pile. Instead they seem to cleave to a particular area, usually about 100 square meters with many sheltering areas in it.

 

Degrees of Separation°

TIDE | San Diego : : 6.1 high @ 7:07am and a 0.1 low at 1:54pm | Sea Temperature 62°

Moon Phase : :  Full Moon is on November 10th, 2011 | Fuel Used : : 1.6 gallons @ $3.97 = $6.35
Time on Water : : 6:20am—12:15pm

As daylight drains from the sky along the coastline, themes from my long day spent in solitude spread with a warm glow behind my eyes.  I catch what I can catch, and there are things that break my lines and things I let go.

I spent some time exploring new structures in the big bay today. A lot of the setups looked great but weren't holding many fish. Eventually I went to my go to spots and second cast my rod got slammed by a nice Sand Bass. He coughed up a huge ghost shrimp. I immediately switched to a swimbait that was closer in color. The next forty minutes or so I got into some nice bass and one short halibut. Then everything shut down as it will and I headed in.

 

7 Spotted Bass, 3 Calico Bass,  1 halibut, 1 Sand Bass–18 inches weighing  in @ 2.55 lbs.

Stomach Contents : : Ghost Shrimp and Razor Clams

 









+ the sand bass were foraging in the eel grass and coughing 
up ghost shrimp and razor clams

+ switched to brown swimbaits, Big Hammer Toast and Bleeding Olive Herring

+ I made a plastic/fly hybrid that looks like a ghost shrimp, can't wait to give it a go

{ F  a  l  l   B  i  t  e  s }

Fish Tacos: Bass Style

Sauteed Sand Bass in lemon garlic butter on a bed of fresh spinach with avocado and Salsa Fresca wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla with a thin layer of melted sharp cheddar cheese

 

Everything Looks Better in Soft Focus

TIDE  |  Moon : : 4.7 high @ 5:45am and a 2.6 low at 11:25am | Sea Temp 63°
Moon Phase : :  First Quater

If variables look promising, I organize my lures and call my fishing buddies—the only other people sufficiently underemployed to be bored on a weekday—and we plan some visceral activity to pass the time.

Coming over the hill in Point Loma I look downtown as the sun tries to peak its weary head through a dense fog. The fog is so thick you can't see a foot in front of you which is fine because I lost my glasses earlier this week and I have been viewing the whole world in soft focus for a few days now. The fog just leveled the playing field out for me. Unfortunately I hit a few boat wakes at 20 knots and James sitting up front got some 4 foot barrels. We both got soaked but the sun came out in full force.

We fished mainly structure spots today. This is by far my favorite fishing,  I love getting up close to pilings and pitching in for big lunker bass that explode out of their hole. Big bass are territorial and guard the best spots. We had a steady bite all day through high and low tide. There is a big storm on the way and as the Barometer drops the fish can sense it so they feed heavily .

19 Spotted Bass | 2 calico | 1 halibut   {all catch photo and release today}
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