I know it's only the second week of August. You still may even have your family vacation still to come before school starts up again. But this summer has been a weird one. Last night it was 66 degrees out here. The early mornings feel like fall. It was time for a late summer/ way-to-early fall trip. To be there for first light means I have to be up and out of the house by 330. I WaWa coffee on my way east and then stopped to check and see how the nursery was looking. Lot's of silversides, rainbait and peanut bunker all doing their thing. Ebbing and flowing with the tide, putting on some mass, and trying to not get eaten by the predators, which come from overhead, along the surface, and from underneath.
Conditions looked good. Cool air temps and maybe a tad too cool water temps for the fluke, Spanish, and maybe albies. There must have been some days of a south wind that upwelled the surf. Even
though it was only an hour on the ebb tide there wasn't a ton of water, or structure, along the beach. The groins were like staircases, especially on the south sides, where shoaling had occurred all summer due to the south wind and littoral currents (south to north).
I started with a popper and had one bass, that I saw, jump it on the top of the wave. Between the wave and slack in the line I didn't have a shot at the hook set. As I was trying to air out the casts I kept trying to figure out what was wrong. This line, I don't know who made it, had more memory than an elephant. I had stretched it out, had even put it in hot water, but it's like trying to cast a giant zip-tie.
While I was back at the truck switching lines and baits Leif was down at water's edge unhooking a fluke that took a crab fly and spit up a rain fish. With the sun up the terms started to concentrate in front
of us picking at bait. I didn't see any swirls or blow-ups but Leif said he saw some small snapper bluefish running through bait for a hot minute. I went with the crab/baitfish combo and only had what I think was a small fluke hit it. I was a good morning. Got it out of the way. Now I can wait.
But on the way home I stopped at another fishy looking spot. The crabs were up and out of the water either sunning themselves, working on hardening their shells, or anticipating another molt coming soon. But what caught my eye were the eels. There were three that were coming out of this small
outflow pipe and running past the crabs. Then there were singles that swam out, then another. I thought, oh my, can you just imagine the right time and the right tide? Bass just lying in wait waiting to exhale. Like, you know, at night.....
So I went back late Friday evening for the drop. Not the same place with the eels but another fsihy spot. Tons of kelp, or whatever it is. Every cast, especially since I chucked that zip-tie intermediate line earlier in the day. I saw bait, but not like crazy bait. A few blowups at almost dead low tide out in the deeper water. It was all bad. They say, "Go make reports and don't wait for reports". You don't know if
if you don't go. It wasn't all bad. Last fall, in the parking spot, I found a pair of Sanuk's that someone had left, like right where the drivers door would have been. So I placed them on the fence for them to find them when they came back. That was last fall. So all through the winter, spring, and summer, in rain, some snow, and heat, they stood, waiting for me to come back. I now am sporting a size 11 pair of Sanuk's.
