Count on it. Every day on the ocean has the potential to be waaaaay different than the previous.
Duh.
July 19th: New dory (old but new to my friends); huge schools of Black rockfish, grabs a-plenty, Lingcod, gentle ocean current made it easy to get flies down to fish; wide mix of fish sizes from 12 inch dinks to nice big plump shouldered fish; lots of fish in the 15-25 ft depth range; motor starter failed and we needed a tow to shore. One oar cracked as we rowed to beach. Great first voyage in my friend’s newly acquired dory.
July 20th: Rough ocean. Crab pots full to the brim; heavy ocean current; lots of surface eelgrass to foul our bucktail flies; cold 45 degree water; heavy swells made fishing so unpleasant that we returned to beach in 30 minutes with nary a serious chance to fish. grateful Bread breakfast and a nap by 9 AM.
July 21st: Surprise! Good calm conditions to launch dory late at 7:30. Winds in the sub-ten knot range. Fished for salmon at 160 ft contour for a few hours, but no joy, no working bait or birds. A friend motioned us over when his starter failed – and we towed him into beach, cast him off to row to shore. Then we went back out fishing again for the Rockfish we so love. Ocean current was strong but we were able to get our flies down with careful line management; fish were more in the 30 – 40 ft depth range, more scattered, and more difficult to find;. We found enough fish to hit doubles whenever we did find the fish and we found full crab pots too.
July 22: up at 4 AM. It is calm here in Woods. Don’t know what the ocean will bring. I have rods rigged with new lines to test, new flies to swim, and great expectations. Waiting to see if the phone rings and says: Hey Jay, want to hit the ocean?
7 AM and the phone indeed rings. Truck won’t start. Ocean is perfect, but no truck means no Dory launch.
See what I mean? Maybe I’ll fish for sea runs. Or take a nap. Odds are the nap will win out.
Here are some photos from yesterday, July 21st, 2013.
Call me silly (I know you will), but this 4 weight Echo-3 wt rod makes an amazing Rockfish rod. More on lines and flies later, but this outfit made for wonderful excitement when we found fish at less than 30 ft depths.
Whenever we found the fish, we hooked upon doubles.
Tube fly, big eyes, and plenty of cure goo over Steve Farrar’s Blend.
Black and orange Clouser tied with heavy lead eyes; SF Blend.
Don’t believe that the SeaDucer is only an East coast fly, because it Rocks the Blacks here with just bead-chain eyes and lateral scale accents.
More SF Blend in blue, chartreuse, grey, and red on this Clouser.
Black and Chartreuse SeaDucer at work.
May this day be good to all of you, on the water, at home, at work, and waiting for your chance to play with fishes.
Jay Nicholas