Saturday__
Went with Alicia to the beach. A little windier than usual, probably consistent 10 knots, clouds rolled in pretty quick.
Alicia posted up in a chair while I wandered far far away. Kelpy in some spots but manageable in others. Stayed with the white grub again and no bites for a while. Perch bite after 20 minutes. 30 minutes in I got my YFC.
Rest of the school seemed absent. Might have gotten a couple more nudges but pretty dead. Current and swell was a little rougher and I was getting sinker tangles even with 12/15# lines around the swivel. Just the one this time.
Sunday____
Felt like maybe I'm overdoing it going...4 days in a row? Went anyways. Consistency is good for patterning.
5mph winds, sunny, less people around. Very nice. Still some kelp but manageable. Always seems slow to start, can't tell if it's the particular stretch of beach I walk or if this beach just turns on around 90 minutes before sunset. Got to my honey hole and broke the skunk.
Still seemed slow, felt like I was repeating yesterday. Then I started seeing micro bait popping and thought, hell yeah! Saw this on Friday and it turned on then. And what do you know, it went wide open. 8 fish in almost as many casts, and 2 second farm jobs for any other cast without a fish in the 20 minute window. They went from 12-17". Another tanker in the mix!
Some of them took a nice initial drag run which made things extra exciting. They did all seem to run straight at me after the initial dogging, but it was an epic bite nonetheless.
It petered off before a game warden wandered up to me. Checked my license, introduced ourselves, and told him (he's brand new to the job) he should definitely be checking this area often. Lots of potential for tickets. He continued on and I pulled another couple out.
Got to 11 (2 leader breaks on hooksets as well...) and the warden came back my way after checking some others and said "thanks for the tip, I'll definitely be coming through here often." Good to hear! I haven't been checked by a warden since 2019 or so.
On the subject of leader issues, I saw two overhand knots in my leader today, so I wonder if that's been happening to me more lately. It's pretty hard to see if you don't check carefully and it would certainly explain the line breaking at a couple pounds of pressure. Will keep monitoring.
