The Furbag Fun Continues..

Had the day off today so where better to go than Shelter Island? Right. Showed up at 645 and made my way to the water. Noticed a few things right off the bat.. First, there was some slight wind coming from the west. Two, the tide was inbound, and you could literally see the current sweeping along and in front of the beach by using all the crap in the water as your guide.. foam, dead eel grass spikes and tons of kelp clumps - some that were easily a dozen feet across. And three, my dirtbag fur bag friend was lazily cruising the shallows rolling over and over on his side - kinda like saying, Hey friend, come on in and catch me a treat or two? POS. I hate sea lions.



Got in and started backing up into 72 degrees of nice, not-so-clear Pacific Ocean water. In fact, the clarity was downright meager. I'm guessing clarity was to no more than 3' near the sand and no idea what it was farther out.



Got two Spots before I even got close to being "ready" to fish. But I took it as a good sign and started my kick into both the wind and the hard push of the current from the inbound tide. You ever try that? Kicking into a wind and a strong current from a strong upper half tide? I really gotta rethink my bright ideas. Of all places.. Shelter Island.. with an inbound tide, heavy sweeping current and a fair wind at my back. Took me almost a full hour just to move six boats up the chain to the west. Of course, part of the issue was catching fish. When I hookup, I stop. In a heavy current, stopping is bad. And I'm stupid. I figure for every ten feet I traveled, I'd lose that much with stopping to unhook the fish. My legs feel like Jello as I write this tasty little memoir.



Dirtbag sea lions.. I'm getting sick of this stuff. He rolls around me, under me, over me, wherever he wants. I'm sticking my rod in the water, slapping and stabbing the green darkness in hopes that one of these times I actually poke him. He didn't hassle me that bad today - not like he did last week - but come on.



Ran into a guy pulling hardware from his kayak. Nice enough fellow. Was telling me how his buddy is a float tuber, and how he refuses to risk it all by getting caught in that strong Shelter Island current. Cant blame him at all.. so I told him how I get by with it. Stay close to the beach in case there's trouble - you can always kick through the current to the sand instead of staying right in the middle of it and trying to kick into it. The fish are always moving and there's a ton of area to cover within the moored boats and beach, so you really dont have to travel much at all. I love it there, current or no current. Told him I'd add a photo of him on here, so I hope he's reading this.. not sure if he's a member or not.



SI is always good for a line-ripper or two.. and that's exactly what I got again today. But this time I'm sure it was a bigger Halibut. Pulled me into the last half of my hard line, then just sat and hugged the bottom near the 15' mark. I'd pull up on him and feel his head bounce up and down. Played this game for maybe ten minutes, but he's not budging except for the pull backs he gives me for pulling on him. Another problem develops when a huge flat of kelp comes drifting through and hangs itself up in my fly line. So now I have all of this extra weight pulling my line eastbound with the heavy current, and a stalled fish that aint budging pointed west. And I cant get the kelp off my line no matter what I do. This is so stupid. So I pulled myself up alongside the line, grab it with my hand and pull up on it slightly. And the fish takes off for a second.. and so does my line with this heavy bunch of kelp hanging onto it.. and I do what I do and pull back on the line with the rod tip pointed underwater, and it breaks off. Typical. And again it takes both of my flies, both strands of fluorocarbon, my Fireline and the tippet ring.



Breaking the monotony and taking my mind away from it temporarily was one of the coolest Naval vessels I've ever seen. I guess they're making them now in a tri-hull kind of format? I'll bet this thing hauls the mail when it has to. Very impressive to know that my tax dollars are responsible fro creating something so awesome looking. That's our continued freedom right there.



And I've had enough today. Tired of fighting the current, tired of trying to fight bigger fish on a 5wt rod (ya, I was that stupid to bring along a 5wt today.. not a 6, or 7.. a 5wt.. for Shelter Island on a good incoming tide with a strong current.. so stupid), and tired of losing those bigger fish to what.. my stupidity I guess.

Anyway, it was a short morning - I was only in the water for an hour and fifteen minutes because I was just getting killed physically. But still, took 12 Spotties and that massive whatever it was (I say Halibut this time and so does Rick at the shop). Still fun and looking forward to Friday when I get to fish with about five other guys from all over Southern California. Two of them will be making the pilgrimage down from OC to slay a few with Richard Cullip, Capt Woody and myself somewhere in the greater SD Bay area. Cant wait to write that one up.

 

Damm ! I'm guessing I'd better tone down my reports. (?)