What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Murphy's Law.

 November 10, 2023

Murphy's Law, What can go wrong will go wrong. Executive Summary: Smoking motor. Broken flyline. Missing every fish on the wall. Broken rod. Dry heaving. Puking. Trailer issues.

 

On the drive down it took me three seasickness patches before I could get one to stick on my neck. That one ended up falling off on the boat later in the day and I had to reapply another. When we arrived at the launch ramp, I was backing the boat into the water, Roy fires up the engine and smoke starts coming out of the motor. After taking the covers off and inspecting it he could not find the source. Fire it up again without the cover and it appeared fine. 

 

Launch the boat and we are off. Hit the wall first. Roy is on first, second and third...I on the other hand can not get one to stick. Every hit I missed. I was testing some new fly patterns all got a reaction but I simply missed everyone. Roy snags and as he pulls his flyline breaks. I get skunked on the wall which is the first time ever. Move on to PV kelp forest.

Since we are now in unprotected water I ask Roy if my patch is still on. He tells me no. I reapply another. By this time no tidal movement and we putz around from one area to the next with little to no reaction. I start to feel slightly queasy. Roy tells me to drive the boat I feel a bit better. Continue fishing. After a couple hours we start to head back. I tell Roy take the wheel and start puking off the side. 

 

On the way back the tide starts to pick up and Roy is catching fish. While after puking three times I feel somewhat better, I'm still in the back seat trying to get me head together. After watching Roy smacking a few fish I decide fuck feeling bad I'm not coming home skunked and start fishing. After all I have a new rod that still hasn't broken it's cherry. First fish a jack smelt. At least I'm not skunked. Continue on get a calico. Small. After a while I finally on a decent bass. Bent my 8wt down to the cork. He bulldogs me into the kelp I finally drag him out. The I turn my head after I hear something from Roy. He just broke his rod. My fish as i turn my attention back at him now pops off once out of the kelp forest. I see it all happen before my eyes. 

 

Now Roy is now without a flyrod. I ask him if he wants to use my spare. He doesn't and asks me if I want to keep fishing. At this point I've had enough of the ocean. Let's head back. Once in protected water I'm starting feel better. We trailer the boat and start washing it. Roy notices the boat is off center. Put it back in the water. Boat simply wouldn't center. After nearly two hours of repositioning and rewashing the boat we were finally heading back home. Got home sleep for the rest of the day. Woke up at 10pm and in the middle of making dinner, neighborhood experiences a blackout the rest of the night.

Hit the Wall

October 11, 2023

Roy needed to do a trial run on his boat before he heads out next week so he calls me up to see if I wanted do a quick run to The Wall. But before we go out though we needed to wire his new fish finder. What he schedule for 30 minutes ended up taking couple hours. Got on the water late and we fished only about an hour before we headed back so Roy could make his Doctor's appointment. Caught a few Calicos nothing spectacular, the last one being the best of the bunch. Caught first fish on a squid pattern that I tied ages ago but never fished. I don't think there are squid at the wall but I knew Calicos wouldn't care. Next fish were on tan and white clousers. Started with Steve's 12 wt then fished roy's xi2 8wt after he told me to fish it.

I Hate Surf Fishing

September 23, 2022

 

 

Koji was in town briefly for a layover and asked if I could take him out fishing.  Unfortunately given the timing and timeframe no real good options were available.  So I could only take him out surf fishing.  Although I'll admit catching corbina is fun, I am not a fan of fly fishing the surf.  I took part of the early 2000s surf fishing craze and often would fish before work with some local "big" names.  That craze has since died and only rarely do I return to the beach to fish.

Not knowing the beaches around LAX I asked some South Bay friends for guidance.  After being directed towards the Strands area I decided to try there for the morning.  Crowds were already gathered.  I knew fishing was going to be tough and it was.  Koji and I both suffered the skunk and quit early than planned.  Fishing conditions simply were not in our favor.  Sets between waves were to close and the water was too murky to sight cast for corbina.  So we resorted to blind casting into anything we deemed as structure.  There were barely any troughs to exploit.  I did see some baitfish jumping out of the water at one point but once I casted in the direction the waves would sweep my line away from the intended target.  

Instead of prolonging our misery we cut short the fishing and I treated Koji to breakfast before driving him to LAX.   Another US trip with Koji and it was a bust.  Sorry man.

Begining of the End July 12, 2021. LA Inshore a dud August 21, 2021

 July 12, 2021

Local fish have taken a beating with drought conditions and with mass crowds because of Covid lockdowns.  This outing I didn't get the type of fish like last year.  Far more dinks and no large fish.

August 21, 2021  Long Beach Harbor/ LA Inshore

Roy gave me call and wanted to see if I wanted to head out on his boat and fish off Long Beach.  The trip would be more of a test run as he had repaired his outboard engine.  If it ran successfully we run outside the wall if not we'd fish the inner wall.  When we drove up to the harbor I was amazed at all the shipping vessels parked outside.  This was before news were reporting on the backlog at the ports.  Boat ran fine and we made it outside the wall  navigating through the traffic jam.  Fishing was poor and all I got was sick. Was only out there for a couple hours before calling it quits.