Fly Fishing Monterey Bay by Dan Blanton

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

http://www.flyfisherman.com/southwest/dbmonterey/

[Mr. Noodle Rod]

Thanks for the link, Bill! I enjoyed reading Dan's article. Think I'll head to Monterey Bay & soak a few flies in the surf this afternoon.

Wishing you & everyone on the board a Happy New Year!

- Mark

[Anne Vitale]

Mark...Let us know how you made out down there. Drake's east is showing a lot of structure now. Unfortunately there seems to be a dearth of fishes living in it. I hit it yesterday just after the tide bottomed out at around mid dayfor a couple of hours. The weather was beautiful but I got to be feeling very tired so I came home early. As it turned out I was coming down with a cold. BUMMMMEr. Now I can only stay awake long enough to "fish" here at Kiene's Board.

I've been following your exploits on your web site. What a great wealth of information you have there. Thank you for taking the time to post it. If anyone out there is even thinking about trying the surf, I strongly suggest you check out Mark's website at http://home.att.net/~surf.perch/Main.html

Nice to see that you are still catching those stripers. I thought they would all be up in the Delta by now. Happy New Year.......Anne

[Mr. Noodle Rod]

Hey Anne,

Happy New Year! Good to hear Drake's is starting to take shape for the winter. I thought about going there a few days ago, but I wound up heading to the north end of 10-Mile Beach instead for the redtails. It's been a while since I last fished Drake's & Limantour. The way the Marine Life Protection Act is closing off portions of the coast to fishing, I may need to spend more time in these waters while they still remain fishable. The latest draft proposals for the North Central Coast Marine Protection Areas are considering the closure of some, if not all, of Drake's & Limantour to shore fishing in the near future (read the latest proposals at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/nccrsg-dprops.asp).

The surf perch have been generally absent at many of the local beaches I've scouted. I suspect the situation will improve after the Bay Area receives a good dose of rain, which should be later this week if the weather forecasts hold. The days that immediately follow a period of steady rain tend to produce some decent surfperch action around this time of the year.

A few rogue schoolies have been roaming the Monterey surf this winter. They've been the occasional incidental catches while I've been targeting the perch. The linesides are likely from the Salinas or Pajaro, though I wouldn't be too surprised if there were a few stragglers from the Delta in the mix.

Anyway, wishing you a speedy recovery from the sniffles & hoping you find more opportunities to wet a line this winter. In the meantime, good luck with the "fishing" on the Kiene board

- Mark

[larsj]

Manresa and Palm Beach were pretty flat on Tuesday, so I kept driving. Some interesting structure at Moss Landing just north of the jetty, but no grabs, takes, anything (surf was pretty difficult, actually). I was fishing late morning until about 11:30.

--Lars

[jlmelend]

Hey Lars! Nice of you to make an appearance on Kiene's! Remember me? I'm the SpeyCrazy guy on your message board!

For anyone who is trying surf fishing, Tommy Lee and Lars gave me some great pointers on fishing the surf. Orange colored flies in the cuts with a sinking line are key. Make sure you check your flies as the surf and sand can dull the point on your hooks. Central Coast fly fishing can also give you some info on whether the beaches near monterey or carmel have some structure to work with.

Lars' message board also has a running forum on surf fishing and steelheading. http://fishingboard.gruk.net/index.php

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Hi larsj

What's the best time to fish the beaches down your way?

I spent my vacations in Santa Cruz when I was a youngster.



That's a 3" "sand dab" I have impaled there.

[larsj]

Hi Joe, thanks for the post. I haven't been fishing much this fall/winter, and am feeling the itch to get out again.

Nice pic Bill . I've caught a perch *almost* that small.

Typically winter is hard for me, but that could just be me. Maybe its just the time of day I get out, as I don't often get to do early morning or the evening. Spring into summer can go pretty well. Last fall was a bit of a bust, as the red tide was pretty much ever-present and I didn't feel motivated to try it.

regards,
--Lars