Marin grubbing

#1
Although the weather looked great for the weekend, my preferred tides did not. I like to fish around the high tide an hour before and the two hours following the peak. Sunday's morning high tide was predicted at 8:45, and with the beach a little over an hour from home, I did not think I would make it. But, because of my wife's early morning flight, I was up at 4 AM. I was at the beach by 8 am, but the conditions on the shore were far from ideal. The surf was pounding at the immediate shoreline, and the beach, due to Winter storms, was not the gradual and consistent drop-off of the milder seasons. For the first hour I flailed away with the Carolina rigged grub. No takers, or I could not feel them. Saw a couple other guys flailing away as well, with similar results, nothing. I figured this would mostly be a beach excursion with some fishing thrown in. The weather started clearing up from the morning fog, and began to warm up by around 10, which is also when I got my first fish, which I barely felt on the line, a hand-sized BSP. Well, I thought, did not get skunked. The outgoing tide moved the breaking surf a bit out and softened the conditions, but there was still a lot of water. Things changed quickly. Now, I got a good sized red tail perch, around 11". Then, things got more interesting as I caught and landed 5 more, a combination of BSP and RTs. All feisty fish and full of fight. One good very strong tug broke me off, a rare occurrence.

After 3.5 hours of fishing, I was done physically, and the bite had died off. I am glad I went out at such an early hour, it turned out to be a great day!