NEVER AGAIN ON SUNDAY


First my mate did not tell me that after receiving back his suspended license he is not allowed to drive between midnight and 5am, so my planned 1am pick-up went shit. At the end, 5am pick up became 5.30 pick up. I am really picky about time management and if I plan something I want it to happen the way I planned.


This Sunday experience proved me once again that IF YOU WANT TO SOMETHING GOOD YOU BETTER DO IT YOURSELF.

Anyway, so we only made it to fish the outgoing tide., but fuck me, once we got to the spot people were everywhere. Surfers, paddle boarders, people with dogs, kids. I felt like an alien walking around with a fly rod, stripping baskets all dressed up to cover myself from sun.


I got to the rock platform to check the surf and possible casting spot and not even 5min I got hit by a massive splash of a breaking wave (don’t know where it came from). I was already pissed off because of the crowds around and now I’m all soaking wet, and the worst thing- my ciggies are wet - then I knew the fishing will be crap, but I did not want to waste a day so I turned it into a practice session of casting shooting heads on a 10wt rod.


First I had Outbound short SH on, and it was ok - not great but ok, then as the current was very fast and the water was very deep in order to be in the fishing zone I put 26' of T17 on. Timing( be gentle and don’t rush), and late haul are the key elements to have a nice cast with such a shooting head.


Moving forward, my mate had a spin rod and for him it was more of catching up trip than fishing trip. While I was playing with my SH he went to his truck and put some sausages on a barbie on a back of his truck and told me to join him in half an hour.


After breakfast we changed the spot. I left the T17 on the reel as I knew the new place has deep water, fast currents and rocky edges. I was casting small sparkly Crazy Charlie, got my timing sorted and the casts were nice. After one cast I lost control of my line in my line hand and after I sorted the shit out I started to strip my line very fast as I was afraid the T17 will get stuck on the bottom rocks, and then surprise, surprise I CAUGHT A PIKE, not the thing I wanted, but who cares. Looks like the RETRIEVE was a key.


Few more casts, super fast retrieve and few more fish.


Our session had timed out and we left, but at least I saved the day with 4 (ok 4 doesn’t exist, so 3 landed and one lost) fish. It was very interesting learning curve in that session and I would like to learn more about retrieves. Here is the thread on the board - tell me all you know. 


Mike