I "cheated" a bit Saturday morning and made a very early morning pit stop at Crystal Pier to check out the crab bets y'all mention being there, and sure enough, there were plenty. Got what I needed for the morning and headed south a little way. It took an hour or so for the bite to start (7:30ish) but once it did, I was pulling them in as fast as I could get a line out there. I tried to keep count but got sidetracked in conversation with passersby, but I would estimate 12-15 total over a three-hour period? Obviously, we're still talking mostly small-medium sized perch, but I did reel in a couple chunkers in the 10"-12" range, a mid-size corbina, and a first for me - a baby leopard shark!! That was exciting and drew lots of onlookers. Tiny little thing (pictured below) but put up a hell of a fight. Nice conditions overall with very little kelp/grass.
Since my pit stop worked Saturday, I did the same thing Sunday morning; crabs for the day and ventured south. There was a little more grass in the water than Saturday in the early morning high tide but it was manageable, and as the tide pulled out so did the mess. The bite wasn't quite as frantic as Saturday but still a decent outing with regards to quantity. Had to leave a little early to get back in time to make sure the family was ready for the Padres game, but I would estimate 7-8 medium size perch. The most entertaining part of the day were the overly aggressive seagulls. I was getting stalked as I took the fish off the hooks and had to do my best to return the fish to safety; even had a tug-o-war with a gull before I even had a chance to grab a fish! I mean, take the thing hook and all if you want but it's not gonna feel good coming out
Sunday was also interesting because it was my first time fishing with braided line. I think I liked it! It definitely cast farther (15 pound with 15-pound fluoro leader). The complete lack of stretch coupled with using a medium action rod (also first time with it) was interesting - I felt like I lost track of fish as I was pulling them in because of the difference between that rod and my usual Medium-Fast action (for what its worth, I pretty much just copied Nick Heid's setup from his website, rod models and everything). Maybe it was in my head, maybe I was doing a better job of working the incoming waves, but after the initial bite it seemed like the fish were coming in much faster with less resistance(?). I lost a couple at the shore, probably because of this. Or, maybe it was just random. I also felt like I had an easier time setting the hooks initially, but I've also been messing around with how I hook the crabs themselves so it could've been that. So many variables with fishing! In the end, maybe nothing I did differently had any impact whatsoever, and there just happened to be lots of hungry fish around. Either way, no real preference after just one outing between the braid and the mono line I've been using, but I like having two different (but somewhat similar) setups ready at a moment's notice.
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