Jose Silva was in town for a very short visit. He wasn’t intending on fishing on this trip and therefore hadn’t brought any gear but Dave, Jeff, and I wouldn’t have any of it.

The weather and surf conditions weren’t expected to be very good but we didn’t have the luxury of rescheduling due to the limited schedule. The day before he left we dragged him out to the coast at o’dark-thirty and caught 200+ surf perch a piece! Read the rest of this entry

The tide didn’t look any good but I was in a desperate need of soaking a fly, somewhere. When I got the word from Gabriel that he’d recently “gotten into them” off one of the Monterey beaches I had all I needed. The tide was basically flat until 11am so Jeff, Mrs. Jeff, and I took the opportunity for a lazy, late morning start and headed south midmorning, allowing just enough time for a Sunday morning breakfast stop at the Beach Street Cafe.

It was 11:30 by the time we made it to the beach. The sky was overcast and the wind was non existent; perfect! Read the rest of this entry

This week’s tides were some of the biggest of the year, with flood highs and minus lows. Jeff & I headed over the hill at o-dark thirty to catch the last few hours of the early morning outgoing and see the beach at the lowest tide we’d witnessed yet. We weren’t sure what to expect from a surf-perch-catching perspective and this was the only way to find out.
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Hit the surf with Jeff for a few hours one morning this weekend. The holes were really gaining definition compared to weeks past, but the barred little buggers were scarce. Other than one little guy that took a pattern Jose had given me during the grey-light hours and a really nice one that grabbed in a rip at the bottom of the tide, just as the sun was hitting the water, it was a slow morning.
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After fishing a couple of seasons with Jose Silva I’ve learned quite a few things. Aside from new angles on holding water, fish behavior, tidal influence, and an ancient recipe used by the Peruvians to prepare a fine carp for the dinner table, the one thing that’s been drilled home time and time again, through experience, is this: Out-fishing the guy is simply impossible.

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I hadn’t pestered the local surf perch for a couple years and after a long Delta season spent dealing with all the hassles involved in being “the guy with the boat” the simplicity of a short, trailer-less drive, a single rod, a handful of flies, a pair of waders, and the scenery & solitude of a Monterey Bay beach at sunrise was sounding pretty danged appealing.
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It appeared that our long awaited nice weather had finally arrived for good. The sun was out and the temperatures were in the 80’s. The stripers were chasing bait in the big lake, the carp were rooting in the shallow ponds, and Monterey Bay’s surf perch were feeding in the salty wash. It looked as if the Golden State’s winter of record rainfall was officially behind us and the door was wide open for some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best fly fishing.
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