Quote:
Originally Posted by Handymansd
"Wind variable less than 10 kt...becoming NW 10 kt in the afternoon. Wind waves 2 ft or less. Swell W 3 to 5 ft at 10 seconds." Ya right... more like 5 to 7ft with occasional sets to 10+ft at around 9 seconds.
"Launched" early 4am... and a waay outside pair of waves flipped me end over end,  after I thought I had cleared the surf zone. Glad i was wearing PFD, the set was easily 8-10ft! I have never had that happen before  . Climbed back aboard with nothing amiss but my dignity, and soggily headed to the pier, with a pile of leashed goods in my lap and just happy that no one caught that on tape!
Bad idea to go to the pier... as the swell was crashing at the tip of the peir every 90 seconds or so. So, off to the kelp... solid 10-15 ft of Spanish mac/sardine mix everywhere. loaded up and trolled inside, outside, upside, and downside, for nada. Obviously there is still alot of bait around. Had one run at around 120' on the NW corner on fly-lined Spanish but I quickly  'd it. Probably the T-man with the way the bait was behaving.
Landed in substantially smaller surf, though there are still a few good sized sets if your not careful.  I had to just sit and watch the tourists land for a few minutes, that's some funny shit! Beautiful warm day on the water... surprisingly good vis for all the surf.
Even with a miserable launch and no fish love it sure beats being in some office... or worse. |
Thanks for the report... I'm heading down tomorrow with a few buddies, we may turn around or fish MB if its too wicked.
Note the period. There is some big 5-6 second interval west swell, the 10 second stuff isn't as bad. Lower than 10 though and the canyons don't funnel the wave energy away from the shores. It may be actually smaller tomorrow even though there is a bit of building W at 10 sec. At least this is how I've noticed things go there, its really unpredictable though.
Also remember SWELL height is usually always less than actual wave height. The waves around here tend to jack up to about 1.5 times the swell height when they hit the bottom. So 7-8ft waves from 5ft swell sounds about right, given the period.
If anyone else decides to brave it, see you out there.