labjet2000
06-05-2007, 12:43 PM
I’ve been living in Southern California for the past twenty-five years, and until this past weekend, I’ve never gone to a grunion run. I suppose I could claim I thought a grunion run was a fundraiser marathon thing for some sick or disadvantaged group, but that would be a lie. I’ve known since I was a little boy back in the Midwest what a grunion is.
As a kid in Milwaukee, I’d sometimes go with a neighbor at night to join a legion of fishermen lined up along the breakwater of Lake Michigan. An endless row of cars backed up to the jetty railing with open trunks and tailgates set up a makeshift sportsman’s hobo camp complete with lawn chairs, barbeques and lanterns. Each party of fishermen produced a jerry-rigged contraption, as varied as the designers themselves, consisting of a boom and five foot square net that hung out over the break wall. The net, using a matrix of cables, pulleys and a hand crank, was dropped into the murky depths of Lake Michigan and quickly retrieved in pursuit of spawning schools of lake smelt.
It was custom for each member of the team to take a smelt from the first successful netting and bite off its head. I guess it was some kind of hazing ritual that set smelters apart from other fishermen who got there kicks out of just kissing their fish. As a street kid, biting the head off a fish in order to appease the smelt gods was just too cool. Being a budding twelve year-old naturalist, my research about smelt and other similar though not related fish introduced me to the grunion.
When Kalidawgfan posted a notice last Friday that the Grunion were to run, I figured my meeting of the grunion was too long in coming and I took the bait...
My wife and I took my son and his best friend out to Carpinteria State Beach on Saturday night. We arrived around eight and killed time until the high tide scheduled for 10:41 PM. There was no real wind to speak of, but it did get pretty chilly. The beach, in the wee hours of the morning, is a kind of eerie place. The sound of the surf is just as loud, but one’s lack of visibility can be somewhat disconcerting… at least for me it was. Beach walkers would suddenly appear out of the darkness and disappear just as suddenly. After a few hours, I managed to get used to it.
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/001_24A.JPG
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/003_18A.JPG
Equipped with shorts, flashlights and nylon laundry sacks to put our grunion in, we were about as prepared as grunion hunters could get. Apparently, being prepared isn’t good enough because for our first dance with the grunion, we were stood up like cheap dates. It’s too bad too because I had the boys all primed for biting off the head of their first captured grunion. Now that would be some picture, huh?
Anyways, we had a great time. For those interested, the sand crabs were out in full force and must have been spawning like there was no tomorrow. Eric and Josh collected tons of big ones just for the fun of it. They would find huge beds ten feet in diameter with crabs within the top inch or two. Most sand crabs were C&R’d with the exception of a half dozen. Eric took some home to feed his pet turtle. We’re going to have to get out there one of these mornings and pound the surf for BSP and whatever else is biting now that the crabs are in full swing.
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/002_23A.JPG
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/004_17A.JPG
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/005_16A.JPG
I know the pix are bad... disposable camer while the digital is being serviced. Sorry about the long-winded back-story. I have a tendency to digress at my age. Hope to see you all on the water… Be safe.
Labjet
As a kid in Milwaukee, I’d sometimes go with a neighbor at night to join a legion of fishermen lined up along the breakwater of Lake Michigan. An endless row of cars backed up to the jetty railing with open trunks and tailgates set up a makeshift sportsman’s hobo camp complete with lawn chairs, barbeques and lanterns. Each party of fishermen produced a jerry-rigged contraption, as varied as the designers themselves, consisting of a boom and five foot square net that hung out over the break wall. The net, using a matrix of cables, pulleys and a hand crank, was dropped into the murky depths of Lake Michigan and quickly retrieved in pursuit of spawning schools of lake smelt.
It was custom for each member of the team to take a smelt from the first successful netting and bite off its head. I guess it was some kind of hazing ritual that set smelters apart from other fishermen who got there kicks out of just kissing their fish. As a street kid, biting the head off a fish in order to appease the smelt gods was just too cool. Being a budding twelve year-old naturalist, my research about smelt and other similar though not related fish introduced me to the grunion.
When Kalidawgfan posted a notice last Friday that the Grunion were to run, I figured my meeting of the grunion was too long in coming and I took the bait...
My wife and I took my son and his best friend out to Carpinteria State Beach on Saturday night. We arrived around eight and killed time until the high tide scheduled for 10:41 PM. There was no real wind to speak of, but it did get pretty chilly. The beach, in the wee hours of the morning, is a kind of eerie place. The sound of the surf is just as loud, but one’s lack of visibility can be somewhat disconcerting… at least for me it was. Beach walkers would suddenly appear out of the darkness and disappear just as suddenly. After a few hours, I managed to get used to it.
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/001_24A.JPG
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/003_18A.JPG
Equipped with shorts, flashlights and nylon laundry sacks to put our grunion in, we were about as prepared as grunion hunters could get. Apparently, being prepared isn’t good enough because for our first dance with the grunion, we were stood up like cheap dates. It’s too bad too because I had the boys all primed for biting off the head of their first captured grunion. Now that would be some picture, huh?
Anyways, we had a great time. For those interested, the sand crabs were out in full force and must have been spawning like there was no tomorrow. Eric and Josh collected tons of big ones just for the fun of it. They would find huge beds ten feet in diameter with crabs within the top inch or two. Most sand crabs were C&R’d with the exception of a half dozen. Eric took some home to feed his pet turtle. We’re going to have to get out there one of these mornings and pound the surf for BSP and whatever else is biting now that the crabs are in full swing.
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/002_23A.JPG
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/004_17A.JPG
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/005_16A.JPG
I know the pix are bad... disposable camer while the digital is being serviced. Sorry about the long-winded back-story. I have a tendency to digress at my age. Hope to see you all on the water… Be safe.
Labjet