Night Queen

[Ornery Bob]

I was home from work, but feeling pissed off by some bullshit that went down earlier in the day, and I decided that I needed to clear my head, so I grabbed my favorite rod and reel and one 1/4 oz, three inch, "motor oil red" Big Hammer and hopped in the car.

I live not too far from Shoreline Village in Long Beach so I decided to hit one of the piers across the channel from the Queen Mary. There are several relatively small T shaped piers that are usually full of bait-and-wait fishermen, but I found a metered parking space near one that was empty and grabbed a beach chair out of the trunk and had the place to myself. Started fishing about 7:00 pm and on my first two times around the pier, I got no action at all.

This place is a fairly narrow channel and unless it is dead high or dead low tide, the water is moving and the fish are moving with it, so I sat down for a while and let my bait just hang a couple of feet off the bottom while I looked at the lights, paid my respects to Orion and Venus, and reminded myself to quit bitching and be thankful for the life I have.

Just about then, I get a couple of tappy-taps on my bait that was just hanging in the water and I'm back on my feet. So I work the perimeter of the pier, bouncing the swim bait off the bottom and get one solid bite but that was it, so I went back to casting out and working the bait back in along the bottom. This time around I got a couple of good hits and one ten second hookup. Just as I was ready to take another break, I caught a bass shaped thing that flipped off as soon he cleared the water on the way up to me.

I took a little break and went back to the car for a bottle of water, and then started doing the circuit of the T pier end and on the second cast, I got some tappy little hits on the drop and then wham, and it was fish on. Landed a decent mackerel and got another one just like a couple of casts later.

Then just as quickly as they came, they were gone, and I fished another half hour without a bite and so a little after 9:00 pm, I decided my head was clear and it was time to go home.

Good fun for a spur of the moment trip with one lure!

Gotta love fishing... best bullshit remedy ever.

[jim_m]

Nothing like relaxing and throwing the line into the water and living near the ocean and enjoying life... Tight lines..