Yesterday I spent the day driving up to my old stomping grounds in Santa Barbara with buddy Joel. He was to pick up his boat at the marina from repairs and drive it back to Redondo. I would take his truck back while he and his buddy sail down the coast. Since I didn't want to drive the truck through LA's weekend traffic I stayed in town until it died.
I had a few things I wanted to accomplish while I killed time but since retrieving the boat took longer than anticipated I scratched all of them but one, fishing Cachuma Lake with the goal of landing a smallmouth. I didn't get on the water until past 2pm and the winds were already howling. When I finally got my boat I set up my gear and after about ten minutes of struggling I was about to give up and turn the boat back in. The boat was being dragged around and without a trolling motor my fly was swimming at an unnatural mach speed. But I persisted and tried to make the best out of a crappy situation.
I eventually found a somewhat sheltered cove to hide out but no fish were there at least none showed on the fish finder. I left and started to keep the engine on while fishing using it was a trolling motor to slow down my speed. When I started to figure this out I finally got my smallmouth for the day. I rarely get a chance to fish for smallies and while he was no trophy, he was the largest one I ever caught. By the end of the day I managed a small catfish and by then I figured I accomplished enough. The wind was brutal and the greatest accomplishment for the day was that I didn't stick myself in the back with the fly.
After waiting a month for repairs, Joel's boat is back on the water. We'll be looking for yellowtail sometime next week. Hopefully I'll get my first on a fly soon. He and his buddy threw irons at paddies on their way back but came home empty-handed.
Complaining about the wind while fishing on a workday and living without a boat for a month. Yeah, we have first world problems.
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