'Historic' Fishing

It sounds like ‘historic’ is the keyword being used to describe what is going on right now.  The term is justified because it’s not only the numbers of fish that are around right now, it’s the numbers and the size.  Here are some examples of conversations I had while I was away from the water:

Rick:  “Well, they started out at keeper size and just kept getting bigger.”

Me: “How many you get?”

Rick: “35.”

Me:  “How many were keepers?”

Rick:  “Almost all of them.”

Steve:  "Well I just had maybe 22 fish in an hour and a half."
Me:  "Did you move?"
Steve:  "No."
Me:  "Any size?" (asked with sarcasm)
Steve:  "Here, you want to hear my tags? 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 28, 36, 34, 26, 34, 33, 31 . . .
Me:  "Your smallest one was 26 inches?"
Steve:  "You want me to keep going?  I've never seen anything like it."
Me:  "You know I'm stuck at work right now."

So there it is.  Not only are there a lot of fish, but there are a lot of very nice size fish.  The only problem, and there is always a problem if you want to find one, is that the sand eels and bass are anchored along the same stretch of beach and it’s not a secret.  So along with ‘historic’ fishing there are ‘historic’ crowds.  The crowds have been maddening, to me at least, more so by the behavior of people pulling into other people’s territory with no regard.  That’s fine for survival, but isn’t very good for sportsmanship.  When I start nailing fish and people ask me, “What are you using?”  I will say, “My brain.  What are you using?”  If there are any synapses left in there that should jolt them.

Vinny and crew got in the action and had an entire day of quality fish.  “We’ve been throwing keepers back for hours now,” was Vinny’s report sometime during the middle of the day.  “My buddy just hooked up right now.  You got to get out of work”

A classic fall picture.  These guys had more keeper fish in one day than most fisherman catch in years.

Tom is back into the groove, literally, and is enjoying some fine dining courtesy of last weekend’s festivities. 

With sand eels banging my boots on the bar, consistent but finally cooler temperature forecast for at least the next week, and without any major storms, where are the fish going to go?  I am afraid already of what the crowd will be like this Saturday.  What I should really do is stop worrying about that and enjoy what is looking to be a once-in-a-lifetime season.  Mood management is of course easier with adequate sleep, however, this weekend is the Berkeley Striper Club Tagging Weekend which runs from 12:00 am Friday through 9:00 am Sunday so sleep is not really going to happen.  Sometimes I question this insanity, but after a fish or two I almost always forget what point I was tryig to make.