Los Angeles
In LA I tried my hand at fishing the beaches in the area at night and early in the morning. I was soaking sand crabs and caught nothing but kelp. For my entire stay, the surges were strong. Loose kelp was thick.
Fishing early one morning in LA:
Frustrated with the kelp situation, I moved to the pier and spotted several schools of small fish I failed to catch on my number 8 hooks.
Later that afternoon, I was back on the beach with a more mobile strategy. Still, I didn’t hook any fish….
I met up with rfdesq, Robert, who so generously offered to take me out fishing in LA. I learned a lot from Robert’s extensive surf fishing experience – knowledge that’ll stay with me for all of my future trips. Thank-you Robert! The strong surge had shut down the fish, but the conversation and company was fantastic. We finally landed a barred surf-perch as the sun set.
Robert’s report: http://www.scsurffishing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=85957
Before leaving LA, we visited the La Brea Tar Pits. We had the unique opportunity of seeing the tar in action on this poor pigeon.
Luckily for the pigeon, it was rescued. Future civilizations will never learn of the feral pigeon.
Some more fishing on my way out of LA. Standard sand crab soaking yielded another shovelnose guitarfish to share with interested by-standers!
King’s Canyon National Park
After our time in LA was up, we headed out to Visalia to check out King’s Canyon National Park. We saw everything I had hoped for and more. Giant sequoias, a cave, dear, tarantulas, and a mother bear and cub playing just yards away from a parking lot.
“I didn’t do it, I swear!”
With great trees, come great pine cones!!!
Dad’s shot of a mother bear and cub playing:
Dad’s shot of a grazing elk:
Tarantula trying to cross the road. It ended up following my hand around instead! A great experience I’ll never forget!
And finally, the best view of my life:
Just a short walk away from the General Sherman tree, I snuck up to what looked like brown trout parr in a small mountain stream just a foot across. Getting the drop on these beautiful little fish in the wilderness was nothing short of magical. Too bad I had left my rod in the car!
After a long day of sightseeing, I fished a dry fly on the surface of a nearby river for rainbow trout. The location was unbelievable. A dragon fly attacked my dry fly mid-cast. Bats emerged at sunset to eat hatching insects.
Fishing the scenery of a dream:
