Head out early morning of day 4 on the Northern California coastline, fishing for striped bass in the surf. The tide is incoming with high peak at 845am. I start casting at 5:45am. However, the surf is high, and the swell is short, crashing with waves breaking chest high. An onshore wind of 10mph doesn't help as every cast is into the wind. But visiting my daughter for only a week doesn't allow me to be choosy, so fishing for a few hours after daylight I go.
3 days earlier, I had hooked up 3 stripers on my fave 2 lures fishing off the beach soon after dawn broke through the sky. But at that time, the waves were 2-3', with swell at 11-12 seconds and morning winds were light from the SW.
Geared up with my steelhead Lamiglas 10.5' float rod, Shimano Stradic 4000 reel, #30-lb Power Pro braid mainline with 24" mono-floro shock leader of #40lb test. Max lure weight that I could throw was 1oz. A bit light of a setup, but lots of fun battling fish on light tackle.
Shout out to Hi's Fishing Tackle in South San Francisco, for their advice on fishing beach stripers. Helped this old NW salmon/steelhead fisherman dial in quickly to the beach surf fishing scene.
A great tackle shop, great customer service and prime fishing lures & tackle selections.
I highly recommend anyone visiting, fishing the San Francisco Bay area to visit Hi's Fishing Tackle.
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