Pierhead's Photo Album
Somewhere North of Here
September 12, 2002


Photo credit: Boyd Grant

Worked until 1am Thursday night and then drove north to fish a special place for the first time - I've been wanting to fish there ever since I first visited it 20 years ago. After a report last week attesting to it's productivity  I knew I couldn't put it off any longer. Sorry, but because of an increase in visitors to the area, I have omitted any details as to exact location. This is a spot that has special meaning to me and I rarely share it with anyone else. If you should discover it on your own please treat it with the respect it deserves ... there aren't many spots left as serene and private as this one.

The trail down is approximately 1 mile and quite steep but worth the hike. At the bottom you cross a rustic bridge over the creek and go through a hand carved tunnel. The last part of the trail is bordered with a wooden railing and ends up at a bench overlooking the cove where you are about 20 feet above the water. The cove is a couple hundred yards long by about 30 yards wide. At high tide it is about 20 feet deep and covered in a dense kelp mat. 

The report was right - there are fish there and sometimes they can be rather large. These two weren't - the greenling was 12" and the rockfish was 14". But the two that got away were much bigger ... I lost an approximately 30" Cabezon while handling it up the cliff and another to the kelp. All caught on salted anchovy, #4 Circle hooks with a hi-lo rig. Started out at the 6am high and finished up at the 5pm high - all fish caught in the late afternoon.

This spot has it all - railings, bench, fish and views. What more could you ask for! And it's only (?) a 440 mile round trip. I'll be back and next time I'll take a net ...
 

Photo courtesy of California Coastal Records Project, http://www2.californiacoastline.org/. Copyright © 2002 Kenneth Adelman. All rights reserved.