NCKA browsing did get me in trouble at work, long story short the discussion ended when the coworker said, "so you torture small animals for fun". My response was, "well, yes".

A lot of the folks I work with come from other countries, and I guess to them fishing is something you do because you need food.  I actually had to explain "catch and release", and CPR : "catch, photo, release".  Here in the US if I want fish to eat I go to Trader Joe's

The idea that I would hike up to a mountain lake and catch a couple dozen fish seemed wasteful to some folks, at first, until I explained that these are non-native and predatory animals, and they are basically bred for sport, emphasizing that it is a big sport here in America.  After a while, they warmed up to the idea that for me it was primarily about going out and enjoying nature and solitude.

I also explained that yes, occasionally I kill a trout for dinner, and try to be humane about it.  I showed them some flies I tied, and even showed up once at Halloween dressed like a stereotypical fly fisherman, tweed hat and all   That got some laughs.  Now they are pretty much all cool with it. 

Sometimes I show them pictures from trips I took.  Lots of "oohs" and "aahs".

OK, point taken.  No more browsing NCKA on work laptop !  Phone or home machine only ...

My co-workers are used to my packraft / fly fishing calendars and fully expect me to watch fly-tying videos when I'm taking a break.  But I have a LOT of female coworkers (engineers, scientists, testers, etc) though and I would be very leery of them seeing some things on my screen.  Just sayin'

Cheers !

Please mark NSFW.  I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want people peering over at your screen while reading the OP.

I happened to see a link to this video on Kiene's fly fishing forum -

http://southernoregonflyfishing.blogspot.com/2016/10/do-you-know-what-to-do-with-your.html

He is managing running line on a spey rod on a river.  When surf fishing I use a stripping basket, and I often find that my running line knots up the same way he shows.  He makes big loops instead of small ones with his thumb.  I'm not sure how this would work with a stripping basket though.

How do people handle their running lines, and these pesky little knots ?  I have also seen them occur with integrated running lines, so I don't think it's a line memory issue.  I always spend a bunch of time working these out of my line.  I'm sure it makes for great comedy on the beach

I think the key thing is to use the two grips to push-pull, but I'm hardly a person to take lessons from.  There is a casting pool nearby where I can practice, and some guys from the local fly fishing club who do lessons and so on.  They encouraged me to experiment.

I honestly don't know how to do the snap T and other spey casts, but reading about them I don't see how they would work in surf conditions.  Again, I hardly know what I'm doing, let alone what you should do

I don't know if I'm doing the two-handed rod thing "right".  I have no idea what you do on a river.  I just overhead cast, though usually a bit off to the side -- a little less risk of taking a hook to the back of the head that way   First I get the sinking head out of the water, either by roll casting or false casting.  Then I usually do another false cast to get a feel for the rod loading, and finally shoot.  I try to do the push-pull thing with the two grips, too.  There is kind of a lot going on, and I still find myself struggling with it sometimes.  Have to breath, feel the force flowing through you (where is that Yoda emoticon)

I'm not very good at explaining these things, and I'm sure I'm either leaving something out, or misrepresenting my level of (in)competence.  Believe me, I can still create a good circus myself

Yes, the stripping basket is pretty much essential, or else you end up with line going all over the place.  I bought one of those Linekurv things and drilled some drain holes in it.  I think the Orvis ones are similar.

A few pics from Sunday morning.  No marine layer, so the window was a bit short. 





I think high tide was 6:30am-ish.  I was gone by 8:30.