Fifth, fly-fishing pretty much always catches more fish than gear fishing.   

Way to throw down! 

yep, small fish without eyes are gross. Just ask this fishmonger...
https://www.businessinsider.com/store-reportedly-put-googly-eyes-on-fish-to-make-them-look-fresh-2018-9?r=UK&IR=T

Well, that is fairly convincing. Also interesting to hear about the experimentation in Baja. I guess I'm doomed to huffing hard-as-nails and epoxy fumes after all. Maybe I'll bite the bullet and get the fancy UV resin.

The stick-on eyes aren't cheap; at least dumbbell eyes serve a useful purpose. Now I need to tie some flies...

Thanks Crayon for your detailed (if a bit waxy) advice. I'll check out the SA line you mentioned. I like cheap line (I cannot lie).

Wow, that was really cool! Nice shooting on #2.

Either I'm doing something right, or some of the things I'm doing wrong are canceling-out the other things I'm doing wrong! A shorty but lots of fun.

Alright, it's really really really weird and difficult to cast with a 10' sink tip! I got the RIO MOW T14 sink tip, and boy does it SINK. I harvested some serious vegetation from the bay floor.

This definitely opens up deeper water options for me. I guess I need to get better at all the skagit casting skills, and probably set up a line properly to get it to behave. Darn it, I guess that means I need to buy a new reel (can't buy extra spools for my current one).

Well, I won't continue to regale you with my struggles, but I'm grateful to have a lot more options now. I might just stick with weighted flies and a long leader for <15' of water, because it has worked for me in that situation. But for the other 90% of the jetty, I will definitely be going with the sink tip.

I gotta start shopping for a kayak...

Alright, we're going to give some of this advice a test over the weekend. I'm not used to thinking of heads and running lines as being separate things, so I had to figure out what y'all were talking about! I'm fishing a 9 foot 10 weight rod with 9-10 weight floating line. I like it for the oftentimes tight urban casting situations I find myself in (I can easily steeple cast back up over a chain link fence or bushes) but I don't get much distance. Also I suck at casting and have no point of comparison against a spey rod. The wind really screws me up and limits where I can cast to. Anyway, for now I'm planning to keep this setup and try a sink tip. Thanks Tinker for the idea of softening the hinge point - I've seen (videos) how a heavy sink tip hinges over after the head hits the water and ker-plops - not a pretty sight. Duck-and-chuck casting is no fun, either.