Mill Creek Friday 9-01

A day late in posting but anyone who can make the trek to Big Sur, fish, return home and write about it in the same day is a much better person than I.  We had a great day but it did kick our butts.

Thanks to all of you who offered some advice on where to fish around Mill Creek.

Arrived at 6am with Kim, Dave and Gary to find several miles vis and generally pleasant conditions.  This was Gary's first fsihing and ocean experience in his almost new P15.  Smooth launch and we headed out to about 120' and turned south looking for structure dropping a line here and there for the heck of it.  A bit breezy for the first hour or so but it laid down calm with a nice nw swell.  After about a mile or so, I could see small breakers to the south and out deep so I broke off from the group and headed that way.  I got close and  could see rocks and kelp but my ff still read 120'.  I paused to see the drift and threw an iron jig that was hit repeatedly by some Farallones-class blues.  Big, meaty fighters that just wouldn't let up.

Soon, I heard Dave screaming on the radio.  He and Gary were about a half mile north still and a whale surfaced right next to them, circled and swam underneath them.  What a treat, sorry I missed that one.  If you heard Molbasser at Loch Lomond when he caught the winning bass, you know about the excitement in Dave's voice.  I'd probably have been speechless.

Kim went towards shore along the edge of the kelp and was having similar results to mine except for large olives also.  I worked around the wash rock (THANKS, PAT!) absolutely amazed at the structure on my ff when Kim said the magic word, "Cabezon".  Couple of more casts and I was on my way to join them.

A very productive area, she and Dave both got Cabs and she eventually found a sweet spot for Vermillion in 60' of water.  Things were a bit slow for Gary at first, we're trying to retrain him from all those years of c&r fly fishing, tough habit to break.  Eventually, he too caught on to the catch and eat concept.

So, nice limits of beautiful fresh fish for everyone.  I have no idea as to how many fisch we actually caught but I know my arm was sore.  No lings.  Dave and Kim's stringers definitely shone with a cab and some nice vermillion.  Nobody paid attention to me except the blues and I don't mean to understate them because I've never seen them fight like these did and their size was impressive.  And, they're my favorite for the bbq.  I also kept a brownish colored fish that looks like a blue but it was puking crabs so I thought I might as well give it a taste test.

Can't wait to get back to Mill Creek again, so much intriguing structure.  And what a great place to celebrate my 60th birthday!  Good friends, great fishing and Dave even put a candle on his cab and gave it to me as a present.  Thanks to the gang for sharing the day with me, I hope you'll add your own comments here.

If I ever learn how to include photos here, I will add them too.


Pete

Sounds like an awesome day on the big sur coast!

Thanks for the great report,
PK

happy b-day! Is it a kind of treat with a good fishing day and paradise views?