2007/12/08 santa cruz retro perch

saw a guy out there earlier right at high tide, 8:30, dont know if he caught anything.

I'm recovering from some darn persistent sinusitus so skipped the surfing today.

I fished dropping tide from about 9:30 to 11:45, caught 2, one small-medium at one end of the beach, one medium at the other. only one missed hit that I could feel, so pretty darn slow, but not a skunk!  .

I grudgingly took one pic of the medium sized perch but it's on my phone still.

pretty decent sized swell, I had to cast in between sets. not much wind, red tide looks greatly diminished.

mainly was fun cause I used a european 13'6" "match" rod lent to me by stu, and an ambassadeur with the level-wind removed using some parts from this english distance caster on ebay, so I felt all retro-squidder out there. no wading other than rubber boots this time.

the rod is probably similar to the rods used by that european carp fisherman at quarry lakes written up in the sniffer recently. I think they have these competitions where you get assigned a 10 foot square and you have to cast out over marshland with floats usually and whoever catches the most minnows wins or something, maybe somebody knows more about those freaks than me and my internet investigations,  .

stus rod is rated to toss an ounce so that is what I used. A little heavier weight might have stayed on the bottom a bit better. It is a graphite light action rod. 3 pieces. very interesting piece of work. some crooked guides and some of them are tall with super tiny holes, others are more 'regular'. tip looks like it was replaced but all other guides look stock, crooked and all. medium perch did put a decent bend in the tip.

that thing is a perch cannon as stu had said.

I had an ~80 yard topshot of mono over some braid and got down to the last couple wraps of topshot on a couple casts towards the end when I was really committing to some distance. no backlashes, no magnets, just some greased bearings and a thumb. that was cool watching that weight sail over the farthest breaking wave! the two fish that bit were pretty far out there today too.

J

Nice report J. If you want some sinus tips let me know, I finally killed my chronic sinus issues after about 3 years of trying.

Bill, good to hear you are healthy! I think I'm good, but I might have to hear your story just in case!

Cool report and details, John.     I've never caught a perch - redtail, right?

Nice report J. What beach were you fishing? It's great to hear that the red tide is finally receding. I'll probably be heading out to do some perch fishing soon. Lemme know if you ever want to join me. Once the beaches develop some decent structure I'll likely be out once a weekend.

FF

J: Great report, yeah what beach? I had some success last fall & winter at the beach near lake Moran For BSP on rubber grubs, got to get out there again soon!---Doug

Cool report and details, John.     I've never caught a perch - redtail, right?

no, barred surf perch. I've only ever caught one 'strawberry' and it was north of
santa cruz. it came on a grub, but I think people usually catch them on bait?
I think the southern edge of the redtail range is in my home range.

abking, just for you (it was not hooked very deep, released just fine). well, at
least you know what shape they are, 

I, too, will be out again once the beaches look more promising.  After early Feb I'll be out a LOT more, but until then it'll be weekday mornings between 9 and 12.  I'll probably focus on Capitola beach and New Brighton due to proximity to my home.  I've mostly been lurking on NCKA for the last 1.5 years due to my new baby and the grad school I'm doing.  But before that I had become addicted to mad perching.   It's all SCAllen's fault.

Anyway, when I start up I'll post in the outings node and perhaps we'll meet in person.

Big Red!  good to see your post joel!

i will join you for some perching for sure.

I hear the bsps were decent at 26th ave before this last big swell.  It is time again.

I have had a couple epic days from Captiola beaches though big success on bsp has eluded me at New Brighton.  give me a call when you can- i lost your # when my last cell phone went overboard.

Allen

Hey,
Looks like you are suffering from that nasty red tide; I have had sinus infection problems as well as a slight skin rash from surfing the last big swell before last week's push-I hate it, but it was too good to pass up. I would really like to get out with you or scallen or whoever to fish for some perch. I live by new brighton and seacliff. Do you ever go during the week?   Mike

Mike, I was wondering if the red tide had anything to do with the sinus problems. I surfed the last two weekends and got sick.

Regarding fishing, any of the beaches are probably working to some degree, I seemed to catch a few fish in town wherever I tried. Nothing great, but like anything else, a little practice gives you the karma for when the fish are biting well. It's kind of like if you need an excuse to get off the couch, you will probably catch something if you toss the grub for a bit. No kayak to rig and clean, it's slumming of the best sort.

I live/work in mountain view, but sometimes rent a house in santa cruz near the harbour, which is the case nov 15 to december 16 but am mainly there for long weekends and live/work in the land of google during the week.

If I feel good when I get up I might fish the high tide tomorrow morning for an hour or so.

J

Doesn't take much to create a risk for sinusitis in susceptible individuals.  Your sinusus, air filled cavities in your facial bones, are all lined with mucous membranes and empty through single, very small openings into the nasal cavity.  Normally, you keep them sterile because a blanket of micro cilia constantly beat in the direction of the opening.  The nasal cavity itself is always growing nasty gram negative bacteria, but as they try to crawl up into your sinus, they are kept at bay by the tide of exiting mucous.  But anything that upsets this delicate balance can lead to a sinus infection, a cold, allergic rhinitis, and probably barametric changes and just cold air in some individuals.  Slight swelling of the membrane can easily obstuct the opening and prevent the "toilet" from flushing.  Fortunately, in most cases the obstruction is short lived enough to allow for drainage before a sinus infection sets in.   With recurrent bouts of acute sinusitis, you can get permanent damage to the membranous lining that will prevent the cilia from flushing properly.  Then it's fare easier to get a future infection because you have "dead spots", which, if inoculated with bacteria, can fester into a full blown sinusitus.

It's very hard to clinically diagnose sinusitus when its subtle.  In acute sinusitus, the person can have marked swelling and tenderness over the sinus, in their teeth, over or behind their eyes.  But often the person presents with symptoms of greenish drainage and pressure in the sinus (which is increased if you lean forward with your head between your legs).  Their breath may smell abnormally bad. But these symptoms don't reliably diagnose a treatable infection.  Sometimes the doctor will order sinus CT scans which may show thickened membranes, indicative of chronic damage.

A study just came out that showed that patients with more indolent symptoms treated with antibiotic did no better than a group not treated, so it may be better to just use conservative measures, salt water rinses, limited decongestant sprays or oral, or steroid topical sprays to shrink the membranes and keep the openings clear long enough for healing.  Using antibiotics may only serve to kill off the weaker bacteria in your nose, leaving only the "super", resistant ones to attack you later.  If there is acute pain, bloody discharge, persistent fever, antibiotics may be necessary.  Persistent fatigue may be the only symptom in some chronic infections.  Occassionally, one of my patients will come in complaining of fatigue, and feeling dragged down and I'll mistake it for worsening depression.  Later, I find out that their GP treated them with antibiotics and their fatigue resolved.  These are the real sneaky cases.

I'm sure that's more than you wanted to know about this.

About a month ago manresa was dotted with patches of red tide, I walked a long ass way and found a clear spot but I still got sick.  Sore throat, sinus drainage...all that good stuff.  I'm not even gonna chance it anymore.

Doesn't take much to create a risk for sinusitis in susceptible individuals.  Your sinusus, air filled cavities in your facial bones, are all lined with mucous membranes and empty through single, very small openings into the nasal cavity.  Normally, you keep them sterile because a blanket of micro cilia constantly beat in the direction of the opening.  The nasal cavity itself is always growing nasty gram negative bacteria, but as they try to crawl up into your sinus, they are kept at bay by the tide of exiting mucous.  But anything that upsets this delicate balance can lead to a sinus infection, a cold, allergic rhinitis, and probably barametric changes and just cold air in some individuals.  Slight swelling of the membrane can easily obstuct the opening and prevent the "toilet" from flushing.  Fortunately, in most cases the obstruction is short lived enough to allow for drainage before a sinus infection sets in.   With recurrent bouts of acute sinusitis, you can get permanent damage to the membranous lining that will prevent the cilia from flushing properly.  Then it's fare easier to get a future infection because you have "dead spots", which, if inoculated with bacteria, can fester into a full blown sinusitus.

It's very hard to clinically diagnose sinusitus when its subtle.  In acute sinusitus, the person can have marked swelling and tenderness over the sinus, in their teeth, over or behind their eyes.  But often the person presents with symptoms of greenish drainage and pressure in the sinus (which is increased if you lean forward with your head between your legs).  Their breath may smell abnormally bad. But these symptoms don't reliably diagnose a treatable infection.  Sometimes the doctor will order sinus CT scans which may show thickened membranes, indicative of chronic damage.

A study just came out that showed that patients with more indolent symptoms treated with antibiotic did no better than a group not treated, so it may be better to just use conservative measures, salt water rinses, limited decongestant sprays or oral, or steroid topical sprays to shrink the membranes and keep the openings clear long enough for healing.  Using antibiotics may only serve to kill off the weaker bacteria in your nose, leaving only the "super", resistant ones to attack you later.  If there is acute pain, bloody discharge, persistent fever, antibiotics may be necessary.  Persistent fatigue may be the only symptom in some chronic infections.  Occassionally, one of my patients will come in complaining of fatigue, and feeling dragged down and I'll mistake it for worsening depression.  Later, I find out that their GP treated them with antibiotics and their fatigue resolved.  These are the real sneaky cases.

I'm sure that's more than you wanted to know about this.

No that's good. But for what it's worth, antibiotics generally work and work quickly for me. I know the whole 'public good' issue with prescribing antibiotics but I'd rather just have them prescribed every 5 years or so when I run into this problem, thank you very much.

Btw, what do sinuses "do"?

cause I've been thinking of filling the voids with two-part expanding foam,  . I'd have an unsinkable head! 

REDTIDE= illness    surfed in it many time (b4learning lesson) and was plugged up like someone shot silicone up my nose.

Doug speaks the truth!   had it and could not shake it for two straight years!  doctor said,"take decongestant before surfing to open the sinuses, so they can drain later." 
 The first 10years the water would drain from the nostrils after turning head upside-down or after a few hours, then that didn't happen anymore. My teeth would throb along with my eyes sockets too. Now when turning my head upside, I could hear and feel the slime-like mucus(pressure) preying from the sinus walls, a few minutes later and a GLOB could be blown or sucked down....yummy!

and thanks for the pic of the perch J!