Stillwater Carmel, Saturday the 28th of Oct..

Went to Stillwater with Alain and my wife and we fished. Not a whole lot of action but a few small ones here and there in shallow. all released.

A note about the parking attendant there. we followed procedure and parked behind the hedge once unloaded. around lunch time we were packing up to leave and i got my car to load up. there were people all over. parking was a mess and i waited to get a spot to load. as we were loading the parking man told us to hurry up and a guy ijn a shiny new suv with a resident plate on the front came up he yelled at me "hey, i know this guy, can you please get your car out of there!" i told him "i cannot move until the kayaks are tied down". He kept arguing with me. I just told him again the same thing and left it be. He got the message. I swear, he acted like we go to use that place for free. I paid my money to access that beach and get in the water. I have the right to load up and not be rushed.

I like that beach and all but I must say, the fishing there is not worth having to pay the 8.75 for cold water showers, stinky soap and crappy parking with attitude.

So if I want to hunt and fish Stillwater cove I will do the following from now on. I will launch at Carmel beach and paddle to Stillwater. No biggie.

Anyhow, fishing was slow overall. Water was brown. I think maybe this weekend for the North Coast for abalone: O )

Here are some pics. Unfortunately my batteries gave way before I could take a pic of our fish. Nothing great, 2 blues, 1 black and 1 grass. The paddle to Pescadero and beyond was great. Beautiful weather, warm and flat ocean.
Back at the parking lot, I did not experience anything close to what John relates but I was asked by some guys from the Fish and Wildlife commission to take a rec. fishing survey on the fish we caught. I agreed. I was just wondering how they were going to use the data. I asked the guy if they were gathering data from the commercials too. He said they were.
Alain (fish'n'dive)

OH MAN!! some nice conditions.  that pole was majorly BENDO

Alain, this is Henry from Dublin.  I was at Stillwater Cove on saturday and I saw John but I did not see you.  My 2 friends and I fished in the shallows just outside the Pascadero rocks for about an hour.  Very slow action there.  We decided to head out to the Pinnacles since the weather was quite nice. Non-stop action out there.  One of my friend got a few reds.  I got an underling of 22".  The other guy got a 30" ling but lost it when he tried to net it.  His net was too small!!!   He also caught a 17" cabezon and countless blues.  I was getting lots of double blues on my double shrimp flies.  It was a nice fishing day.

Henry

OH MAN!! some nice conditions.  that pole was majorly BENDO

yeah man, that thing fought hard! i think it was a fat strand of bull kelp i hooked into!

 

when we were by pescadero pt i looked down and saw huge olives, they were much bigger than the schooling blues. i wished then i had my wetsuit and speargun in hand. i would have floated in the kelp and waited for them.

those things were big but they were not about to take any bait.

im gonna have to dive there soon.

I often get the olives to hit a swim bait retrieved just below the surface say 5-10 ft.

I often get the olives to hit a swim bait retrieved just below the surface say 5-10 ft.

thanks for the tip! i shall have to try it! i have never hooked one of them before but sure want to. i can get them spearing but think they would put up a nice fight.

thank you!

john

Here are some pics. Unfortunately my batteries gave way before I could take a pic of our fish. Nothing great, 2 blues, 1 black and 1 grass. The paddle to Pescadero and beyond was great. Beautiful weather, warm and flat ocean.
Back at the parking lot, I did not experience anything close to what John relates but I was asked by some guys from the Fish and Wildlife commission to take a rec. fishing survey on the fish we caught. I agreed. I was just wondering how they were going to use the data. I asked the guy if they were gathering data from the commercials too. He said they were.
Alain (fish'n'dive)

Looks like a beautiful day whether you caught fish or not out there. Great pics.

Great pics and conditions!

Jason