Good Morning

I dunno... maybe it's just me.  But when a great minus tide period passes by, and I totally miss it I begin to feel the way backwoods Jesus freaks probably feel when they miss a week or two of snake handling. That is to say, the intertidal is my church, yo.  I mean... I am, after all, Lombard Of The Intertidal... y'all feel me here?

Anyway, I started to jones for some intertidal action this past week, so yesterday I woke up early and drove down to ________________ for some old tyme poke poling.  It had been several months since my last p.p. excursion, and I wasn't in the mood for a full-on trip to points further south.  So I drove to my "Plan C" spot, never the most bountiful location, but convenient, easy to reach, and reasonably productive.  

Anyway... poked for two hours and had nothing but two small ("South Jetty-sized") cabezon to show for it.  And then, as the tide started moving in, the pricklebacks started biting.  Weird. Holes that appeared to have nothing in them an hour earlier suddenly held eels.  After I put the camera away, things really picked up (what does that tell ya?) Lost one monster (how I wish someone had captured the moment of its escape, as the self proclaimed intertidal man, slipped and fell backwards, legs and arms akimbo, into a briney, cold and unforgiving tide pool!) And one beautiful keeper-sized cabezon, that shook the barbless hook better than any king salmon.
 

Anyhoo: here's the latest video: 

Can't figure out why this one is running so slow... if it's too choppy to watch try going directly to Youtube--in other words, click here.

 

  

Net Man

 

        Lombard of the Intertidal, seen here, using his own A-frame as a template for a new net.

After several years of searching I finally found a huge pile of small-mesh anchovy netting--the perfect stuff for night smelt.  This news could only be exciting to the three or four people reading this who have actually tried to find this type of small-gauge netting in the Bay Area. (Is it just my own pet peeve, or does this un-poetic, ambiguous and wholly unsatisfying term "Bay Area" deeply suck?)

Since the only place that sells A-frame netting is up in Eureka, and since it costs about a hundred bucks for just the netting alone (without the rest of the A-frame contraption), many of my financially challenged friends have not been particularly excited about night smelting.  

So I got myself about about fifty feet of the stuff. A task which entailed no small bit of labor as it had been sitting in an abandoned lot for three years.  Half of it was actually underground with the roots of weeds intertwined in it.  The above-ground portion of the pile featured the excrement of at least nine different native and non native mammalian species.  Most of these rodent and carnivore (feral mostly), but thankfully, no human.

 The netting for two A-frames.  Note: the rope is threaded through every single square! 

  

  

And so, it came to pass that I managed to get the cleanest 50 feet of the stuff, like I said, and then began the arduous task of "fixing" the net for A-frame usage.  A process which involves endless threading, sewing, and tying of knots.  I somehow did not initially envision the amount of work involved.  But I soon realized that making A-frame netting for all my friends was not going to happen.  In short: it took me one whole day to make two.  All I can say is, the guy that makes these things up in Eureka is a saint to sell them for only 90 bucks.  Seriously, I mean the amount of work involved... yikes!

And that's it.  Tune in next time for a discussion of catching bay shrimp in the surf.

From deep inside the "Bay Area" this is the self proclaimed, Lombard of the Intertidal, signing out.

Comments

[Scott Parker]

Big minus tides coming up early AM next weekend (Memorial Day weekend). Considering, oddly enough, heading up to Humboldt/Eureka for fishing and clamming...

Or maybe just stick around here if the swells don't look that great! :)

Will other types of netting work for the A-frame? How small do the holes in the netting need to be? What is the dimensions of the netting before you start to shape it? I was looking on Ebay and saw some bridal-veil mesh which looked like it may work... the only other item I saw that might be functional was mosquito netting...

[Rol]

DUDE!!!!

[Alan]

Oooh, you know I'm dying for that bay shrimp discussion, Kirk.

[Chinnu]

I'm diggin how you go after the less mainstream fish and inverts. Once the season starts, I'm gonna go grunion-ing just because of all the night smelt articles. Fish on.

[Scott Parker]

kirk

i have to say that you are the epitome of what i have come to think of the fishermen i have met since getting started... you give unstintingly of tourself, be it time, information, or encouragement. i have to say once again thank you for your help and advice!

i was able to figure out throwing the cast net after meeting you and look forward to beginning to build an a-frame in the future!

[Orsa Fisher]

Reposted video on facebook.
Yes, that is how our mornings look:)

[Fontenelle451]

Newspaper cones of cooked bay shrimp used to be sold like fast food along the S.F. waterfront. It was my second favorite local crustacean, after dungeness crab. If I caught a few pounds of bay shrimp, I'd party like it's 1959!