It’s been awhile since I’ve been to the beach and now my wife and I get to go the beach as a family of three. Our hearts were set on a two day overnighter at Stinson Beach. The moon and stars were aligned with the perfect tides, incoming high tide at 8am and 8pm both during low light periods what could go wrong?

This was our first long distance trip as a family and my son who is now three months did fairly well on the car ride there. Stinson Beach was windy during our stay with winds at 13 – 15MPH and gusts up +20MPH. I attempted to fish in the evening of the first day and fighting the wind was very difficult. The surf was quite choppy and the entire coast appeared murky with a clarity of about 6’’ – 12’’. Conditions were rough and I ended the night with no grabs.

The following day I got up early at sunrise around 6am and was out on the surf to try my luck again. The wind was pretty much nonexistent in the morning and I had no trouble controlling my presentation. I worked my way covering water all the way down to the southern rocks. I’m fairly experienced with fishing the surf and know where to look for fish but every spot that should have had fish was empty. I dug out plenty of sand crabs along the shore so the amount of food didn’t appear to be an issue. The fish just weren’t out on the surf.

The rig I was fishing with was my go-to 4’ of Seaguar fluorocarbon with a chartreuse clouser and simple shrimp tied on to the tag end of a blood loop on a 250 grain sink-tip line. I changed flies a couple of times to see if it was my patterns but to no avail.

Frustrated and perplexed by my unsuccessful attempts of catching any fish, I looked up any information I could find online about the current surf fishing conditions. From what little information I could gather the coast along the bay area has been experiencing a bit of red tide algae bloom. This could explain the murkiness in the middle June and the poor fishing conditions. While out on the surf I observed the wildlife, primarily the birds and sea lions, gathering and possibly feeding just outside the breakers. This leads me to think that the fish were possibly out there as well.

I tried again the second morning and noticed a few other surf anglers out as well. We all got skunked; at least in regards to fish. I caught stuff. Five dungeness crab, the same amount of crabs I had caught the previous morning. It’s too bad I didn’t rent a kitchenette and bring a crab pot but now I know better for next time.