Cool Stuff at the Beach

Woke up early (4:30) and headed for the beach. Along the roadway was an endless line of bunny rabbits and a lone red fox that looked like it was looking for a hand out. The tide was low and the water had a dingy look with some eel grass and not much was biting. No pelicans were seen as they had been common the past few weeks. Osprey were diving just off the bar and a stray shearwater flew down the surfline, actually bumping my line on it's way down the beach. This was a rare sighting as these birds are usually way offshore. They are the ones that eat your tuna bait in the canyon. The snapper blues started to bite as the tide came in and the water cleared. The surf was steep and breaking despite the fact there was no wind and the ocean was flat calm, probably due to the full moon. I hooked a fish that was bigger then the snappers and gave a good fight running down the beach. I thought it was the first decent kingfish and was surprised to see a banded rudderfish about twelve inches. These fish are often mistaken for amberjack, as they look the same when they get to be two pounds or better. Sometimes we call them "buoy jacks." We left them biting and returned home when the sun got high.