After getting to the condo and unloading everything in 67% humidity and temps in the 90s that felt like the 100s, we first went down to the beach for a few hours. I took my fly rod but didn't bother using it since the beach had too many people around even out to the second gut. I surely didn't want to snag someone on my backcast or with my fly in the water so I just enjoyed playing in the water with the kids.
Later after sunset I decided I would try and fish along the Queen Isabella Causeway. I waited for about 30 minutes but only the street lights near the middle of the causeway came on. The bridge is almost three miles long so I really didn't feel like paddling all that much. Not that far from the bridge to the south is Pier 19. It used to be a fishing pier for the longest time but now the whole pier is a restaurant and bar. It still has some lights on it though so I decided to go there and try my luck.
As soon as I got there I could see some trout swimming around and people on bridge pointing down and talking about me and what I was doing. I anchored and tied on a cactus shrimp fly as the trout were chasing shrimp along the surface. I could hear the smacks and pops as the trout ate them.
Right away, the people on the pier above were telling me where to cast and that there were a "hundred" trout right where I was casting. Soon I started catching trout but not on every cast. Most of the trout where just shy of keepers. I did catch a couple fat little trout and had one nice one that broke me off. I probably spent two hours there catching and releasing schoolie trout. Eventually after a couple of drunk patrons mistook me for a mannequin (they actually said "dummy") in a "dingy", I decided to call it a night. They did apologize for the mistake though.
The next couple of days was taken up with family visits and other activities but I enjoyed the short adventure paddling the Lower Laguna by the light of the full moon. It was invigorating. It was way better than walking around drunk mistaking live people for dummies.
