Saturday, March 29, 2014

Successful Dana Point Fishing

Last weekend our friends Joe and Anne came to visit us from San Francisco.  It was a lovely weekend of hiking, eating, drinking, soaking in nature, visiting Los Angeles (the first time for DDF and I), and having out with really nice people.  On Sunday afternoon last week, we went down to the Ritz Carlton to have a drink in the 180Blu bar, and after indulging in adult beverages, we walked over to the gazebo that looks over Strand Beach.
My friend the osprey was fishing for food over the beach, and we were lucky enough to see the raptor dive, and emerge with a lunch of fish.  I tried to capture the dive, but all I got was the roiling ocean afterward.  And when the raptor resurfaced, and again took flight, there was a shiny silvery catch in it's claws.  Very cool.  Joe and I both saw it (so I am know I am not crazy).
If you want to catch fish at Dana Point, the best way to insure success is to hover about 50 feet over the beach, and then dive down in your evolutionarily refined avian body form, and plunge in from above - the fish, completely unsuspecting.


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2 comments:

  1. pykerMarch 30, 2014 at 11:12 AM

    Is there fishing-using-poles for non-flying humans as well?

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  2. JustJoePMarch 30, 2014 at 9:06 PM

    Indeed, there is. There's the "Sumthin Fun" Chartered fishing boat out of Dana Point harbor that puts on 20 to 40 "would be" fishermen, and heads out to the buoy off of the point. Today, the waves were so choppy with white caps when DDF and I walked at Strand and Salt Creek, that the bow of "Sumthin Fun" would disappear beneath the waves 3 to 4 foot waves. Not so much fun.

    There are also the anglers who cast from shore, with a pole. Often times I see a shore angler "old timer" fishing with a cigarette in their mouths, sea mist in their faces.

    There are the lobster fishermen who set their traps off the kelp bed line and then service their traps via a little boat reminiscent of a boat the size they had in "Flipper".

    There's an occasional trawler that looks for some kinds of fish in their nets off shore, outside the kelp beds... though I do not know exactly what kinds.

    There's lots of spear fishermen, who emerge from the brine in their wet suits, with spear guns and one or two or three really large (like the size of a human's thigh large) fish, strapped to their hip.

    And there are pods of dolphins who hunt fish, and who curiously check out surfers near to shore. DDF and I have seen parental dolphins instructing their young as to what those black-wet-suit wearing humans on long oval shaped boards are, from the vantage point of looking down from the Ritz.

    And there are lots of Pelicans and Cormorants who attest to the thriving fish population near and around Dana Point.

    Id's say Dana Point was a very active and healthy fishery. It is not surprising to see the osprey capitalizing on the natural abundance there.

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