Yesterday I had a couple minor things to attend to on the boat, and we decided to stay an extra day here and do a bit of fishing. The first question of course is where exactly to drop the lines. There are lots of places right around Point Reyes itself that are great spots. But, for better or worse, they are all part of a protected area and fishing is not allowed. The surrounding areas are mostly featureless sand, so off to the charts I went to try to find “fishy” structure.
It quickly became apparent that the modern vector charts, while perfectly suited for navigation, really weren’t going to be much help with finding the best fishing spot. The attached image shows what I mean. It compares the image from the paper chart of Drakes Bay with the exact same place on the computer vector chart.
Nothing about this spot on the vector chart would attract my attention, but on the paper chart the extended contour lines and especially the bottom characteristic note “rky” meaning “rocky” did get my hopes up. An isolated rock pile like this in the middle of an otherwise featureless sandy shoreline would surely attract fish.
And… it worked! Five rockfish in an hour. Four of them within 50 yards of the spot I picked based on the chart. Delicious.
fetchinketch 