grunion greetingnew moon cycle (10:15pm-12:15am), overcast skies
Holy mackerel! I've always wanted to say that, but haven't had a good opportunity until now.
We arrived at Del Monte at 10:10pm and to our surprise couldn't find a good parking spot. The pier was crowded with tons of fishermen (actually both men and women)!!! We got out of the car and asked the nearest fisherman what was going on. He said the mackerel were out. We asked how he knew and he dryly replied, "Because the buckets are full." We had to laugh at his comment and then asked how all the people knew to come out to fish. He then said, "We have cell phones." LOL! We meet some interesting people during grunion nights. I walked down the pier and talked to some folks and asked if I could take pics of their mackerel in buckets. I'm thinking there's a grunion in the pic shown above. Apparently it's mackerel season from July to August. I wonder if we'll see more fishermen Wednesday night, too.
We didn't see any grunion on the beach but had a nice night of socializing just the same. We ran into some old friends from SoCal. Their mom, our 70+ year-old friend who poo-pooed the idea of grunion in Monterey Bay, told them what we were doing and they brought along their son. His twin sister wisely chose to stay home. Our fellow grunion greeter Diane and some of her friends were also there. The reporter from the Herald never showed. The tide came up to the 5th and 6th parking meters. It was a fun change of pace seeing a beach party at Adventures by the Sea and watching the fisherman toss their lines with little lights into the water (same kind of glow sticks one sees at Halloween or at amusement parks). We left at 12:05am in good spirits despite not seeing any grunion.
We arrived at Del Monte at 10:10pm and to our surprise couldn't find a good parking spot. The pier was crowded with tons of fishermen (actually both men and women)!!! We got out of the car and asked the nearest fisherman what was going on. He said the mackerel were out. We asked how he knew and he dryly replied, "Because the buckets are full." We had to laugh at his comment and then asked how all the people knew to come out to fish. He then said, "We have cell phones." LOL! We meet some interesting people during grunion nights. I walked down the pier and talked to some folks and asked if I could take pics of their mackerel in buckets. I'm thinking there's a grunion in the pic shown above. Apparently it's mackerel season from July to August. I wonder if we'll see more fishermen Wednesday night, too.
We didn't see any grunion on the beach but had a nice night of socializing just the same. We ran into some old friends from SoCal. Their mom, our 70+ year-old friend who poo-pooed the idea of grunion in Monterey Bay, told them what we were doing and they brought along their son. His twin sister wisely chose to stay home. Our fellow grunion greeter Diane and some of her friends were also there. The reporter from the Herald never showed. The tide came up to the 5th and 6th parking meters. It was a fun change of pace seeing a beach party at Adventures by the Sea and watching the fisherman toss their lines with little lights into the water (same kind of glow sticks one sees at Halloween or at amusement parks). We left at 12:05am in good spirits despite not seeing any grunion.
