Got to the beach around 5:30 and met up with my friend John. Turned out he forgot to get a license and was smart enough to not risk it. I launched about 6:15 and paddled into a beautiful
sunrise. Got to the harbor entrance and found a stiff SE wind and headed straight for the Pipe. With the head wind it took longer than normal, but I got there. I dropped a 5" Big Hammer in Xmas tree and eventually got a few bites and lost one halfway to the yak. The wind started to really blow and shifted around to be an E wind. I switched to a 4" Flurry in fire avocado, but no bites there. But at least I was able to keep the bait close to the bottom. Switched to a 4" FLurry in redfish and got one legal sand bass. By this point the wind had increased again and I started thinking about the drift chute. Got it out and went to deploy it and the wind kicked up even more, plus some rain to boot. I did a couple drifts with the shoot, but I was still moving so fast that I couldn't find the bottom.
Decided I just wasn't having fun and headed in about 8:00. On the way in the wind shifted out of the NE and made for a miserable paddle in. I finally made the jetty. With the offshore wind I could hide in the lee if the jetty and fish the outside, so I started tossing a bait. Within minutes the wind shifted back out of the SE and started blowing me right into the jetty. So much for hiding. Lost a Slayer head and figured it was just not the day to fish and headed in. Turned out to be the right call as on the paddle in my back really started hurting. Went home with my tail between my legs and rested in my recliner until my back settled down.
At least I didn't get skunked.