There are places I visit and fish that seem just like home - an environment so familiar that you know where everything is … in my case, almost everything. I can go from one room to another and feel as though whatever must be accomplished can get done in an efficient manner. This thought came over me as I spent the last week close to where I grew up in Aptos, California at a business meeting.

The week was productive for the most part and what I enjoyed most was spending each morning on the beach reflecting on all the honey holes where hours were spent casting and catching a variety of fishes from the beach. I caught halibut, striped bass, shark, stingrays, perch, mackerel, bonito (on occasion), jack smelt, salmon and kingfish. And the fact that I hadn't surf fished for a number of years didn't make what I was observing any less familiar.

My eyes immediately searched for diving pelicans each morning, exactly as I did when I was much younger. Pelicans are always a telltale sign that bait is present and something is underneath pushing it to the surface. What is observed in terms of boils and the like will dictate what lure I will use.

If diving birds are not present I will search for sandbars that reveal themselves by the way waves break and eventually dissolve. I learned young that the best place to catch fish from shore is to fish where the gaps between breaking waves end - in surfing terms, where the rights and lefts just stop breaking, where the water is much too deep for the wave to catch the bar and it simply doesn't break, or barely breaks. This hole also serves as a convergence where baitfish congregate as a result of being pushed there by colliding current forces. The result of this elaborate natural manifestation is that you can, by simple observation, know where the big fish will hang out.

It was along these same shores I learned to read water. Where fishing edges and cuts become more than a place you stumble upon, but rather, the place you seek, thus passing by other waters that don't possess the same indicators. These are spots you know as well as you know your home. And in this home, instead of keepsakes, sheets, clothing, pictures or pillows, you find kingfish, perch, striped bass, salmon, or some other species of fun. And when you arrive each day to try your luck you know that whatever the result, you will find what you are seeking on that given day. For all intents and purposes, you have pulled into your easy chair, popped a cold one, and are once again comfortable.