1-11-11, Dana Point

[Amish Ed]

Launched about 8am with a guy named Steve I met on http://www.meetup.com/Kayak-Fishing-OC/. It was pretty cold this morning with a stiff offshore to boot. Water was 56º at launch and 58º by 11am. We paddled out to look for the pipe and I stopped on a meter mark on the way. Nothing for me but Steve snagged a pup thresher (maybe 50lbs) trolling a 4" Flurry in fire avocado. He got it to the yak, but with only 15lb test it broke off before Steve could decide what to do with it. It put on a good show jumping 5 or 6 times while hooked and another 5 or 6 times after release.

Thanks to a bunch of traps, we found the pipe easy and I set up on it. Steve dragged a Rappala around the rest of the morning in the hopes of another t-shark. I fished the pipe until 12ish. Stuck to 4" Flurry's the whole morning. Used a bunch of different colors for a total of 8 legals and 5 or 6 shorts. Mix of sandies and calicoes. Biggest bass was about 3lbs, plus I got one really nice rockfish, about 3lbs too. I think it was a gopher, but my rockfish ID skills stink. I decided to finish out the day with a 3" Flurry on a Hyspin and got bumped a few times. Then bamm, I was on a sled ride. Turned out to be a big ass bat ray that kicked my butt on the 10lb line. I got him up twice and then broke him off. Off the water by 12:45, just in time for the wind which really kicked up out of the northwest.

This is one of the average ones today. Had a few bigger and quite a few smaller.

Full bendo on a bat ray that was at least 40lbs.