LJ 8/3 - Mystery Sea Monster or Dog

[The pelican]

Launched at 5 a.m. with a friend. Saw some "signs" but didn't follow them because I was fishing with a buddy who didn't have the time required to go on an adventure (he had a wedding to attend at noon).

Trolled a few greenbacks around for most of the morning hours. Sea Lions were all over the place, I think because of a half day boat in the area. Lost a mac to one of the dogs.

The most interesting part of the day was a battle with a mystery sea monster. Here's the story:

My mac gets hit on the troll and I think sea lion. I'm a novice with only a half dozen YT under my belt but it doesn’t feel like a target species on the line. Much more weight. But it runs down in the water column and not just out along the surface as I would expect from a sea lion. My drag was pretty tight and it ripped off line easily. I fight it for a bit and eventually it’s almost directly below me and the line stops ripping off my reel. I pop the kelp stringers and immediately reel as fast as possible. Sure enough, I feel weight again! The thing on the other end is hard to feel but it’s still there pulling, somewhere between dead weight and a fight. I pop another kelp stringer and reel fast. Again, I feel the weight (but no fight) after cranking my reel a handful of times. Repeat the same process again. Finally I’m directly over my line pulling on dead weight. It’s not fighting. I would think I’m on kelp again but there’s no feeling like the spectra is sawing through the kelp. I pull and pull but nothing. I eventually decide to let the line go slack to see if that helps. Nothing. I pull so hard that the hook just comes out of whatever was down there. Does this sound like a dog to everyone else? Maybe it wrapped me up in the kelp, took the mac off the hook and I fought with a small kelp paddy for a bit? Any other ideas? Like I said, I'm relatively new at this, so I'm curious to hear the thoughts of others.

-Pat