Number 8 .... Fresh La Jolla Rerport

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Tuesday, Sept 2, after a long long dry spell (all summer) it's my kids first day back to school, so I decide to go out to fish the afternoon till sunset as my wife was doing the back to school thing.

Super easy no swell launch so of course I get completely soaked as I always do. Light 5 mile per hour wind. Strong current.

Bait not so easy but I manage 2 greenbacks and 2 spanish with my modified bait catching technique. Wanted more bait, but wanted to fish even more.

Go out from the kelp throw out a flyline greenie and call the wife to ask how our sons first day of school went. Hung up and put the phone away and buzzzzz goes my pole.

I go on a long sleigh ride into the open ocean, Sweet. Head shake after head shake. Yes it's a large yellow. Line peel after line peel. Many runs.

After 15 minutes I finally see color and bring up and gaff a tired 26 pound yellowtail.

Launched at 3:30 PM had a yellow on deck before 5:00

After many hours on the water this sumer, this one seemed so easy….. leave late, paddle out, catch bait, catch gamefish all in an hour an a half. So I decide to fish more....

Hooked onto another yellow with my last greenback and he started peeling line …. this was a smart fish as after his first run, he ran straight towards me and under my boat quick enough to get a little slack and spit the now now crushed greenback. …. dang …so much for number two … oh we'll lets try a spanish …

Now the clicker goes off on the spanish, sweet another chance ….

Fight the large fish for awhile but can tell its smaller as it is coming in quicker even tho it is peeling line.

See color and it's a very large Bonita, Huge! , awesome, first kayak bonita for me and I love the taste of it so out comes the gaff. First attempt, a glancing blow, the gaff bounced off. Second attempt, a real fail as I gaff it, it got away.

Hmmm..... at least I got a very large yellow on deck

What I learned is that Bonita are way quicker than tired yellowtail. Next time I will take my time.