Sunday 4/13

[LocoKayako]

Matt, my nephew, and I were suppposed to go to the Mission Bay touny on sat but then we found out he had a baseball game. Luckily there was another tourny we could attend, a halibut tourny.

I set up Matt's rods and kayak, his MiniX, and then set my stuff. I left Matt behind with my sister as I paddled to the bait barge,then paddled back to pick up Matt. What a difference a paddle makes. I left Matt my ONNO since its really light and I used and old one I had in the garage.

We started fishing, and by this time most were on the water for at least an hour. I had Matt set up with a live bait rig and a swim bait to toss while drifting, to keep him busy. We started out kinda slow and would then get bites here and there. We drifted a few more areas and then I picked up a little 23 incher. Matt got excited and was anxious to get his own. A little while later he's hooked up and he pulsl up a short. Then he decides its snack time and relaxes for a second. After a short rest he's ready to go again.

As we're trolling back for another drift, I get picked up and tell Matt to come back as he was ahead of me. He turns around and starts heading my direction. I get my fish up and sticke the gaff to the fish. Just hen Matt goes right by me and as he passes me I hear is clicker take a nice little run. I tell him to take his time and do just as we practiced. He lifts the rod gently, the rod loads up, and the fish goes for a nother little run, and Matt is loving it. He gets so excited, he gets a little too anxious sometimes. Matt winds down on the fish and it starts to come up, then a little run and then it happens. It comes off! Matt's a little down at first then, he's ready to fish again. We drfit the area one more time, and he picks up another short. That was it for the both of us, no more fish.

Here are some pics from the tournament.

Matt with the winning halibut; Matt being questioned by the DFG, and finally my favorite picture

Hopefully, Matt will be ready to hit LJ in the summer for some

gabe