LJ 3/26 (Late Report)

[fresh to salt]

After not feeling well for a few days before the weekend I was not 100% sure if I was going to make the drive from Menifee to the water but after my 5am alarm went off I decided it was time to nut up or shut up. Got in my car, gassed it up, and made it down to LJ around 645. Met a few dudes about to launch their PAs and chatted with them about the conditions before launching solo. Nice easy launch with one big wave at the end of the set and then it was nice and calm water out through the MLPA zone. Bait was easy to make and it was all nice, thick, healthy greenbacks. Took two drops of the sabiki rig to make enough bait for the day and headed off. Once I made it past the corner I tried to find my own space to fish away from the 8 or so PBs and the dozens of kayaks I could see. Everyone was pretty spread out which was nice and made it easy to maneuver through. I threw back a nice lively greenback and slow trolled him around for a while while looking for marks on my ff. There were a TON of sea lions out there but surprisingly (and thankfully) none went for my bait. They all were interested in me but just sank away when I passed them. I finally saw a couple of nice fish towards the bottom in about 80 feet of water so I dropped the iron... No dice. Scooted around that area for about 5 minutes and finally found them again. This time I tried a dropper looped mac and watched my bait go down right in the middle of the grouping. While fully expecting my rod to get slammed, my flylined mac rod just starts singing! Honestly I expected it to be a sea lion with how many I had seen out there so I just put my down rod in the front rod holder and grabbed my flyline rod to have it almost ripped out of my hands in this things first run! As soon as I put the power to him and felt those head shakes I knew it was the right kind. Stupid me forgot to wind in my down rod so Im trying to hold my hooked up rod in my right hand and wind in my down rod with my left hand... After a failed few minutes, I decided to just leave it down there and focus on the fish. 15 minutes of fun and a glorious sleigh ride later I got it to color. First gaff attempt goes right off the collar plate and he goes for another short run. Luckily I was able to use my short baby sized gaff and sink it in the right spot. Bled him right there and good god... Ive never seen a fish bleed this much! Both of my legs, my seat, and the left side of my kayak were covered! As I had some quick errands to run in SD and wanting to make sure this fish is in pristine condition, I decided to head in (while slow trolling a mac just in case of a blind strike) and get it on ice as soon as possible.

On the paddle back in I watched a couple of other guys on kayaks hooked up and one of the guys CnR a nice yellow right in the kelp! Props to those guys! I actually got some OTW pics of that guy and will post them below.

I need to thank whoever was chumming the water with half macs because this thing had 1 whole mac, two whole macs that had been cut in half, 2 mackeral spines mostly digested, and 1 red crab in its belly! My mac wasn't in there as the whole mac in there had to have been 10 inches long! I don't know how this thing was hungry but I'm glad he was! Tight lines!