BSB at DP: 8-29-21

[Salty]

Got a bit of a surprise while fishing out of Dana Point on Sunday...

Launched baby beach just before sunrise. Got bait- dudes at the dock were cool and squeezed me in before 2 loaded charters. Made our way out to the drop-off. Wind was already on it a bit. Trolled a sardine on a Carolina setup while dropping a jig on any deeper marks that I saw, which produced a couple of sandies early on. But out in deeper water, I couldn't get the jig halfway through the water column without a greenback taking it. As the saying goes, "When life gives you greenbacks, pin 'em on your line and send 'em out!" So that's what I did- one on the flyline, one on the Carolina to cover my bases.

Fought the current for a while. It was not very nice out. Spotted birds going crazy close to us. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't praying for one of those near-shore tuna boils to pop up... But it turned out to be dolphins/porpoise crashing on bait. Eventually they moved on, but a few minutes later my Speedmaster started screaming behind me. Grabbed it, put it in gear and started fighting. Could tell right away it was something big. After a good fight, I finally got it to color and saw it was a fat Black Sea Bass. Had a lot of fight left when it was at the side of the kayak, so getting the hook out was a bit of a struggle. But after a couple pictures, I was able to get the hook out and it swam away strong. I've caught a fair amount of these before, but nothing quite this size. And I was more than surprised to catch it where I did in Dana Point! So while I really hoped to see a nice halibut or WSB come up, it was still an awesome experience. (I did get some GoPro video of the whole thing, so I'll post that eventually)

After that, I sent out 2 fresh greenbacks and started working my way in. At one point some idiot in a flybridge got within about 20' of running me over. Once I realized I was not going to get killed, I tried to reel at least one of my lines in, but this guy just ran right over the top of both of them and started spooling them. Fortunately the lines both got cut by the prop after about 4-5 seconds, so I didn't loose too much braid. Didn't get video of that, but there would have been too much "Inappropriate Language" for me to post on YouTube anyway... After that, conditions just got terrible, so we headed in. I did get a decent bonus calico on the jig when I saw some mark though.

Anyway, here are some pics. Enjoy!