Chasing ghosts

[dmrides]

I have recently been inspired by whitedog and Moyer to go out in search of some WSB. Checked the weather on Friday night and it looked like there might be a window of opportunity Saturday morning so I jumped on the chance. Got to the launch early and there was no rain, a good offshore breeze and it looked like I would at least have a few nice hours on the water.

Paddled out along the canyon, made some bait just past the buoys and started the search. Dropped a greenback down to the bottom and drifted, yo-yo'd, paddled, and repeated.

After two hours of this, I saw another yakker hooked up so I paddled over to see him land a nice 40 pound . This got me excited and I was hoping to find one of my own.

After another half hour or so goes by, and suddenly line starts peeling off my reel and then stops. I reach back to grab my rod and hold for a few second and line starts screaming off again. I put it in gear and I start getting pulled towards the kelp, really fast. I was in about 100ft of water and had a long time till I got to the kelp, hoping that it was the right kind, I backed off the drag a tiny bit and started pulling him up. A few more blistering runs and I was starting to think yellow, then it turned in to a straight up and down grind. No head shakes, just dead wait and a few short runs. Once I was right on top of the fish I could feel the line rubbing on something. Kelp? Can't be, I am too far out and he is not at the bottom. Then I was thinking maybe thresher since I could feel it kick its tail and thought maybe I was feeling the line rubbing on its fins. Finally got it to color and it was a huge yellow. Got it to the surface and just before I stuck the gaff in it and hauled it onto my lap I found out why it was such a weird fight. Somehow I foul hooked it in the belly, right between its pelvic fins. This explained the lack of head shakes and what I was feeling as the line was rubbing against his scales. I guess somehow when he ate the mac, the mac slid over the eye of the hook and up the line and he got wrapped up in the line. You guys ever seen this happen before?

Well it was no 60 pound wsb, but it was a personal best yellow on the yak. 43 inch fork length, just shy of 48 inches to the tail, and 36 pounds. The in laws are here from Maine right now and I was stoked to get to share some Hamachi with them. Thanks Matt for taking the on the water pics.