Aug 1, BSB report

[gary sullivan]

Wednesday started with no high expectations as reports from the previous couple of days were basically, scarce bait and no fish. I was hoping for the first game fish of the month so I made the early morning pilgrimage to La Jolla Shores. There was only a small handful making their way to the pier for bait. I talked with an old familiar face, Andy, who found a way to hit his favorite haunt. My can of cat food didn't bring the desired result but a piece of squid donated by Jason Scott tipping my sabiki hooks did the trick. One nice greenie was all I needed to get started, figuring I'd run into a bait ball once into the fishing grounds. Disappointingly I saw only one but filled the the hooks with big macs on the one retrieve. With no luck on the forkies by nine I headed to my halibut honey hole that was so nice to me the week before. Using the same setup, a 3 oz. carolina rig, I drifted a 10-12 inch greenie in 45 feet of water. Fifteen minutes later the clicker goes off but not at high speed. I engaged the drag and got a couple of head shakes initially before the fish started to easily come my way. Thinking, all right! another halibut, until the fish turned and headed out to sea. The power that mystery fish had over me was unreal. I was definitely going for a ride whether I liked it or not. Jason followed with camera in hand to get the action shots. After a half hour and a quarter mile out to sea I was concerned the fight was going to be an all day affair. I would get the fish up to the same point on my reel when he would go right back down again, each time losing the five minutes of time getting him to that point. Jason had a job to get to but patiently stayed with me until the fish finally showed himself fifteen minutes later. It turned out to be my first black seabass. What a magnificent fish. The hook was so far down its' throat I couldn't even see it, so I was forced to cut the leader near his mouth. We were able to turn him right side up and send him down within five minutes so hopefully he will be o.k. Outside of a soupfin shark caught last year this is my biggest fish to date. Jason estimated it to be in the 80-100 pound range. I can see why Matt last week was somewhat annoyed for hooking into one of those monsters. It takes you away from the playground for quite a little while. I still enjoyed the fight and the thrill of bringing to yakside a fish almost as big as me. BTW Yanni, be proud and believe in your shirt, “Old Guys Rule”.