Seal Beach 3/27 - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

Schmalzy88 · 03-27-2014, 09:02 PM

Picked up my brother and fishing mentor from the airport yesterday from a miserable 3 years in Colorado. Naturally, the next day, a fishing trip was in order and he is without a license. So the next best thing before we get him a kayak is to bust a trip to our stomping ground, the seal beach pier.
We got there at 530pm and dropped in the lines right away. Rigged up with some mackerel that I stocked up on last week. Started it out with a gigantic smelt, the biggest I've ever seen at 14 inches. Followed up by a bunch of thornies. The bite died around 8pm and just as we were about to call it a night...BAAAAM!! His rod doubled over and the fight was on.
A 45 minute fight followed. The beast pulled 3 major runs, nearly spooling his Abu Garcia bait cast spooled with 10lb. Mono. He fought it in, somehow keeping it from running under the pier. Just as it got within reachable distance, I swung the pier gaff out and hooked the monster bat ray in the wing in the first shot.
It took four of us to pull it up, thank God there were a couple other guys around to help. It maxed out my tape measure so I had to measure in 2 parts. Final wingspan of 56 inches.
By far the biggest fish either of us has ever seen there in our 30+ years of combined fishing there. Keep in mind when you look at the picture of him with the ray that he's no little dude himself. 6'7" of pasty Sasquatch.
Welcome back you salty mofo! Bask in your bloody glory justin.
Now we just need to get this guy a license and a yak and I've got my fishing buddy back!!

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03-27-2014, 09:02 PM	#1
Schmalzy88 Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Bellflower, Ca. Posts: 122	Seal Beach 3/27 Picked up my brother and fishing mentor from the airport yesterday from a miserable 3 years in Colorado. Naturally, the next day, a fishing trip was in order and he is without a license. So the next best thing before we get him a kayak is to bust a trip to our stomping ground, the seal beach pier. We got there at 530pm and dropped in the lines right away. Rigged up with some mackerel that I stocked up on last week. Started it out with a gigantic smelt, the biggest I've ever seen at 14 inches. Followed up by a bunch of thornies. The bite died around 8pm and just as we were about to call it a night...BAAAAM!! His rod doubled over and the fight was on. A 45 minute fight followed. The beast pulled 3 major runs, nearly spooling his Abu Garcia bait cast spooled with 10lb. Mono. He fought it in, somehow keeping it from running under the pier. Just as it got within reachable distance, I swung the pier gaff out and hooked the monster bat ray in the wing in the first shot. It took four of us to pull it up, thank God there were a couple other guys around to help. It maxed out my tape measure so I had to measure in 2 parts. Final wingspan of 56 inches. By far the biggest fish either of us has ever seen there in our 30+ years of combined fishing there. Keep in mind when you look at the picture of him with the ray that he's no little dude himself. 6'7" of pasty Sasquatch. Welcome back you salty mofo! Bask in your bloody glory justin. Now we just need to get this guy a license and a yak and I've got my fishing buddy back!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk