DP 07-27

[PapaDave]

So... Yesterday at 7:00 am took a client out for a fishing adventure.... and she got sick. I took her back to the dock, got her to her vehicle and made sure she was okay.

However, there was a full tank of bait left, can't let the go to waste, right?

Decided to leave things up to whatever and just drift through an area, not hitting any spot in particular. As I got closer to the beach, my smallest rig got picked up. The rod bent over and the line was peeling off the reel like the drag was in free pool. As I picked the rod out of the holder the line went slack, I got cut off. It was a Leo, and a big one.

So I set up the rod for that type of fish, since I'm using 20 lb braid on the reel, I typical go with a 12 lb wire leader from Knot2Kinky, nice stuff, very light. The I settled in and went back to drifting, this usually means I kick back, rest my feet on the bait tank and don't do anything for a bit. Until...

That same little rod goes bendo and the line starts screaming out again. but before I could get a hold of it the line went slack, the hook didn't get set. New bait and assume the kick back position.

A little later and a freight train hits that same little rod, Line peels off and doesn't stop this time. It's on! I try to maneuver the kayak around but the fish is too fast and changes directions every few seconds, so I give up and settle in for the fight. After doing contortions fighting this fish from a single position on the kayak as it ran out, under and around, I finally get it to the kayak, it's a she, and she's big, about four and a half feet long. But, having had some experience with these fish, I tapped it on the back and sure enough, off it goes again. I do this two or three more times until the fish lets me touch it without going ballistic. Now the 'fun' part...

As I grab it by the tail to lift into the kayak she starts spiraling, as sharks do when captured, the trick here is to let her tail roll in your hand but keep your grip on her. She won the first round, and sped off a short distance. I got her back to the yak and grab her tail again, whipping her over the rails as fast and best I could, landing her in my lap with her head down by my feet, which she almost got a hold of but for a quick yank on her tail to change the trajectory of her open mouth. Not the she would do much, Leo's teeth are rather small, might have stolen my sock though. So there she is, a beast, on my tiny rod/reel. An accomplishment I've been trying to do for awhile, a large Leo on my mini fishing gear. Took a picture, got the hook out real easy (used a circle) picked her up looked her over and tossed her back in. Evidently there were some folks watching the comedy of errors I went through on the beach, 'cause when I tossed her back in, there was a cheer from that direction. Of course, it might have been a different reaction if she had been a he. I don't keep the shes', a few years ago I took a large female home and while prepping it found 11 babies in her, almost ready to be born, hit me hard.

So, it's time to work my way back to the docks so I put out the rig again and slowly start working my way back. After about 20 minutes, zing, the rod goes off again. And it's heavy, darn near pulled the rod out of my hand, the pole was triple bent over, if that possible, the line cut into my finger as it wasn't following the guides any longer. It ran...

And ran, and ran. The side of my reel with the drag on it was hot, and was starting to stick so I backed of the drag a bit. That helped and slowly I worked the fish back to the kayak. Got her, another female, up to the kayak, and had to blink, she was enormous, my guess would be five and a half. So, after tapping her a few time I figured she was ready to come aboard. I grabbed her tail and pulled, she wasn't coming over very quick. So I made a critical mistake and set my rod down to grab her with both hands, after all, two hands are better then one, right? Not necessarily, she managed to wrestle herself free, wrapped the line around the rod holder as she went back in and the line snapped. What can one do? A lesson learned.

Finally got back to the docks around 8 pm, loaded the kayak, washed her down and headed home, not a bad day.

It is interesting to note though, I had two setups out, the small one and a larger one, same setups, but the ladies preferred the smaller one for some reason.








Don't go there...