LJ- 9/13: First beach launch/landing

[Salty]

Went down to La Jolla with a buddy of mine and our first beach launch/landing was uneventful. No yardsale, which is about as good as you can ask for! Waves were minimal and we may have over-prepared a bit. But with all the horror stories I've heard, I figured an excess of caution couldn't hurt!

Launched at 5:30am and came back in at about 1:00pm. Making bait was pretty easy. Lots of Spanish, 1 greenback, and a handful of small squid that liked my sabiki a bit too much. Lots of bonito around. Got 3 on a single pull that made a mess out of the sabiki. I think the technical term is "clusterf*ck?" After zigzagging along the ridge for a few hours and picking up a couple hungry calico I hooked up to a nice yellow on 4oz Carolina rig. Fought it for about 10 minutes, had got it to color, but the 30lb failed about 15 feet under me and I lost it. thinking it might have been damaged by bonito earlier and I really should have clipped and retied it. Super bummed, but at the same time super stoked to have even had the chance to fight one on the kayak for a while! My buddy had a few big bites as well, but the hook didn't stick on either.

It was a bit of a nightmare on the landing. Didn't realize Disneyland moved to the beach! lol again, it was a smooth, quick landing for us, but not for a lot of others out there that we watched. It's easy to see how things can go sideways(sometimes literally) in the blink of an eye. Wanted to thank everyone here that has posted safety tips for beach launching/landing, etc. Just things that I might overlook otherwise, like not leaving any hooks exposed, tying EVERYTHING down, stowing reels and electronics in a drybag, securing the gaff SAFELY... Super grateful for you all to allow me to learn from your experiences. Saved me a lot of potential heartache