Early Bird Catches The Worm

[jorluivil]

Not in this case.

Arrived at the launch just a few minutes after 5am and started unloading, was quickly greeted by Brett and shortly thereafter Matt shows up and starting asking us to offload his kayak and get his sh*t setup, so we did. Got the ff and threw it in the water, launched the kayak without Matt on it and threw his lines in the water, forgot the attach the rods to the leashes so they're at the bottom of the launch.........j.k. we told him to take a hike and he did.


Decided to launch solo, it was still dark when I did so I peddled out of the way of the boat traffic and alongside side the docks until I reached the bait barge, by this time it was grey light so I didn't have to worry about the boats that were doing 30knots to get to the hot sand bass bite. Got some nice sardines and off I went.




I dropped a nice sardine to the bottom and started fishing. A few minutes go by and I see Greg followed by Tim ad Eric with some others trailing back behind them. I kept dragging in about 60' of water until I got to the C marker and meet up with the fleet. Being the bad *ss that he is, Matt was hooked on something in almost no time. He handled it like a pro and bought that 9" Croaker up in no time with ease.....WAY TO GO MAT!!!!



I decide to leave the fleet and head out to a spot that has been good for Roby and I. I dragged bait in 20'-30' along the rocks, near the kelp and right by the buoy for nada, I guess the Hali's weren't hungry. Roby shows up just as I'm getting ready to leave so I decide to stick around a little longer, was hoping the two of us could temp them hali's to come out and play. I dragged the area for a good 2 hours for nothing but two sandbass and a calico. We finally decide to head back over to where the fleet was and to fish that area for the last hour or so, I ended up picking up three shorts in that area.


Roby was being followed by the Pelicans, they must have received the memo that I sent out regarding his delicious sardines sandwiches. It was pretty funny watching Roby trying to get bait in/out of the water without the pelicans chasing his bait.

High noon comes and the 'game over' whistle blows, so does the afternoon wind. Roby and I decide to stay back and continue fishing on the paddle in as the rest of the fleet heads home. I meet up with Matt and take his bait, Roby and I fish the area for a few more minutes and off we go. As we're heading in I see James, chat for a few seconds and off we went.

Roby asks if I was interested in fishing a certain area and I agreed. As we reach the new 'secret spot' I notice that the depth is quickly changing, 60', 55', 50' 40' and before it gets any shallower I stop, pin a sardine and down it goes. BUMP, BUMP-BUMP, FREE SPOOL, BUMP, LOCK THE SPOOL, SLOWLY REEL, BUMP-BUMP BAMMMMMM! HOOK UP!! I get it to the surface and its a 24" hali.

I decide to follow my same tracks, did it three times for nada. There was so much grass in this area that it kept stringing itself on my line, it would eventually sink to the bottom and wrap itself on my sinker and bait. The wind was blowing pretty good at this point so trying to avoid the grass and what other obstacles were there was quite a challenge.

I decide to pick up my line and move over about 50yards. As I'm moving I'm reading the the top and bottom, looking for an area with no grass. As I scan the surface for grass I'm watching the ff, I see structure, I see kelp and finally sand. Drop another fresh bait, all the while I'm fighting the wind and trying to avoid what obstacles I have. BUMP, BUMP-BUMP, FREE SPOOL, BUMP, LOCK THE SPOOL, SLOWLY REEL, BUMP-BUMP BAMMMMMM! MASSIVE hOOK UP!! I'm now fighting the fish, trying to control the yak with the rudder, peddling, trying to stay away from my obstacles and trying to not loose the fish.

This wasn't a fighter but it was a nice pull, I knew it would be bigger than the last one and possibly the game winner. When I get it to the surface I have no doubts that it was a keeper and could have won me the jackpot. I gaff it right at the gut and it now plays dead possum. Now comes the fun part: trying to control the yak with the rudder while peddling, trying to stay away from my obstacles and trying to not loose the fish that's already on the gaff while trying to grab my stringer which already has another hali on.

I peddle away from my obstacles and grab the stringer, open it, get it thru the hali's gills, grab the end of the stringer and no sooner does the hali go from dead possum to get me the f*ck out of this stringer!!! I loose the stringer, fish is still kicking and splashing water which in turn gets the other hali going and all the while I'm still trying to control the yak with the rudder while peddling, trying to stay away from my obstacles and trying to not loose the fish that's now on a stringer with his little sister right at his side.

FINALLY!!! All is under control, both fish are safely clipped and I now have two hali's on board, at this point we decide to call it a day and head back in. We battle fierce winds and boat traffic and finally reach the boat launch. I perform the usual feeding of the birds event with what bait I had left.


31inches and 12.00 lbs.



Roby, thanks for hanging out with me even though you felt like crap, as usual had a great time fishing with you and the boys. To bad my fish came after the games were over.

P.S.
As usual I did my routine trash pick up.