success!!!

[William Novotny]

Today I dicided to take the yak out for its second voyage and try and hook into a hali. I only had about 2 hours to make something happen before my wife needed to get to work and I had my daughter to watch. I launched off m street at the end of balboa penninsula at 6 am just as the sky started to lighten up and headed towards the bait barge. The current was moving so fast with the incoming tide it took me twice as long to get to the barge. Pulled in a medium sized sculpin nudging around a 3" white grub waiting for the barge attendent to be ready for me. Set him back it the water, loaded up on a scoop of dinos, rigged up my rods and started drifting along the jetty back into the harbor. At about 7 I got my first hit. My light baitcasting setup with 8lb mono gave a quick sharp tug. I pulled the rod out of the holder and nudged it a little. There was weight at the other end but I wanted to give him room to swallow it so I sat a few more seconds before giving it a sharp jerk upwards. F***! I forgot to tighten down my drag and I had it way loose. I didn't make the set and he spit the hook. I quickly rebaited my line and tossed it back to where I got the hit. Before it even hit the bottom...WHAM! My little Fenwick bent double and it was on! I gave a little tug making sure my drag was situated this time an got the hook set in. This was a nice fish! He ran for the yak cutting under and almost pulling me over, but I got my rod tip around the nose and spent a good 5 minutes working him and wearing him out. Every time he'd get close to surface he'd do about 3 spins and take another dive. I had my drag at about 6 lbs and I'm doing my best to be patient and let him get good and tired since I have no net or gaff. Finally I get him to surface and lay still long enough to slide my hand inside of a gill pull him into the yak. The first thing he does is go right for the soft part of the inside of my upper thigh and take a nice bite! Right through my board shorts. Whatever I'm so excited to catch my first legal hali....and from a yak, that the pain doesn't even faze me. I get him on the stringer and toss him back over and make my paddle back to the launch spot to call it a morning. 28 1/2 inches on 8lb. I'm quite proud at this point and can't wait to get home to fillet this puppy up!