Big Mama

[swinginFish]

Fished from 2:00 AM to 1:00 PM last Thursday. Lost 5 lures and burned through all my live and dead bait. Watched everyone and his/her mother catch WSB and a few YT in the early hours. Come 10:00 AM, my main fishing partner, Dennis, had already headed in with two trophies and I, feeling “unloved”, took to drifting and chatting with notorious late-riser and long-time friend, Rod.

While the word has been about an “early morning” bite, WSB and YT don’t wear watches, and as morning moved to mid-day, I hooked up with a huge YT that, after an eternity of smokin' runs, elected to head to the kelp and create macramé I couldn't untangle. As I head back to lament the loss to Rod, I watch him hook up and then land a nice WSB. While happy w/ his catch, his reel was a mess, and noting my having sacrificed all my metal to Poseidon, offered me his “lucky” blue & white while he attended to the bird’s nest in his hands. I took the lure, tied it on, dropped it down, drifted slightly away and at straight up noon ... game on!

Some fish can’t tell time, and others confuse the open sea with safety. In this case, the pictured gal failed on both counts, neglecting to check the clock and heading for deep blue rather than stringers of green. She nearly spooled me twice, but I found one of the great benefits of a narrow peddle boat is its ability to chase after one’s hooked quarry and, rather than being limited to fighting from a forward tow, decrease a big fish’s ability to gain line. In short, while keeping the pressure on, I peddled fast after her and took advantage of whatever opportunity arose to gain line. While it took longer than most, this WSB too came to lose her gas and had no option but to accept her fate. Once on the clip, she was bled, but proved too big to put forward or aft, so I cruised in w/ her strung across the boat under my legs as I peddled.

She was one huge fish, coming to tip the home scale at 52.5 lbs, and tape out at the same number of inches. As expected, she was full of eggs and had a stomach full of squid. A fish truly worth waiting for, and surprising to me both in her size and the time of day she chose to bite.


Avery