LJ Yellow 8-17-15

[FISH11]

After reading all the post of an epic weekend, I was all pumped up when I went out yesterday, Monday to LJ. Started out all overcast and no wind just after first light, surf was small. Paddle out to just outside the kelp and found bait balls and made bait fairly easy. That was a big difference from the last 3 weeks. Paddled out trolling a 10" greenie and thought it strange to not see any seals out in the calm water. Kept trolling the mac due west and the north, no bird action anywhere. Finally heading back south I get hit at 8:20 am. After a 8 minute fight with him I see color. He pulled super hard and was heading straight down every change he got but we were further out than any kelp on the bottom so the fight was shorter. A few trips ago I had already decided that unless it was a PB, I would not keep it. When I got him along side I could not pull up on the rod high enough to grab him by the gill plate, so finally I grabbed the leader and slid him up and over my lap. Rolled him over and took out the hook with my hand. I tried to hold him up high enough to get some good video from my rear mounted Go Pro, but the sucker was heavy and hard to hold up high enough to get him up next to me. I guess he was about 24lbs. You know Go Pro's if it's 1 or 2 feet further the fish looks 3/4 the size. After the video capture I released him and he was out of the water no more than a minute so did not need any assistance and was quickly gone. Trolled around all over and the wind picked up strong all I could hook up with until I paddled in at 1PM was the same 9 foot Hammer Head that kept cruising the area. Hook him up 3 times, the first time he was on and fighting deep for 3 minutes before he cut the 40lb fluoro leader, the next 2 time he was at the surface and thrashed quickly and cut it quick. That sucker now has a bunch of circle hook bling. After the third time I figured he had scared any fish from the area and was time to head in. Here are a couple of stills from the video on the release of the Yellow.