The Few That Became The Many

[The Kid]

Man look at all the WSB reports lately! It’s crazy how many have been caught this year by us BWE members alone. So who really wants to read another one? Many people have searched for one for years and some have not accomplished catching the “rare” White Sea bass. Granted, the fish tastes pretty good and the fishing can be very laid back, but what makes this fish so highly desirable. Is it its table fare, it’s parallel to fresh water catfishing? What is it?

For most it’s a check of the bucket list, for me it puts a different taste in my mouth so to speak. All the long sunny days hunting my favorite game fish, the Yellowtail with the surface iron, can leave a permanent tan line on a man. I could never get tired of getting bit on the plug though! With the thought of sea bass fishing wafting in and out of brain what was to stop me. The biggest deterrent fishing these sluggish brutes is the cold late nights and early mornings, but epic bites come to the very lucky, the hard nosed and well informed.

Most have heard my rant about sea bass about how they are boring to catch and they barely put up a fight to save themselves. Well, I will now renounce what I have said in the past about these fish not being hard fighters. This year, for whatever reason, the sea bass are extremely pissed off. I have never had White Sea bass fight this hard ever in the past. Quite a few of these fish would have pulled yellows straight on their ass. I know I know The Kid talkin’ smack about yellows? Yes, I was terribly impressed by these fish.

Maybe it’s all the fish I released last year that have buffed up quite a bit to bring on the pain this year. Maybe it’s the huge amount of squid that has plagued or coastline for a year. Whatever it is I hope the genes get passed on to the next generation from these tanks. I will now use the terms tankers from now on instead of slugs to show a new found respect for these fish. Still a lazy eater, but they have become exceptional fighters.

Moving on. For those trying to get into the sea bass game drooling over fish porn you are seeing on BWE here are a few good rules you can either take or leave:
1. If you hear about a sea bass bite, you are already too late.
2. If you can keep be calm and keep secrets, you can consistently pull on fish.
3. Don’t overcook your sea bass and get some recipes from Yani.

Taking rule number one into account, here’s my report which is not recent. I’m gonna shorten up the story on this one a bit because all people are going to do is look at pictures. Caught a lot of fish, released a lot of fish, and kept some to eat. Like I said these fish pulled hard, really hard. I tried so hard to pull on every fish’s mouth this month, but was slightly unsuccessful. My only hope is that majority of the fish in La Jolla have become smarter as a result of my C&R. Worry not these fish kicked as hard as they could to get away from my hand. The belief that these fish die really easily is only true in a certain light in my opinion. If a person pulls on a WSB for several minutes granted the fish are going to be beat and if you release the fish belly up they cannot turn over. It’s similar to a turtle rolled on its shell. But if you pull on them as hard as I do when I’m hooked up, the fish have no problem at all. NOT ONE PROBLEM!!! Weakfish! LOL!

As a result of word spreading like wildfire, the few fishing sea bass became the many. Good luck to those chasing ghosts and old reports!

So here you go folks enjoy some porno. Only the donks got to be photographed. Thanks for reading.

T-REX


Donks


DONK


to

[scoop]

Those are some nice fish. The one in the last picture looks enormous!

[deepdvr]

That night was sooooooooooooooo irritating. We were just getting hammered by those silly 40 lb. fish. WTF????

They fought so hard I could have sworn some were possibly 60 lb. fish. But no......mostly just run of the mill 40 lbers. Stupid bluegill of the sea.

My favorite was when you C&R'd 2 fish while I was on the phone for less than 10 minutes with a certain LJ fishing celebrity who didn't believe that the fish were actually biting. HA! My arms were getting sore. It was a nice break.

What was the grand total of fish that made it back tell their friends to get the hell out of LJ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! ALOT.

Love the photo of the last donk and the barely noticeable 35 lb. YT on the deck.

[Whizz Bang]

Awesome post Kevin. Some killer photos, and sound advice.



I will ask the question many are wondering, when exactly are you going to get your guide license?

[TCS]

I'll count myself among the very lucky. And fortunate to have been out that night with some coaching from the masters! Those fish look better than I do in that picture though!

[Billy V]

That fish is so big it makes you look like a little kid.

The fish could swallow you whole.

[StinkyMatt]

Wow!

[Regor]

DAMN

What a night !

[kurtfish]

Those fish are huge and you are quite a stud. It looks like you should start your own guide service. My son said you must have gotten good karma from giving us your speaker cards at the MLPA meeting when you had to get to class that day in SD when you were looking so sharp for your friends on the Blue Ribbon Task Force.

Keep up the good work but remember to call your friends not fishing guides next time.

Congrats Kurtfish,

[roadx]

are you leading up to something? are you secretly pulling on wet socks too?

[467echo]

Epic! Something tells me the barn is gunna be packed this weekend

[toby]

Great report Kevin, and the pictures are incredible!!! That last Ghost is as big as some of the Heifers my grandfathers had on his farm. You never cease to amaze me by your enthusiasm and knowledge!

Way to go
Tim

[dos ballenas]

Originally Posted by The Kid

The belief that these fish die really easily is only true in a certain light in my opinion.

True. If treated correctly most fish do survive after being released.

Since you brought up it up I thought the general public would like to read some information written by researchers at PIER on the topic of WSB and CNR.

www.pier.org

article on the recent white seabass fishing seasons:

http://www.pcsportfishing.com/article/11

article on the best way to catch and release fish:

http://www.pcsportfishing.com/article/23

discussion on www.spearboard.com :

http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=119592

Nice fish Kevin How big was the fish in the last picture??? Looks like a serious TOAD!

[cjthomas]

those are some fatties!!!

[wiredantz]

I just dont' have any words for this...

[rogersmith]

amazing Kevin, that last picture is astounding. And what no one has commented on is in the lower left corner of of the pic...is that a monster YT in addition!

[sharonkayak]

You should change your avatar to the wsb slayer!!!

[Hamachijohn]

Originally Posted by Regor

DAMN

What a night !

+1

[lamb]

Beautiful fish!

[bellcon]

Awesome all the way around