What a Blast!

[Bluewater Jon]

A fellow named John was on a black seabass getting towed all around today. me not having any luck, I figured, I have my camera with me, I'll paddle over to him and get some action pics. I also had my digital SLR underwater housing and fins just in case something happened that I needed to capture on film from the water.

John says sure, so I chained my yak to his, jumped in, and now the fish ( we assumed it was a BSB) was towing his yak and him, my yak, and my fat ass that is dragging in the water. The fish was about 40 feet below the yak, but wouldn't budge. Cutting it loose is an option, one might say, but how cool is it to leave a fish with 40 feet of mono hanging from it's mouth?

John stuck in there and finally it popped up- belly up of course. Not bad for using a squidder reel! A pretty big fish, maybe 100 pounds or more, I dunno. I got only a few action pics of the fish in the water below the yak because he popped up so soon, and then as soon as he was belly up, it was obvious he needed help. Of course sometimes they can be revived, and sometimes, they are spent. I have seen them spent, floating on their side, after being played out, when all the nearby yakkers try valiantly to revive the fish to no avail, via dragging the fish behind the yaks, etc. Of course other time sthey are successfully revived, ya never know.

Anyway, as I am in the water with fins obviously I am in the best position to revive it so I gave the cam to John and went into rescue mode. I tried to keep the fish's dorsal fin vertical; everytime I let go it went belly up. Not good.

I kept this up, John is taking some pics of me. I flash back to another time when I landed a big rooster in Baja and was unable to revive it after swimming behind it... hopefully this won't be a repeat. Just when I am thinking he's toast, I feel a shiver go through him, and his dorsal fin goes erect.....

I keep him upright, and then after awhile more, he springs back to life, and is ready to GO and he takes off with a vigorous tail thwack off into the briny depths. I was stoked! We were all stoked!

here's a pic of the action:

[bajadog]

Awesome post.

Glad you kept at it.

[steveooo]

I love POV action shots. Thats rad.

[TheSherThang]

Sweet shot. Could you post some of the other action shots. This really is my first good look at a big BSB lol. Congrats on the successful revival!

[Handymansd]

Now that's C&R Bluewater Jon style! Nicely done!

[peguinpower]

Great shot and story. /bing

[mc08066]

John,
Great read and thanks for releasing the wonderful fish. That thing is huge.
Jimmy

[ratdog]

Hey John, great post and picture. Thanks for the help with the BSB.

I hooked that bugger in 104ft of water and it took me from in front of the launch do south into the kelp in front of the condo (60ft). I knew it was a big fish but I didn't think it was a BSB until after about a half hour of fighting it. Once it got free of the kelp it took me straight north. close to the canyon edge where after about 1:15 minutes it finally came up. What an incedible sight! I saw Icemans 50lb WSB last Feb and I think this BSB was more than 2x larger than that easy. The best part was watching John swim with the fish until it got back enough energy to majestically swim away. I was spent, today my arms shoulders and back are sore as hell. I caught it on fresh squid that Josh generously offered me, I've never met Josh before, and this guy pedals up to me from out of nowwhere and asks me if I want some fresh squid? This is a testament about some of the quality people you meet on the water, thanks again Josh.

30lb PLine mono, 26yr old Penn Jigmaster

[dmr]

Great story Jo(h)ns. I must have had blinders on and paddled right by you. I hadn't been out in ages. There was a friendly vibe on the water, even with 50+ yaks. I guess all the catching helps with that a bit.

[deeberdave]

Now thats what I call a feesh!!! Great post, I hope someone is there to
help out when/if I ever catch something that big.

[Sherm]

Awesome report and pics. Way to go on the revival effort.

[THE DARKHORSE]

It wasn't looking too good when I saw you flying towards the kelp from deeper water . Thirty minutes later, when I saw you passing me headed out towards the canyon again, I just assumed you were on another fish from the irresistable live squid. It's hard to beat, catching fish like that on old school reels, just awesome!

[GHOSTHUNTR]

Great job on the release guys. I had my son out to the kelp a couple of weeks ago and we saw a dead BSB, about 75#s. It sucks when one of them dies like that, but I know everyone does their best to keep them alive. Jumping in to help the fish out sure is a cool thing to do.

[lamb]

Great write up John, nice fish the other John!!!

I had the same luck that day. Giant bass hit my big mac on the bottom and gave me a hell of a ride. 10 minutes into the fight, with all the raw towing power and lack of tail thumps, I was pretty sure it was black. But you know how it is, you're always hoping it's some huge yellow with highly personal fighting style... I just could not get that thing up, he kept towing me around staying in between 40 and 70 ft under me. With my drag tightened all the way, I was finally able to bring him up on the surface. I have never caught or seen a bigger one...



Then it took me a good 10 minutes to revive him. It was too heavy and hard to handle from my yak. I managed to straighten him up twice; he kicked for the bottom just to pop back up on the surface. I started thinking about getting in the water too... The third time I kept him up straight, and for about a minute I was pushing him back and forth to get the water flowing through his gills. That seemed to work - he finally kicked strongly down for the bottom. I stayed in the area for a while to make sure - I didn't see him again.

Thanks Dave for paddling up to offer help. We definitely need to give each other a hand to make sure these beautiful fish get to swim back down.