LJ Thurs, Aaron's 1st WSB in 30+ years-Now with photo
 

We hit LJ before daybreak. Met with Arne for awhile before he boogied north. We made it to the kelp while still semi-dark. The southwest boundry buoy was missing, which threw us off a little. Made all the spanish we needed, and proceeded to the bull kelp area.

Trolled baits high and low, with calicos the result, until Julie finally hooks the right kind (YT). It gives her a nice tow before wrapping in some serious bull. About that time Arne shows up, but all the good advice, and hard effort on her part, was to no avail. Score one for the kelp.

Trolled some more, but no love. Finally, with no action for some time, the calicos were wide-open everywhere. We tied up to a strand and had fun on the plastics for awhile.

The NW wind was kicking up, so we headed to our favorite lingcod spot. The drift was so strong, all the kelp at that locale was laid flat out of reach. We found some kelp to tie to nearby, and decided to soak our last couple of baits. A few minutes later (about 1:00PM), Aaron's clicker goes off on the fly-lined spanish. He lets the fish eat it, sets the hook, and one tremondous run later is wrapped around all the kelp in LJ. Not easily defeated, he works the fish hard. Thank God for Spectra. Julie assisted, clearing kelp, spare rods, etc. Gradually, strands cut away. 20 minutes later, the last of the kelp gives way, and up comes the salad with a silver prize inside. His 1st legal WSB in over 30 years (before they had size limits)! It's now time to paddle our happy asses home.

On the beach we found out it's time to return the recently bought digital scale from Rapala. Supposed to measure up to 50lbs. Well, this fish weighed 30lbs on it. NO WAY! Knew it was more, so we drove to Malibu kayaks to have it weighed where it measured 37lbs 6 oz. With an accurate scale, when just caught, we figured it at closer to 40lb. This also exlpains why Julie's and Aaron's previous toad yellows looked bigger than weighed (on our scale). Probably by about 5lbs each. Here's the beach shot:
http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/f.../6/Aug1866.JPG
Tomorrow, get stones, buy new grill, and feast on our delight. Oh yeah!!!

Nice fish you two. Seems like those things show up at the weirdest times. Glad you pulled it out of the kelp, those are the best finishes.

congrats on the fish!!!
all the hard hours put in makes it all worth it!!!

see you AM Brad?

Of course. Got a little one tonight, but need the bigger ones.

Excellent! :D

Ken

Outstanding A&J! Can't wait to see the pics ... and good to see you both out there yesterday.
Arne

Right on, congrats A&J!!! 8)

I thought I saw you guys otw yesterday. It was an interesting day, looked very fishy in a couple of spots along the kelp line. I was there on my skiff. We've seen some right kind boils, we've seen lots of wrong king wide area boils (pencil barries). I’ve seen a big fish chasing something 2” below the surface that I couldn’t ID. With all the WSB chatter, I’m guessing now what it was.

High point of our day was about 10:30 AM. My buddy caught 5# grade yeller. I got picked up right after he hooked his (so did Arne, if I saw that right), but my fish spit the hook soon after.

Good job guys!! Dam, so much for my big hammer pack at the malibu shop. That will be a hard fish to beat. :D

Hey Adi - good to see you out there. I was in the zone yesterday... you saw me pulling on kelp and earlier I'd lost a couple irons doing the same thing. Didn't get to pull on any fish but saw plenty of others get to.
Arne

WSB
 

Alright Aaron. nice job. Swwet you finally got yours

gahe

Thanks
 

Thanks, everyone for your kind words, which are always nice to hear.
And Mike, there's still time left for this month...

Beautiful fish, great story. Congrats!!! :) I can't wait to get my first legal.
I had a Rapala scale about a year ago that lasted me two outings before it just stopped working. They used one at the first Big Hammer tournament last month and weighed an easy pound and a half Calico that read about 6oz. You'll never see one of those at a Big Hammer event again, they now use an X-Tools scale, much more reliable as I was told.
The Boga Grips, while not digital, are super accurate. I just bought a 15lb scale Boga and a 30lb scale Boga. Rhino told me a while back that you can send those Boga's in to IGFA and get your individual Boga certified.
I saw someone with a certified Boga and it had a little tag placed on it, pretty cool for anyone trying to earn a place in the record books!
Again, congrat's on the big WSB, enjoy!!! TL, Lou Dog 8)

Again, thanks
 

Thanks, Lou Dog.
We definitely will be upgrading to a better scale, hopefully, before our next trip, 'cause ya never know we may get lucky again :wink: .