[THE DARKHORSE]

---

IT MUST BE THE SHOES..... You couldn't ask for better conditions, warm, no wind, not even a ripple on the water except for some lazy bait that didn't have a care in the world. I had launched late again, but watched a beautiful sunrise while having breakfast. The sunrise looked like one of those brochures for a hawaiian vacation, with bright colors that try to warm you from within. At that moment I realized everything that happened later in the day would be the icing on my cake. I set my course to a canyon drop off where I've been loading up on perfect bait, acres of Greenback Mackerel. In the midst of plugging the tank with donations for my quarry, the unofficial mayor of kayak fishing in La Jolla paddled up to say hello (Gary Sullivan). Gary made a comment about there being no one else on the water and we had it all to ourselves, typical cold water crowd. I made the analogy about "if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to see it". Gary was headed to the point and I continued to load up before my long haul to the distant grounds. Hours passed without one good sign and while looking with the bino's I see someone on a skiff is hooked up. I usually wouldn't even make a move in that direction, but I happened to know the guy with the heavy bend in the rod. As I pedal closer to have a chat I find out it's another big Thresher, estimated at 200 lbs+, no thanks. I keep moving to "see" what I can find, and the current picks up the pace as the hours pass. Finally, I see a boil and then a fin of a fish that looked to be coming straight for me before he sinks out. I grab my jig-stick and almost make a cast before I realize the fish is too close, then I see a Mako shoot right by me. I quickly turn around to rip my fly-line in, but it's too late, the Mako went right for it and I quickly donated another hook. Five minutes go by before I donate another hook to what I believe to be the same Mako. I decided to make an afternoon move to the spot where the Thresher was hooked earlier, to prove or dis-prove my new theory (Do Yellowtail and Threshers hunt the same zones?). When I arrive everything looks perfect, clean clear water, ripping current, loaded meter, but tons of grass on the surface. So much grass that I decided to keep looking and not troll a bait. Not ten minutes go by and one dumb Yellowtail screws it up for the whole school, making a perfect foot print 100' ahead of me. I quickly realize the school is coming straight for me, and pedaled as fast as I could in another direction to keep from spooking them. I'm stoked to see them, but all the crap on the surface would of kept my surface-iron from swimming like she can. I moved in position parallel to the direction the school was swimming, and put on a green rocket to fulfill his destiny. Like a magnet to metal the Greenback flew straight for the school, and I'm instantly slammed.

I've said it many times, I'll take a nasty weather day with fish on the chew over a blue-bird day that's dead.....sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too.
__________________