Quote:
Originally Posted by bellcon
Your not down that often when it comes to getting a slam Josh,
gotta take my shots when I can 
So, lets do the math... 30 lb halibut= 50 points... + 50 points for the slam bonus, OUCH 
and whats up with the crappy gaff?
I can just imagine what you would have said to a client if he did that
and last but not least, I guess I could have been more clear, but you still owe me Fi Dolla
lets do double or nothing for September  |
I love that sound---Cha Ching! Can you deliver that it in nickels, please.
The nuts and bolts for the month of September.
The Summer season ended with a bang! Here's a beautiful White Sea Bass that practically jumped in the kayak after a very short fight. I welcomed her with open arms and the neighbors aren't complaining.
She was just shy of 45 lbs, coming in at 44 lbs 9 oz's. Healthy as can be. Then, bang, the gaff saved the lives of many, many live squid. I could almost hear the squid cheering as I slid the game-clip through her gills. As if to say in between a series of squirts and ink shots, thank you!
She, was, just shy of 51 inches.
The Yellowtail were stuck on stupid for most of the month. At one point there, they were eating just about anything: Smelt, Sardines, Anchovy, Crab, Squid, Porn-Star 12"+ Pacific Greenback Mackerel and fast moving pieces of aluminum at will. The kayakers put a hurt on the Yellowtail crop during the month of September and I'm just as guilty as the next guy. Maybe even more so. This particular fish took top honors in kicking my a$$ harder than any other fish this month. By a mile.
She inhaled a squid-fade patterned Candybar after two turns of the handle---BOOM! After seeing many explosions in my life, this one took the cake. She almost pulled that 10' Super Seeker out of my hands and I barely stayed in the boat!
Coming in just shy of forty-one inches, weighing 28 lbs and change. She fought like a forty pound Yellowtail, snapping through kelp-stringer after kelp-stringer. A brutal, brutal fight to the end.
Then there was this one day that I got to watch a pretty impressive display of Yellowtail. They were pushing a massive school of bait, exploding on the surface, with every bird in Southern California in tow. This school was moving at or near the 20 mph mark, right at me! Of course, this was a day that I made a conscious decision not to bring my jig-sticks---in an effort to focus on catching a big, wet, brown-sock. If you ever want to see foaming Yellowtail on the surface, go ahead, torture yourself: bring minimal gear, better yet just a couple of bottom rigs and a sabiki rod. Sit back and enjoy the show!
Funny enough, this has happened on numerous Halibut excursions for me this Summer. When will I ever learn? I guess it just comes down to how much you want to catch Halibut. If it takes playing mind games on yourself and leaving the jig-sticks at home---when you know there's a good chance you'll run into frothing schools of Yellowtail---so be it. It's a game of inches---micro managing your time according to the tide windows and pounding lots of sand, of course.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: when you're holding the rod and you get that one solid thump, though, it's a glorious moment in fishing. When you get pretty good at recognizing the strike of a Halibut, adrenaline pumps as you decide on how long to let him eat. Those seconds feel like minutes before you set the hook. And after last months nightmare (when I lost a monster that was easily over 30 lbs), I was cringing for every head-shake this fish threw. Thirty pounds, or 13 lbs 7oz's---I was just as stoked at the sight of this fish at color. I didn't even keep fishing this spot after I caught her. I knew she was big enough to complete my slam and I was officially done fishing Halibut for the month. She came to gaff and even posed for a few photos without incident, which just made this day all the more sweet.
The slam bonus of fifty points, which brings this 33 point fish to 83 points---eased the pain of having to watch hundreds of Yellowtail laugh in my face that day. At least that's what I keep telling myself. The next school of Yellowtail I come across won't be so lucky.