I had intended to meet up with Austin and Steamroll for the 5am launch. But I had my company x-mas party at Ruth Chris last night with an open bar. Nuff said there. So anyways as I was launching at 7:30am I gave Austin a call once I got past the reserve. Steamroll answered back and told me they were straight out and that I hadn't missed much. I decided to make some bait in 90 feet of water just outside the kelp and right off the hotel. I dropped down the sabiki rig and grabbed my jigstick just for the hell of it. On my 3rd drop I was winding a purple and black mackeral pattern megabait in as fast as I could when I got hamered about 4 feet below the surface. I saw a huge silver flash and the fish made the suface water roll when it turned and dove for the bottom. This is when I almost flipped out of my yak because I had the drag set to tight. So I backed off the drag got back into my seat and started to pull back on the fish when the jig popped off. I called Austin and Steamroll and told them to come over by me. We were all fishing together for about 15 minutes when all of the sudden Austin's bait rod rigged with squid and his Iron rod got hit at the same time. A double hook up. Austin went to work on the Iron fish and was nice enough to hand me his other fish to fight. I fought for almost 5 minutes and was starting to gain alot of line when it made a nice run for the bottom and the knot gave way. After cursing up a storm quietly under my breath. I got out my camera and snapped these pictures of Austin.
I had intended to meet up with Austin and Steamroll for the 5am launch. But I had my company x-mas party at Ruth Chris last night with an open bar. Nuff said there. So anyways as I was launching at 7:30am I gave Austin a call once I got past the reserve. Steamroll answered back and told me they were straight out and that I hadn't missed much. I decided to make some bait in 90 feet of water just outside the kelp and right off the hotel. I dropped down the sabiki rig and grabbed my jigstick just for the hell of it. On my 3rd drop I was winding a purple and black mackeral pattern megabait in as fast as I could when I got hamered about 4 feet below the surface. I saw a huge silver flash and the fish made the suface water roll when it turned and dove for the bottom. This is when I almost flipped out of my yak because I had the drag set to tight. So I backed off the drag got back into my seat and started to pull back on the fish when the jig popped off. I called Austin and Steamroll and told them to come over by me. We were all fishing together for about 15 minutes when all of the sudden Austin's bait rod rigged with squid and his Iron rod got hit at the same time. A double hook up. Austin went to work on the Iron fish and was nice enough to hand me his other fish to fight. I fought for almost 5 minutes and was starting to gain alot of line when it made a nice run for the bottom and the knot gave way. After cursing up a storm under quietly. I got out my camera and snapped these pictures of Austin.
The gaff shot
Happy camper
It weighed in at 30# on the beach.
Austin wasn't through after that one either. He hooked up again on the Iron in less than 5 minutes after getting that fish secured. But that fish popped off after a short battle.
I'll be heading out againg with Nate and Forrest in the Morning.