my epic day (A tale of two monsters) 5-17-08 SM bay

[radastaff]

little rattler
notice the hybrid xmas tree swim bait
managed many small rock fish and bass
but no picts of em







this guy was pushing 50#
also on the hybrid xmas tree swimmy



he's got bulldog written all over his face



with a lil push
he swam back down



not before giving me a nick though



going bendo for the last hour
on what turned out to be my first
and biggest fish ever



pretty sure it was this guy



who was overhead in the chopper
living the poach life

.........

quick synopsis

went yakkin today somewhere in santa monica bay

landed a big black sea bass (45-50#?)

fought one big ass threasher shark (looked as long as my yak with tail)
broke my rod after over an hour fight
got as close as 3'(within gaffen range)

some other critters as well were managed

absolutley gorgous day

hot
no wind

lost a full tackle box too
arms are hurting
knees are sunburnt
and my reels were screaming

wouldnt trade no amount of money
for todays fun had

..........

got a slow start
was up late re-installin my exchanged fish finder
the night before

once at the spot
decided to give the perch a quicky from the surf
it was so nice i couldnt resist
no love but gave it about 20 min

rigged up and launched into the lake
calm and flat was the rule of thumb for the day
couldnt have asked for a nicer day

plan was to give everything a try
brought squid, shrimp, and 3 or 4 tackle boxes
dropped a 4" swimmy, a 3'' swimmy, dropper loop with shrimp a bit later
and a 1 oz red lead head with a whole squid

the 3" and 4" were getting nailed once i found struture
mostly small bass and olive rockys
drifted for hali and or wsb early for not

about an hour into it my whole squid gets slammed
calcutta screams while i fumble to get the rod from the holder
manage it finally but in so doing
knock one of my full tackle boxes to davey jones locker

while distracted i had let the reel turn into a very nasty rats nest
and the lead head pulled
loosing the fish and causing me much untangling grief

bout another hour after these clown like antics
the bulldog started pulling
really gave my new fluegar a nice workout
pretty much figured it was a bsb after a few min into the fight

took about 20-30 min or so to land the bsb
looke to be bout 50# or so
but never held it any farther outta the water then the pict shows

once unhooked he needed a lil push
and a resusatation tali grab
but then swam down fast and strong
depth and swim bladders wernt a prob

sumthin was chompin my squid big time
decided to put on a 6" basstrix swimmy
and it got shredded (see pict)

since all my big swimmys were in the tackle box with davey
went ahead and put on another whole squid
and started to fish the shrimp
fist up was a small rocky on the shrimp

after that a avg size queen fish
which i promptly dropped back down on the same setup
why not?

bout this time
the rig with the whole squid
started screaming and complaining
grabbed the rod and it was game on this time

during the begining of the fight
i cleared my werk space
reeling in my other rods

while winding up the queenfish on the dropper loop
it turns out he got replaced with a mack
the exact same size as the queen
this has happened a few times in the past and always amazes me

about 10 min or so into the fight with the thresher
with some serious drag screaming
the thing got fully airborn

seeing this big of a fish in the air
was one of the most awsome sights ive every seen
and brought home the enormity of my situation
my god what iam u gonna do with this big of a fish from my yak?

heh heh

never got air after that fist jump
just screaming drag runs
and some turn and rush the yak tactics on part of the shark

pretty much after the first 20 to 30 min into the fight
it turned into a tow radastaff around game
doughnuts and figure eights
foward and backward but staying in the general area for the most
part

took me a few to get the hang of directing my yak
to turn with the direction the fish wanted to go
but once i got it down it was ride on

after a bit
i noticed that we were getting closer and closer to the shore
kinda suprised me the shark was heading into the shallows
and there came a point when i had to make a decision

went ahead and free spooled the reel
after bobin over a couple breakers
and paddled out a few strokes to get outta the danger zone

renegaged and i was on again
frickin incrediable
seemed the shark was pullin steady but movnig a bit slower
so i started horsing it a bit to try and get it to surface

was just hoping at this point
to get a nice pict and just cut the line off close as i could
the fish was big

even if i had wanted to
i dont think i woulda been able to land it by myself
keep in mind my line was only 15# test
and my gaff a 2 foot jobby

i guess it might have been posable
but while horsing it for fear it would take me into the breakers again
it doubled back on me and before i could react snap

my gl2 rod snapped about midway
now what do i do?
keep fighting it with the broken rod of course
but it was only a short while after this that the game was over

with a slow but steady swim
the fish was just not getting tired
and my line was

a few times i got the fish within 3 or so feet of the yak
and got a good perspective of just how big it was
i would guess with tail 13 to 14'
and 300# or so feeling like pulling on a small car

i was at its mercy

there be monsters here

i was in epic land

paul