La Jolla 3-13-17

[FISH11]

I have been spending time on the water, but had not had such a long dry spell. I know it's been tough at times even for bait, let alone a trophy fish. Lately the action has been picking up and I know, not everyone has been posting, and you all have your reasons. Today was tough out there because the heavy fog made it really hard to see at times more than 100'. Had to constantly look at the GPS to know what direction you were going or to know were you were. Found the bait area and the areas I had been fishing the last few times. Drifted and trolled some large greenbacks. No luck even when drifting over areas with unreal marks. Saw several patterns that looked like wolf packs or even around bait with Yellow Tail marks around the perimeter, but no love. Chased some birds and even bait being crashed on the surface by large fish. The amount of water displaced and speed told me they were Yellows. Each time I though I got there in time and started trowing a Shimano flat fall, each time it seem to stop just as I got there. Finally throwing the flat fall on some bait marks and I hit pay dirt. Had already lost 4 large macs to the fur bags and I see one coming towards me when I'm fighting the fish. I put the reel in free spool and thumb on the spool, so the Yellow can run if it gets close. After not having any runs I start re-gaining line and trying to bring it in as fast as I could I had to even use low gear just to gain line because he was pulling hard. Finally got it to the yak and gaffed it right behind the gill plate. I felt sooooo.. sweeeeet to finally get one on board after so many months. Back at the truck it weighed 31.2 LBS. This baby is going to be donated to Heroes On The Water for the fish taco lunches for the Vets during the HOW events. Hope there are more guys out there, that can spare some to help out HOW.