LJ Shores 6/12 - Fish Catching Report (a first!)

[DDS]

Launched 5:20am to heavy surf. Checked SurfLine ahead of time and it said 1-2 feet expected yesterday - way off - like someone posted for Sunday, the surf was actually 3-4 feet with some 5-6 foot rollers in tight succession.
Got lucky on launch and timed things well - took a couple to the chest but got through without a yard sale.

Caught some spanish on a sabaki and filled the bait tank with about 8 good sized...followed the bait tank thread closely on BWE recently as my bait tank has been giving me problems lately - got a longer intake for the PA14, fresh charge on battery, disassembled and cleared pump - things started off great and it worked well for 3 hours and then stopped pulling in water successfully - looks like time for a new battery. Thanks to all those that posted fixes and helped diagnose bait tank problems in the other thread.

Looked back in bait tank after 3 hours and saw 3 live spanish in 3 inches of water and 3 dead ones - Not happy with the bait tank but hooked up two fish - one on dropper loop and one on fly line about 10:20am on a Owner 2/0 light mutu hook with 15 foot 25lb Seaguer Pink Leader tied with Seaguar knot to 50 lb braid.

Fly line got hit hard about 10:30 in 80ft of water (temp was 67). Good fight, those YT pull like a freight train... not much experience with fighting a decent size fish on a kayak and learned a few lessons...lucky to land it as rats nested my line while trying to gaff and ended up just putting the rod down and old man and the sea style hand lining the last 10 feet straight onto the boat after hearing a few sea lion air pops close by (lost my only other hook up with a YT last year to a seal lion and didn't want to go through that again). Will not be using the light mutu anymore, hook was bent pretty significantly upon inspection after landing the fish - need a regular or super - went with a smaller hook after having no luck catching fish with larger ones - YT measured in at 38".

Fished another 45 min - hit a kelp paddy or two holding some small YT (6"-12") but no further good luck. Landed around 11:30 to heavy surf - thought I timed it correctly until a surf kayaker paddling out while I was paddling in yelled "there is a huge wave coming up on you" - turned to see a 5-6' wave and made a valiant effort but ended up spilling - luckily all lashed and leashed and didn't lose anything.

So no longer skunked, which feels good. Fish tasted great, but if I'm going to keep catching fish I better bone up on my filet skills...

Thanks to all those who have given advice on this forum and those who were willing to answer questions on the beach over the last couple of years...