La Jolla 11-16-2020 Big Fish hookup on the Solo Skiff and........

[GregAndrew]

Mark, I am going with a good sized YT that eventually wraps you on something. A bit hard to tell for sure with the rod tip not in view much of the time, but pretty sure that is what I think.

[FISH11]

There were was never any runs and that rod has brought up some good size Yellowtail and 35+ lbs YFT. Had some head shakes but it was always straight down. My line was straight down and about 5' from the bottom while drifting in almost no current at the time. The whole time it was straight down, it was hard to get up, but 3-4 times I started to get it coming and would gain about 10-15 feet and then it would just pull full drag and thumb on reel to get back to just off the bottom. I've always been able to get then moving and up the water column, this was so hard to lift and impossible to keep the line gained. What ever it was the bottom was clean and was not hung up. There were next to no swells so the skiff wasn't even going up and down. It was steady and then it would just pull straight down every bit I could gain after I would gain about 15' maybe more. I did look at the video and realized that after the breakoff, I wound in the braid and the reel was still in low gear. I could tell that there was no way I had reeled in 80' of braid, provably more like 50'. So today I checked the reels and found that a few reel had the braid sun bleached for the UV rays while sitting on the kayaks and now the Solo Skiff. I removed about 120' of braid and replace those sections with new braid. I think that the top section of braid had been weakened and that is why it broke instead of the 40lb fluorocarbon leader. This was stronger than even the approx. 46 lb Yellowtail I lost after getting to the surface 3 times in 100' water about 3 years ago. It would go straight down but I could bring it back up each time after about 20 minutes on the 3rd time it came up a Sea Lion popped up at the back of the Hobie Kayak, it puuled one more time and as it was going down the circle hook popped out cause during the fight and me pulling very hard caused the circle hook to come out. At least that time I got to see it at the surface 3 times. I'm not sure which feels worse, seeing it or not.

[JohnMckroidJr]

Definitely worse to see a good fish and then lose it. If it's unseen, we can justify in our minds that it was not anything special.

[Nobody]

Definitely a BSB

[the dude]

Sorry man, but really looks like your stuck on the bottom. The current can make if feel fishy. We've all done it...just my opinion.

[jorluivil]

I'm willing to bet it was a lizard fish

[FISH11]

Originally Posted by jorluivil

I'm willing to bet it was a lizard fish

Thanks Jorge, those lizard fish do give some great head shakes.

[h2ofishfo]

Originally Posted by the dude

Sorry man, but really looks like your stuck on the bottom. The current can make if feel fishy. We've all done it...just my opinion.

Just beat the guy when he’s down huh 😂😂

[NICKWORN]

I'm thinking it was a Black as well, gain 10yds, lose 10yds, it goes that way for the first half hour or so. I had one drag me from the Pier to the NW Corner, 1.5 hours later i got him about 5ft from the surface and cut the line, quick decent he went.

[Direct C51]

Originally Posted by the dude

Sorry man, but really looks like your stuck on the bottom. The current can make if feel fishy. We've all done it...just my opinion.

I hate to say it, but this is what it looks like to me too. I’ve fought some snags for much longer than I want to admit, it happens.

[Salty]

Could possibly be a fat soupfin shark? Fought a good one for a while around the end of summer at LJ this year. Not sure its a BSB. Caught 2 this summer and the ones I caught did more horizontal runs, not so much vertical to the bottom. But I know fish fight differently depending how they're hooked sometimes. Also, I fought them from a boat, not a kayak so we weren't staying over the top of them. All that said, that view of the FF definitely shows SOMETHING fishy near the bottom in my opinion. Or maybe a diver was messing with your line lol

[wolfman]

It was a BSB....Nothing else sits on the bottom like a rock! I was fishing La jolla in my boat when a rod in the holder went off. It seemed like there was some line taken so I rail rodded it on the gunnel not gaining any line even though the boat was rising and falling with the swell.(It actually moved the boat sideways) After a full 30 min. it took off and shortly after broke me off.