Night of the Epic Success! (2/23)

[Latimeria]

It was Tuesday and time to fish.  Squatch had one plan and I had another so we divided to conquer.

I met up with Rasta and Back Bay Man.  Tide was very low and a lot of sand was missing just from my last trip a few days ago to the surf.  We hung around for an hour trying to figure out if it was worthy to fish or to move on.  While my brain's hamster was running overtime , we saw a baby sea lion that didn't look in too good of condition.  Of course, tourists were mugging it and I thought were going to pick it up to hug it, but thankfully some fish and game showed up and shooed it back in the ocean.  No need to call SeaWorld thank god!



I planned on going scouting to see if I could witness any better spots to fish and just started to walk when I noticed a big object at the water's edge.  I saw 20 people look at it and kept walking.  The shape was strangely familiar and I almost lost it when I walked up to it!  It was a whale vertebrae!
I picked it up and noticed it was really heavy and the bone was really mineralized!  Besides that, the epiphysis had rocky matrix attached to it pretty much solidifying it is no recent vertebrae.  I have recent whale verts at home, and this is definitely a special find for me!



I immediately bring it back to my bucket and Josh say's "What are you doing with that rock?"... Exactly what hundreds of people probably thought when they saw it today also, but did not have the trained eye. 
The cliffs have tons of fossils in them and they wash out occasionally.  Even if this washed out a hundred years ago, it sunk in the sand and periodically would get exposed before getting covered up again.  Very similar to the Sin Ship on Coronado.  Our cliffs are LOADED with fossils, but they are spread out and not all lumped together so finds are rare.  My buddy pulled a fossil great white out of the cliffs 20 years ago and I know of some great finds from them.

Anyway, back to fishing....



We made a move and made a move again.  I was still ecstatic from the fossil vert, so a grinner would only be the cherry on top. 
Right away, Josh was on and got a sweet surf calico at magic hour!



He got a few more bites but farmed them.
Chip was using a 15' uglystick which was messin with our brains!  That thing would double over like it was getting hit only to turn out to be a wave moving his bait!  LOL
In all fairness, the downhill surge was crazy strong.  My 8oz sputniks were barely holding and breaking free quite often.

Just as things seemed like the night was going to end in Grinner Failure, my rod starts screaming and doubles over!  Shark on, Boyz!

It felt like a big leopard and I was expecting a mid 60's leopard to show up, but Rasta started yelling "Soupie!".  I have to laugh as it was his first surf wrangling a real shark and that soupie was green and pissed off!  Josh was jumping to keep from getting bit and we all got a good laugh. 

Taped as a measly 66", but it was a Boy!  We don't get many male soupies down here, so it was pretty much a rarity and the cherry on top!



It was time to go soon after and Chip loaded up his 740 HP mustang with the surf gear and headed back home.  Josh was stoked to catch a nice bass and finally get to see and wrangle a real surf shark on the beach and I had an awesome night between the shark and fossil.
Great fishing with you guys tonight.

I can't wait to get back out and do it again!

Until next tide...

[WheresMyBeer]

Killer fossil find Tom. Man you luck out in so many ways!!! (except bat ray stingers  )

[raychavez91]

Good guy takin em out. Bad guy catching the soup.
Can't say I was exactly happy to see you catch a grinner. It is what it is.
Even after all that...congrats on the great catch....and that great find that most would turn there noses at without ever realizing what it could be. I for sure would have.

[sasquatch]

Wish I could have seen Josh's soupie dance. Felt weird fishing on Tuesday without you. The updates were pretty funny though.

[j.rasta]

Glad everyone got a good laugh and I came home with all my toes! Good times as usual! I think I woulda wanted to tail it even if I caught it, that's the real test in my eyes! Can you get em out without them gettin you

[SurffishingSean]

Awesome outing great catches both of you. Loving all these sharks coming up!

[Pinoyfisher]

Lol!! Love watching someone do the grinner 2-step for the first time. That vertebrae looks like a prehistoric sex toy to me.  Maybe offer it up as such as a prize for the next month ending contest. I'm sure Binh will pound a sh!t load of sand for that

[Eric H]

Nice soupie Tom, your off to a good start this year.

[vdisney]

Much congrats my man, a double win! 

[xpoc]

Nice Report!

Gotta wander the sand to produce them fish!

[BackBayMan]

It was awesome to fish with you and Rasta! And after watching that Soupie go for Josh's toes, I'm definitely going to be paying attention when it's my turn to sandhand. Oh yeah, I'm also getting a set of real pliers. With long handles