Mike says thornbacks are minus one

[BenCantrell]

Binh invited me to join Mike, Andre and him for some surf fishing last night.  I've been seeing lots of reports of leos and guitarfish, so I decided to stick with squid even though Binh offered to share his mackerel.

Here's the top secret spot when I arrived.



The first half of the night was nothing but bass for me.  I was fishing squid on a 5/0 octopus hook, 60 lb mono leader, 4 oz pyramid sinker on a sliding rig, a couple yards of 40 lb mono abrasion leader, and 30 lb braid main line.



I ended up getting one barred sand bass and five kelp bass.  One of the kelp bass was pretty respectable, definitely a PR.  I'm terrible at remembering to take measurements.  Maybe 18 inches?



Binh jogged over carrying a beastly shovelnose, just to let me know they were around.  Thanks Binh, haha.  He also said he got a nice soupfin earlier (but didn't feel like jogging over with it apparently).  I continued fishing the same rig, and my next catch wasn't a bass!  It was a small thornback ray (new species #460).



It was very cool seeing one of these up close for the first time.  Mike says they're a minus one.



I like them though, cute and pokey at the same time.



The bite died down where I was, so I came over to join the rest of the guys.  As I was talking to Binh his rod started dancing and he hooked into a nice fish.









I set up on the other side of Mike, and pretty soon he hooked up as well.









So romantic. <3



Andre had tough luck and ended up wearing the stripe.  I think he was using squid and store bought mackerel.  Fresher mackerel was definitely the key for the bigger sharks.  Squid was working for the smaller stuff, but I had a smaller hook size.

Overall it was a great night, with 6 species total between the 4 of us.  I'll get out again soon for those original targets!

[lightline21]

It was a great night, with some very cool people, nice meeting you, and fishing with you Ben. I hope to see you back out the sand real soon.

[spideyjg]

You get a mulligan on anything as a first catch ever. You can negate the -1 later if you use it for bait. 

Jim

[sasquatch]

Damn. Happy hour, or fishing the good bite?

[Eric H]

I'm starting to miss those long rods

[xjchad]

 Ben, I too caught a thornback my first time long rodding. With hopes leos, bats, soups, and sevens, I was a bit disappointed but still stoked that I caught something to post on my report. It was a bummer to find out it was a -1 on this forum  The guys were polite though and didn't rip on me too much haha!
Glad you got a new lifer and some nice bass to go with it!
Congrats Binh and Mike on the sharks! I'm dying to get back out now!
Andre, you're the man for driving all that way to play sand hand for those guys LOL!
You're time will come soon!
Sounds like a fun night!

[1morecast]

Here is a pic of my Soupfin from last night. It was fun fishing with you guys. Nice to feel the tug again.


Female 70.5"
Caught on incoming tide using Mackerel

[Pinoyfisher]

Good crew last night! I'm pooped.

Stats for my catch:

Female
71"
Mack bait

[Latimeria]

Cool session guys! I'll get this up tomorrow after my fishing trip and before the fight.

And Ben.... -1.  Lol

[Tim524]

Looks like a fun time, I like the thornback too, they are cool looking

[LONGCAST JOE]

Wow! Great to see some boardable sharks put on the sand finally..maybe it's that time to give my lightrod a little break...can't believe you haven't got a Leo yet Ben, if you throw a strip of squid or sand crab with a 1 oz sinker out 50 feet on a lighter rod into the whitewater zoneyour almost guaranteed to get a keychain version....and yes, thornys are -1