11/29/18 Report

[1morecast]

Mike and I fished our usual Thursday night session yesterday. I got to the spot by 7:30pm to find Andre and Ben were already set up and putting some fish on the sand. I see Andre bringing in a little bat ray as I plant my sand spike. Ben was helping him out when I see Ben run over to his rod 70 yards south to set the hook on a decent size leo. After talking to Ben a bit he said that he missed a nice take down due to operator error. 

I'm setting the first rod up and get a nice cast for once. As I'm setting up the second rod, the first rod gets a nice knock down and it's pulling line off the reel. I run and set down the second rod and pick up the first to find that the fish is off.  The bait is gone and my hook tip is broken. 

I put out the second rod and start tying a new rig to the first rod when the second rod starts screaming. My line goes north and crosses Andre's line. I'm walking north to catch up to this fish, but some how Andre's lines is tangled around my feet. I lose tension with this fish and thought it had busted me off when I realize it's just my line is crossed with Andre's. We get our lines untangled and Andre tries to grab the fish but it twists out of his hands like three times. I can't really grab this fish because my feet are tangled in Andre's line. Finally, Andre is able to wrestle the shark ashore and help untangle me from his line. How I landed this shark with all mishaps is a miracle. I didn't want to keep this shark out of the water too long so I didn't get a tape on her, but I would safely say it was a least 60" long. (Female)


60" Female (Mac-bait) incoming tide.

I made sure she didn't wash back ashore this time. 

As I'm re-tying my rig I see Ben hooked up with something, from the way his rod was bent it looked like he was stuck on a reef or something, but then I see a splash and I see that he has a fish on. By the time I get over to him, Ben has the soup fin close to shore. I grab the tail and pull it on the sand. I can see it's a thick female. I'll let Ben tell how the fish fought, but it didn't run like a soup fin. Ben has the pictures of his fish, so I'll let him post those pics.

Ben's fish was gut hooked and I didn't have pliers long enough to reach, but thank goodness Andre had a dehooker that was long enough to get to the hook. I leave Ben to revive the fish and put her back in the surf, but he tells me 5 minutes later that he can't get her to swim off. Ben decided to keep this fish and goes to work on cleaning it.

Mike finally shows up and sets up north of me, by this time the tide is dropping pretty fast and the bite shuts down. Mike gets a nice knock down but doesn't connect. We call it a 11pm since the tide was dropping so fast and there was no more action.

One closer to Mike and tied with WMB! (15)

[Pinoyfisher]

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Gotta get there earlier!

[sasquatch]

Go team B.

[Latimeria]

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Gotta get there earlier!

Steve was happy to hear that you didn't add another rung to the ladder.

[Latimeria]

Congrats guys and remember to measure your bats tomorrow!

[vdisney]

You gents are on a roll, congrats to both of you....................

[BackBayMan]

Nice work! The way this year is shaping up, you guys could win it with a lucky bat from the surf!

[BenCantrell]

Thanks for the report Binh.  My night started out well but ended on a bummer.  I was using one of those 12/0 Big River hooks with oversized chunks of mackerel.  Shortly after setting up I had my first run, but I forgot to set the main drag on my reel, so when I went to set the hook it just made a big ZZZZZ.  By the time I tightened up the drag knob the fish was gone.  I heard Andre shout, so I ran over to help him with his bat ray, but as soon as it was beached I ran back to my rod to find it dancing like crazy.  This time I had a perfect hook set and brought in this leo.



Later in the evening I saw my rod tap a few times.  I picked it up, and after a few more small taps it started to take off line.  I counted to three and then set the hook.  Whatever was on the other end didn't budge, and I immediately said "bat ray!".  Throughout the entire fight I still thought it was a bat ray up until the point when I saw the tail stick up out of the surf.  It was a tank of a soupfin, a big female.  Binh ran over and helped me land it.

Unfortunately, that big river hook was stuck in the gullet/gills area, and it was bleeding pretty bad.  To make matters worse, it puked up it's stomach, which got cut up on its teeth and added to the bleeding.  Thanks to Andre's dehooker Binh was able to get the hook out, but the fish was done.  I held it in the water for quite a while (it felt like a lot more than 5 minutes), but it's tail was limp.  I made the call to harvest it, and that took up the rest of the evening.  Nothing will go to waste. 

We didn't measure it during the unhooking in the interest of time, but at home I taped it out at 72".

[BenCantrell]

Here she is.  I feel weird that I'm smiling in the photo knowing how it ended.