Jumping on the Fish Catching Band Wagon 11/13

[jrodda]

With Steve and Tom getting some real grinners, and that 7 in particular, plus the water temp taking a dive to the high 50s, I woke from my slumber, gave the gear a once-over, and headed out to the coast with hopes of an equally enchanting evening. Left home at 5:40pm and traffic was as enchanting as you'd expect for 5:40pm.

Arrived to find too much grass at spot #1, so I got back on the road and got stuck behind a mini-van going an enchanting 30mph in a 45mph zone. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Sometimes I wish we had VHF radios in cars.

I arrived at spot #2 with still an hour to go before high tide. I brought 2 macks whose vacuum seal had broken so I wanted to burn them before I started soaking a strip of ray.

20 minutes into the first cast with a mackerel head, 5 minutes past when I felt I should have checked the bait, but too enthralled by Dolphins-Chargers pre-game articles, a great and powerful clicker run beckons me from my phone. I pull the rod from the PVC stake and load up the drag to Strike and it's game on. The fish continues a strong, steady run for another minute before slowing down to taking inches.

Someone in a report about bluefin mentioned how a guy was pulling in bluefin incredibly quickly by having tighter drags, and pulling the reel back horizontally "like a piston" to gain line, rather than pumping the rod tip. I've been thinking about jumping on a bluefin trip next week, so I thought I'd give this a try here. The fish here is dogging me and I can't get my rod tip up on it, so I instead start slowly walking backwards, then walking forwards again to gain line. Works like a charm. It went on one or two more short runs, but I was kicking its @ss. I get it into the shore pound, and with a few more minutes I get it on the hard pack. Waves weren't bad, but it took me a few more minutes still to get it high enough on the beach to feel comfortable enough to drop my rod and grab it.

49.5", my new PB. I think that's my first 100lb class bat.



It was 55º but I soaked my hoodie in sweat, and when I went to take it off, my rain jacket I was using as my outer shell had all that sweat condensed on the inside. Gross! 20 minutes later, my WHOOP (fit bit thing) alerted me to say "hey! It looks you just got a good workout!



So now I'm rethinking that whole bluefin thing.

I really was whipped but I didn't wanna waste the rest of the mackerel and a half I had remaining. So on the next cast I threw the other half of that mackerel, which was really 2/3 of it. Whatever eats that is really gonna ruin me at this point. I didn't get any clicker run, but it did come back crushed.



Next was a head that came back chewed to the bone. Then the tail pieces was completely robbed. Then I went home.

Nice to get a PB for my efforts. I think I've busted off a handful of 100#+ bats so it was nice to finally put the wood to one. Now to never do it again.

[sasquatch]

Good read. Congrats on the PB.

[vdisney]

Good to see you got out and gave it a go, that bat makes my back hurt just looking at it   

[Latimeria]

Congrats on the PB, and I love the fit bit vitals during the fight!  LOL

As for "Straight Roddin" bluefin, That's an old school trick for a lot of species.  Takes some of the fun out and it also finds any imperfections in your line, knots, and terminal tackle...  but it crushes the fishes will in no time when done right and saves your back! lol

Awesome bat!  That sucker would have won the Bat Fight the last few years.

[skrilla]

"You have legs, use em"... congrats on the pb.

[Tim524]

Congrats on the PB, Bats are fun for sure

[SevengillTheVC]

Looks like our neck of the woods is seeing a nice resurgence of bats, we got bat fight in the bag!