Shifting of Evenings (1/20)

[Latimeria]

Conditions weren't ideal for Tuesday, so Steve and I decided to try for Thursday instead as conditions looked great for this night.  Very little salad in the water and very fishable.  Big surf the last week kind on changed the beach around and made some areas really shallow with really deep drop offs.

Sunset was another killer SoCal painting...



About 30 minutes in and my rod does a bounce and it's the right kind.  Of course, I'm about as far as possible from my rod and It started to take off (looked very soupfin-like) when the hook never stuck and it was off before I knew it.  I've been using these Big River hooks and love how they look and are constructed, but have lost well over 50% of the fish I've had bite on them over time... This was another notch to ditch the hooks, but I gave it one last shot anyway for this evening.

Well, they apparently do work if you're trying to catch Minus-1 fish....  How the hell did this thing get this bait and hook into that tiny mouth?



Lot's of lobster bites and a few bait stealers.

After moving the rod holder up the beach a few times (hard to get it in through all the cobble) I finally had the bounce I was looking for.  Tightened the drag and sunk the hook home. 
Line was just dumping out under a heavy drag.  No tail slaps on the line, and not screaming out, but just using a lot of weight swimming away.

Thoughts were BSB, Big Seven or possibly one of the  smaller GWS the surfers know about here.  After taking 250 yards of line I feel a huge tumble/flop by the fish and the line just went slack... You got to be kidding me.

Reeled in to see the steel leader coating shredded about 8" up from the hok and the steel leader bent at that spot, so i know it was a shark and not a BSB....  It never surfaced, so my brain was going to GW, but Squatch reminded me of some of the bigger sevens we caught that acted the same so it will remain a mystery.

One thing that WON'T remain a mystery, is the stupid f@cking Gamakatsu Big River hooks that I'm using will now be retired for the old faithful ones.  Losing big fish never gets easier with age...

[jrodda]

Tough break on the break off, sounds like a white to me. You've had big sevens take line like that? Cuz my 94" PB didn't take much more than 30 yards on the first run I assumed even bigger ones would towel their way in.

[vdisney]

Was waiting to read this story Tom, bummed for you.  You're correct when you said "losing big fish never gets easy"........hopefully next time