Brewfish
05-10-2009, 08:35 PM
Since today is both Mother's Day and our anniversary, what's a guy to do? That's right - hit the surf at dawn before the family wakes up!
I haven't been out for about a month due to various factors. The good news is that the water has a lot more life in it - perch bites on the swimbait, a decent amount of bait in the water. The bad news: I didn't land a single fish.
But - it was still an exciting trip.
After about 90 minutes of fishing, with the fat lady warming up her vocal cords, my swimbait got snagged on something about 20 feet out. I pulled on the snag and it started pulling line, strong but kinda slow, with no head shakes. Definitely a heavy fish. Had it on for about 10 seconds and then the hook pulls. Kinda bummed because at the time I was thinking that it could have been a hali. I'll never know.
About 15 minutes later, and about 100 feet down the beach, the same thing happens. Another snag starts pulling line! Lots and lots of line. To the point where I can see the knot that connects the new line to the (really) old line at the base of the school. At this point I'm worried that the fish is going to snag on one of the "No boats" buoys 50 yards off the beach. Then the fish turns around and starts coming back to shore. I get almost all my line back and then the fish starts running out to sea again and after a minute I see the backing knot again. Then the fish comes back in part way and starts swimming parallel to the beach. Two big clumps of kelp are hanging off my line. Then the fish starts swimming hard out to sea again and "bink", the 10 lb line breaks. Oh well! I was happy for two reasons: 1- Based on the second fish, which was clearly a shark or ray, I'm pretty sure the first fish wasn't a big hali, and 2- I got to pull on a big fish! I just hope the fish can spit that swimbait before long.
Any theories on what these fish may have been? Big Leos?
The surf is coming alive. Hope to see you out there.
BF
I haven't been out for about a month due to various factors. The good news is that the water has a lot more life in it - perch bites on the swimbait, a decent amount of bait in the water. The bad news: I didn't land a single fish.
But - it was still an exciting trip.
After about 90 minutes of fishing, with the fat lady warming up her vocal cords, my swimbait got snagged on something about 20 feet out. I pulled on the snag and it started pulling line, strong but kinda slow, with no head shakes. Definitely a heavy fish. Had it on for about 10 seconds and then the hook pulls. Kinda bummed because at the time I was thinking that it could have been a hali. I'll never know.
About 15 minutes later, and about 100 feet down the beach, the same thing happens. Another snag starts pulling line! Lots and lots of line. To the point where I can see the knot that connects the new line to the (really) old line at the base of the school. At this point I'm worried that the fish is going to snag on one of the "No boats" buoys 50 yards off the beach. Then the fish turns around and starts coming back to shore. I get almost all my line back and then the fish starts running out to sea again and after a minute I see the backing knot again. Then the fish comes back in part way and starts swimming parallel to the beach. Two big clumps of kelp are hanging off my line. Then the fish starts swimming hard out to sea again and "bink", the 10 lb line breaks. Oh well! I was happy for two reasons: 1- Based on the second fish, which was clearly a shark or ray, I'm pretty sure the first fish wasn't a big hali, and 2- I got to pull on a big fish! I just hope the fish can spit that swimbait before long.
Any theories on what these fish may have been? Big Leos?
The surf is coming alive. Hope to see you out there.
BF