yak-a-tak
06-29-2011, 01:43 PM
First post, figured I'd make it a good one. Just got a kayak about a month ago and have taken it out a few times, can't believe I never got one before! So much fun!
Anyway, hit the south bay on Sunday and launched at about 6:30am from KH. Picked up some live bait and the guy there said that the sand bass were hitting off Hermosa about 1.5 miles away along with some WSB breezing through. Paddled out there and there were a ton of private boats along with the local fleet-Tradition, Redondo Special, Spitfire, New Del Mar...gave it a go and started out with a sardine with a sliding sinker. Nothing happening on the live bait, think maybe anchovies may have worked better for the sand bass? saw a few caught on other boats...Switched to whole fresh squid on the dropper loop w/40lb test to see if any WSB were swimming around. Got nailed right away on my first drop off the bottom in about 90 feet of water, not sure what it was but felt heavy and then it came undone. I've had a few long distance releases on the yak-hard to get a good hookset...dropped down again and started drifting with the wind and hooked a LOG barracuda on the squid off the bottom, thought that was kind of odd as they wouldn't touch the live bait. Fish put up a good fight too! Skunk off! Drifted more with the wind and started getting away from where all the boats were and was about to relocate where I could see a bunch of birds diving on bait when I got SLAMMED! The fish immediately started pulling line. I thought I hooked a big bat ray as I saw other boats catching some. Tightened the drag up and figured I'd let it pull me around and tire it out. Fought it for a good 10 minutes and then was able to start making up ground and got it to color. Almost crapped my pants when I saw a fat WSB come up exhausted belly up and gaffed it through the neck! Called it a day early to get it on ice and was back in before the AM half day.
Hopefully the pics come out…wish I would have gotten one holding the fish on my kayak, but was cruising solo…Not sure on the weight but I’m a bit over 6ft tall…and it was tough to hold up for a pic...
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Anyway, hit the south bay on Sunday and launched at about 6:30am from KH. Picked up some live bait and the guy there said that the sand bass were hitting off Hermosa about 1.5 miles away along with some WSB breezing through. Paddled out there and there were a ton of private boats along with the local fleet-Tradition, Redondo Special, Spitfire, New Del Mar...gave it a go and started out with a sardine with a sliding sinker. Nothing happening on the live bait, think maybe anchovies may have worked better for the sand bass? saw a few caught on other boats...Switched to whole fresh squid on the dropper loop w/40lb test to see if any WSB were swimming around. Got nailed right away on my first drop off the bottom in about 90 feet of water, not sure what it was but felt heavy and then it came undone. I've had a few long distance releases on the yak-hard to get a good hookset...dropped down again and started drifting with the wind and hooked a LOG barracuda on the squid off the bottom, thought that was kind of odd as they wouldn't touch the live bait. Fish put up a good fight too! Skunk off! Drifted more with the wind and started getting away from where all the boats were and was about to relocate where I could see a bunch of birds diving on bait when I got SLAMMED! The fish immediately started pulling line. I thought I hooked a big bat ray as I saw other boats catching some. Tightened the drag up and figured I'd let it pull me around and tire it out. Fought it for a good 10 minutes and then was able to start making up ground and got it to color. Almost crapped my pants when I saw a fat WSB come up exhausted belly up and gaffed it through the neck! Called it a day early to get it on ice and was back in before the AM half day.
Hopefully the pics come out…wish I would have gotten one holding the fish on my kayak, but was cruising solo…Not sure on the weight but I’m a bit over 6ft tall…and it was tough to hold up for a pic...
314053140631404