VietReefer
05-22-2013, 11:21 PM
My wife and I both have Monday off, she wanted to spend some times together and I wanted to go fishing. So I convinced her to take the kids to the beach for a picnic. Mission accomplished. We took the van, picked up 4 of my nephews and nieces, and 5 of her nephews and nieces and off to Bolsa Chica I went. When I arrived to Bolsa Chica, she asked me there's nobody here except us, it's boring, and why didn't I go to Huntington Beach where there are more people? I said this is the only place where everybody can have fun, there are just too many people in the water in HB and I can't fish there.
The little kids were given a mission: catching sand crabs for bait. And they came prepared with their plastic sand tools :D
Taught the older kids to fish for perch with Gulp sand worms and they did a good job catching almost 20 perchs and a short halibut about 12" with the plastic sand worm on light tackle during the 2 hrs that we were there. Pretty good for first timers and I was impressed. Nothing beat seeing the smiles and yells everytime they catch a fish.
I threw out a sand crab on my 8' Abu Garcia Volatile w/ Daiwa Lexa 300 hoping to catch some spotfin but had no luck for 30 minutes. So I decided to change to a 1oz weedless lead-head with a 5" Big Hammer swimbait to practice on my distance casting cuz I'm still can't cast farther with my baitcaster compare to my spinner. After like 30 minutes of practicing nothing has changed and it seemed that was as far as I can do on my baitcast, I went back to the umbrella to sit with my wife and watch the kids have fun while enjoying some ice cold watermelon. After a while the kids starting to get cold and my wife brought them to the restroom for a shower and change. Having nothing to do sitting by myself I went back to the beach to continue my practice, and this time I put some calico cocktail on the swimbait. Ten minutes later I got a thump, set the hook, and the line started peeling. I was fishing with 30lb braid + couple ft of 25lbs flouro leader and had my drag set pretty tight but this fish kept taking my line running left and right until I'm over half spool before it started to slow down and I began to gain some line on my side of the battle. Then it would again head out and take out a bunch of line while I was just standing there hugging my rod :). The tug a war went on for about 20 minutes, we were both tired, but I was able to bring the fish to color and saw the dorsal fins. "Sharkkkkkkkkk" the kids started screaming and all of them ran off the water to the sand. The shark kept running up and down the beach for another 10 minutes, I would bring it to color then it would start to peel line and swim parallel to the beach. I told the oldest kid to help me grab the tail and pull the shark to the sand, but forgot to tell him that it doesn't bite soit took him many failed attempts of running up and down the waves cuz he doesn't want to get get & was afraid to touch the shark, maybe because of the way its skin feels, like sandpaper, just not like a usual fish that he used to handle. I finally tired it out and with the help of a couple back to back big waves I was able to bring him close to my knees and grab the tail with one hand. It was then, 2 of the prospect professional anglers ran down and helped me drag the fish up the sand. Then, I told them it doesn't bite and they said if I had told them before that they would totally went for it without hesistation LOL.
Measured 58.5". My PB Leopard Shark from the surf. The kids took turn taking picture of the shark for 15 minutes until it was finally my turn LOL :). The kids were stoked, they had their jaws dropped to the sand cuz they've never seen and touched a big shark in person. I was defintely stoked and happy seeing the kids had a good and exciting picnic. After a few pictures, it was safely released back to the ocean. We called it a day, everyone were happy. I was exhausted but felt great.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5454/8794516388_11778014b5_c.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5331/8794513226_c268ccd26c_c.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3751/8783935759_b1d7e81bc7_c.jpg
The little kids were given a mission: catching sand crabs for bait. And they came prepared with their plastic sand tools :D
Taught the older kids to fish for perch with Gulp sand worms and they did a good job catching almost 20 perchs and a short halibut about 12" with the plastic sand worm on light tackle during the 2 hrs that we were there. Pretty good for first timers and I was impressed. Nothing beat seeing the smiles and yells everytime they catch a fish.
I threw out a sand crab on my 8' Abu Garcia Volatile w/ Daiwa Lexa 300 hoping to catch some spotfin but had no luck for 30 minutes. So I decided to change to a 1oz weedless lead-head with a 5" Big Hammer swimbait to practice on my distance casting cuz I'm still can't cast farther with my baitcaster compare to my spinner. After like 30 minutes of practicing nothing has changed and it seemed that was as far as I can do on my baitcast, I went back to the umbrella to sit with my wife and watch the kids have fun while enjoying some ice cold watermelon. After a while the kids starting to get cold and my wife brought them to the restroom for a shower and change. Having nothing to do sitting by myself I went back to the beach to continue my practice, and this time I put some calico cocktail on the swimbait. Ten minutes later I got a thump, set the hook, and the line started peeling. I was fishing with 30lb braid + couple ft of 25lbs flouro leader and had my drag set pretty tight but this fish kept taking my line running left and right until I'm over half spool before it started to slow down and I began to gain some line on my side of the battle. Then it would again head out and take out a bunch of line while I was just standing there hugging my rod :). The tug a war went on for about 20 minutes, we were both tired, but I was able to bring the fish to color and saw the dorsal fins. "Sharkkkkkkkkk" the kids started screaming and all of them ran off the water to the sand. The shark kept running up and down the beach for another 10 minutes, I would bring it to color then it would start to peel line and swim parallel to the beach. I told the oldest kid to help me grab the tail and pull the shark to the sand, but forgot to tell him that it doesn't bite soit took him many failed attempts of running up and down the waves cuz he doesn't want to get get & was afraid to touch the shark, maybe because of the way its skin feels, like sandpaper, just not like a usual fish that he used to handle. I finally tired it out and with the help of a couple back to back big waves I was able to bring him close to my knees and grab the tail with one hand. It was then, 2 of the prospect professional anglers ran down and helped me drag the fish up the sand. Then, I told them it doesn't bite and they said if I had told them before that they would totally went for it without hesistation LOL.
Measured 58.5". My PB Leopard Shark from the surf. The kids took turn taking picture of the shark for 15 minutes until it was finally my turn LOL :). The kids were stoked, they had their jaws dropped to the sand cuz they've never seen and touched a big shark in person. I was defintely stoked and happy seeing the kids had a good and exciting picnic. After a few pictures, it was safely released back to the ocean. We called it a day, everyone were happy. I was exhausted but felt great.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5454/8794516388_11778014b5_c.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5331/8794513226_c268ccd26c_c.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3751/8783935759_b1d7e81bc7_c.jpg