MDR 4/15
Hey guys, fished MDR with some fellow yakers yesterday. We got there around 7:30am and were greeted with light winds and clear skies. Started out the day catching a bunch of small barracuda. I was using 10# test with a 3/4 oz. mackerel kroc--got lots of hits but only one hookup in the early going. Some of us headed to the jetty, although the wind picked up and made it a real tough paddle. Picked up a short sandie using a 5" bleeding mac swimbait paired with a 3/4 oz. jig head. Decided to head back because the wind was too much, but with it blowing at our backs it was an easy drift. I think a couple others picked up a short halibut and a turbot (?) on the way back in. Fished the bait barge for some more barracuda, but this time in 20"+ range. They put up a good fight (in and out of water--lol). It was already 1pm and I was tired and hungry so I was the first to head back. I was turning around a corner when my kayak basically did a 180 turn. I'd been dragging my swimbait all the way from the jetty and I figured it was snagged since there was no bounce in the rod--just heavy bendo. So I picked up the rod and gave it a good yank to see if I could free it... NOPE! Line starts pulling immediately. I tighten up the drag a bit and start going for a ride. Halibut? The others were still pretty far away and I definitely needed their assistance so I just tried to tire out whatever was on the end of my line without having it surface. I held that thing for about 20 minutes, getting a glimpse of it every now and then. Oh yeah, halibut! The guys finally got around... lip gripped it, gaffed it, and finally pulled it aboard.
My first legal hali ever--36" and 19.6 lbs.
The funny thing is that I just bought a new fillet knife the day before. It was a little bit bigger than I wanted at 9", but I jokingly told my wife that the extra inches would help out if I caught a big hali. Oh yeah. I went to town on that thing.
Note: You can see a pretty good reflection of my kayak on the sandie below--kinda neat.
Note: Hali's Stomach contents revealed a half-digested fish.
Started the day off with a 12" barracuda
11" sandie along the jetty
Caught 21" & 22" barracudas
The guys
Oscar waiting for the hali to surface... with a lip gripper!
Close quarters
Me with my hali and Oscar's bloody deck
36" and 19.6 lbs.
Filleting
Filleting part 2
Chomp
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Originally Posted by cappo
