Coronado Beach 10/28 - my first legal!
Hey guys,
It's been a long time since I've posted anything, and since I've gone out to the surf with any success for that matter :)
Well, yesterday was the day apparently. My wife and I were in SD for a short getaway. Luckily, Monster Bash ended almost exactly at 12am on Sunday, so we were able to get some sleep (from 6pm-12am there was non-stop noise, and it didn't help that our hotel was less than a block away from it all :().
After a late Sunday brunch we hit up Coronado Beach around noon, and got lucky when an old man standing out on the Avenida del Sol sidewalk saw us looking for a spot and waved us down right as another car was leaving. This was my first time to Coronado - pretty cool city! And niiiice beach! Thought I'd give a shot on south side of the jetty so my wife settled down and I geared up and headed down to the water - pretty low tide (got there on the outgoing). Conditions were real nice - very little salad in the water, and good sets of waves breaking further out with a good amount of white water.
I started off with a c-rigged gulp camo sandworm on the new Sedona and 'lucky' rod and worked within 100 yards of the jetty. I'm feeling good; after all, it's always good to get a line wet, right? After about the 8th cast or so, I reel in at a slow-medium rate a few cranks (man the new reels casts and retrieves so nicely), and all of the sudden the rod tip goes BENDO!! I immediately set the hook (not too hard - I've got one of those smallish gold circle-like hooks that I picked up when I was in Hawaii a couple years ago) and start fighting it. At first I was thinking "Great, it's probably a huge BSP..." not that that's a BAD thing :D. But then it starts shaking it's head and randomly stopping and holding weight during the fight. I'm thinking "Oh man, if this is what I think it is, I hope my line doesn't snap right now!"
Luckily, my gear didn't fail me and I eventually beached it. It made a few good runs as soon as I got it to shallow water, so it's a good thing I buttoned down the drag, and it's also a good thing I was using a decent lb test. The thing completely inhaled the gulp camo sandworm (the 6" model too) and I was lucky my hook didn't break off either - I tried removing it with some forceps and it SNAPPED. So if anyone catches a hali at Coronado with what appears to be a gold tooth, that's my lucky fish! It tapped out probably at 8-10lbs and 27" (had my measuring tape but the weight is an estimate). At that point I was super-stoked: MY FIRST LEGAL!! The only other substantial hali I caught was on a LC at CDM back in 2006 @ 19" LOL aaaaaaages ago.
Had it beached for a good time while waiting for my wife to finally figure out that I caught something before making her way over to take some pics. After all the commotion, I took it back to revive and release. At first I was scared it wouldn't come back; it took a good number of pushes to revive it but eventually his tail got to working again and he sped off not too long after.
Sorry, there's more pics but I figure this is probably the best one:
We stayed for a couple more hours until my wife couldn't take it anymore. Tried my LC and a swimbait but no such luck - I think all the fish went somewhere else on the outgoing. Also saw quite a few people clamming and getting some NICE pismos! I got lucky myself and found one using the 'foot & heel' method - I just happened to be standing right over it while fishing hahaha. Also found another that was cracked open (probably by the seagulls) with the meat still in it. Ripped some off for bait to catch a few small BSPS because my sandworms kept getting stolen. All in all, a fun day to be out. I like Coronado :)
Afterwards, we stopped by Phils BBQ and headed out to the Sunset Cliffs on our way back home :D
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Catching a flattie on crack isn't completely unusual but not what you really expect when you throw it. Great job getting it in and the successful release. 
Thanks for the report and pict. Sounds like you had a great trip. Hope we get to hear about more from you soon.
Originally Posted by bachiboy
