S.W.A.T. 1 Beach and 1 Harbor..4/4/13
I made a couple of calls yesterday, to see if anybody wanted to hit the surf today.
Peter (PTN) was already going, with 3 friends of his, Ken (skunkedforlife) was already going as well as Daniel (dlmoo312).
COOL, I’ll see you all down there…
I arrive at just before 6:00, and the guys are already there, and they are talking smack already…
I see how it’s going to be Ken, so I flip a switch…
Peter, Raney and the 2 other guys would be working a different stretch of beach, than Daniel, Ken and myself.
The conditions were rough.
Winds, steady @ 15-20 mph.
Good amount of shore pound.
Water temp was supposed to be 64, more like 61-62.
Waves, 2-4 feet.
Swell, 3-4 feet.
Kelp, good for the first couple of hours, then grass every cast.
We start back at the vehicles, where Ken can’t get his feet into the waders, so he decides to hit this beach in shorts and sandals..
Better him than me!
We hit the sand around 6:20 and I would be the one to draw first blood with a double digit BSP.
WHATCHA GOT GUYS!!!
It was slow going but Ken pulled out the next BSP, where I got the first…POACHER!
Daniel is still trying to get the skunk off his back.
Ken and I would each get another BSP for our efforts
It would be around an hour and a half, when I decided to turn around and head back North.
I inform Daniel and he agrees.
We move, maybe 25 feet, when I feel a nice, THUMP!
I know it’s a legal halibut, but just how big.
I start to reel it in and it takes very little drag, then it decides that it is going to breach itself and gets my line wrapped around it’s tail.
I inform Daniel to get ready and give me a hand when I get it on the sand. It’s coming in pretty easy, since it’s tied up.
I get a good look at the fish and it’s at least 26”, maybe up to 28”.
As I get the fish in the small trench, the fish is swimming North, with the current and heading right towards Daniel.
I ask Daniel to move, he doesn’t, I ask him again and he still does not move.
It’s like asking one of my boys to take out the trash, they look at me like I am an alien…
I start to tell Daniel to move, a third time, but before I can get the words out, the line hits his leg, runs down under his boot and the line breaks…
I THINK THE ROOKIES HAVE DECIDED THAT THEY ARE GOING TO “ FISH BLOCK “ ME FOR THE SEASON!!
I look at Daniel and I can tell he is pretty upset, he apologizes and of course I say, “No big deal Dude, there will be more”.
I then tell him and Ken that in the future, stand on the back side of the current..
I get up on the sand, tie on another LC…yes, the flatty is out there swimming with my LC in its jaw, and start to fish again.
I would get another small halibut, Daniel would get a 21 ˝”er, a minute later and Ken would get his third LC of the morning.
I did hook up to another legal flatty, but it went under this sloped rock and it came unbuttoned.
It was now around 10:15 and we called it a day. Just way too much salad and no clean casts.
I ask them if they would like to get a burger with me, they agree and we head over to Carls Jr for a bite.
We ended up staying there for at least an hour, and we decided that we would hit up NPH, for the low tide.
I didn’t have any big Hammers or lead heads, so we stop over at Anglers, in Newport and then proceed to, “The Spot”.
We get our stuff together, get over to the water and 2nd cast I get a hit, but miss it..
It’s okay, as long as they are biting.
I decided to wear my waders, while the other two guys wore shorts, and I had advantage over them. As far as getting to better spots and it paid off.
I cast to one spot, feel the hit, I set the hook and my first Spotted Bay Bass (SBB) measures 13”;
Got the picture and put her back in the water.
A hooked up to another one, saw it, but it came unbuttoned.
I feel another light take, wait a second, it pulls and I set the hook;
This one was 13” as well, but I took a picture because of the bright yellow under it’s jaw.
I look over at Daniel and Ken and they are getting no love.
I move to another spot and I get a nice pull on my rod, this one takes a little longer to pull in, it kept trying to get to the pylon, but it lost;
The tape tells the tale..
Daniel and Ken ended up leaving about an hour and a half later, with the NPH skunk.
I ended up staying twice as long and pulled in 3 more SBB.
I also lost just as many as I caught.
I ended up with a 15, 2 @ 13, a 12, an 11 and a 9.
It felt good to get out and get on some fish.
Guys, it was a pleasure to fish with you. I hope you had a good time and Daniel, don’t sweat the lost fish. There seem to be plenty around this year.
We’ll get some soon…
Take Care All,
Robert
<><
Reply With Quote
I'll have to try wading out there one day. The last couple of times I've been there, my Big Hammers just kept getting caught in clusters of mussels and who knows what else was in those clusters.
" 
Originally Posted by bloox8
