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S.W.A.T Late Report....The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly! 6/12
What's up FNN! Feels like it's been forever, but I'm happy to put up my first report of the year. On January 21st we got a new addition to the family and I can't wait for this little one to start her training in S.W.A.T fishing boot camp! LOL Please welcome Baby Madison!
2 Weeks
3 Months
As new parents it's been tough for Tess and I to even think about fishing so it was nice to finally get the green light. It's been tough adjusting to the new lifestyle, but very rewarding. 
Tess' Bro and Family was here visiting from North Carolina and he's been excited for me to take him surf fishing for the first time. Last year I used to feed him a bunch of text message reports of bass and legal buts, so I felt that the expectations were high and I had some pressure riding on me to get him on some fish.
The Bad
Picked up the Bro in Law, Jon, at 0500 and hit the sand by 0600. Arrived to cloudy and drizzly weather and 1-2ft swells. Looking good so far! We make our first casts and our LCs come back with a bunch of salad! AHHHHHH! 
We continue to work our way down in search of cleaner water but just kept finding salad on every cast. Then finally I connect with the first fish of the morning.
We continue to hit the same spot, but kept pulling up salad. Ugggh! 
What do I do? Should I wait it out and hope that the salad clears? Decisions decisions. Well I didn't want to waste the most productive hours of fishing waiting for salad to disappear so I decide to move to another AO looking for cleaner water.
The Good
Arrived at the next AO at 0830 and was pleasantly greeted with much cleaner water. We make some casts and I quickly connect on a couple of short Sandies not much bigger than my LC (not pictured) LOL. Just waiting for Jon to connect now and then... BOOOM! He connects on his first surf fish! Skunk off! 
An Opaleye!
That is one i have yet to cross off my species list! Congrats Jon! LOL Okay so fishing hasn't been very epic so far, but the dinks sure gave us some hope. We fished for another hour without a bite and then proceed to make the grueling hike over to the next and last spot in hopes of finding some quality fish.
Get to the spot, make a few casts and BAM! Finally a better fish!
I tell Jon to get his LC as close as he can to the kelp and KABOOM! Another! Jon is all smiles!
Allrrriiighty now! Things are looking good! We begin an all out assault on this section of kelp when I get a SOLID strike! 
Yes Siiirrr! I yell over to Jon and tell him it feels like a hefty Calico. As the fish zigged and zagged and thrashed at the water surface I noticed some some silver. 
Wooohooo! White Sea Bass!!! I work the fish in carefully as to not pop any of the hooks out and land my first legal WSB.
28.5"
The Ugly
So if youre wondering why there is a lack of fish porn on my first legal WSB, here comes the ugly part of this report. Distratcted by the excitement and beauty of the fish on the sand, I pulled the ultimate rookie move and proceed to handle the fish before removing the LC. 
The fish gives me a few violent headshakes, I feel a sharp pain in the palm of my hand and now I'm attached to the fishes jaw. That's not the worst part. The fish then continues to give me more headshakes while I'm attached. Ouchy. 
I tell Jon to help me control the fish so it doesn't bury another hook into my hand or just have the LC completely ripped out of it, but he just stares at the situation like a deer in the headlights. I guess I'm on my own here. I know any of my S.W.A.T brothas would've been able to diffuse the situation in a heartbeat, but I didn't have that option. I was finally able to control the fish with my other hand and with some instruction I get Jon to unhook me from the fish. We take a quick measurement and pic and send the fish on it's way back into the water so we can take care of the emergency on hand. No pun intended. Notice in the pic above that I I'm still clutching the LC in my hand while I try to hide the pain on my face for the pic. LOL
Extracting the hook was a lot tougher than expected. The crap cutters on my pline pliers werent the best and it took multiple attempts to finally clip the hook free from my hand. Once free I felt instant relief, dipped my hand in the water to clean the blood off, tied on a new LC and continued to fish. LOL Ended up landing another dink Calico and farmed another before calling it quits.
Total Fish Count
Me
1 Short Hali
2 Dink Sandies
2 Calicos
1 Legal WSB 28.5"
Jon
1 Opaleye
1 Calico
Sorry for the super late report, but it's been tough trying to keep the baby happy amongst other duties in between. It's probably gonna be awhile, but we can't wait to get Maddie on her first fishing ventures and share them with everyone here.
Til Next Time
Jason
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First of all Jason....Madison is absolutely adorable......She is truly a blessing for you and Tess.
Congrats on the PB legal WSB my friend. I'm sure Tess is still bragging about her giant one though. I can hear her saying " It was just a baby compared to MINE " 
Don't let her get to ya brotha. I know where you got the fish and that spot can be quite a challenge to land a fish that heads for Catalina when they are first hooked. She caught hers in a much more open area. Your fish took SKILLZ to land!
As for the OWWIE!...... Been there done that a few times. Isn't it amazing how fragile our skin is but when you are trying to pull a barb in the opposite direction our skin is like leather...lol
Keep up the good works pops and congrats once again on a fine outing. Remember...HGVII is approaching fast!
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Congratulations with your baby !
The hand pics look painful, ouch.
Thanks for the post. DR
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Cool report man. Yikes on the treble to the palm. BUT, nothing worthwhile comes easy. Congrats on your WSB and a nice surf session.
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Livin the life ... Beautiful baby girl, god bless! Very nice fish sir! Ive developed a skill on hooking and unhooking myself with the lc lately 
, so i know how it goes... Goes in easy, then our skin turns into leather like Mike said. Its always a pleasure to put friends or family on fish , major props!
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Congratulations, man! Welcome to the Daughter Club! It's awesome.
the first three fourths of the post were sweet... that last quarter though... that made parts of my anatomy clench.
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Congratulations J and Tess!!!! She is beautiful!!! I know you have your hands full, so I'm glad you got to take a moment to get out in the sand. Awesome job getting that legal ghost. Something about that AO, just notorious for LC accidents...that's where I took three hooks in one shot. Fortunately I had Dr. Wingnut there to extract mine. Couldn't imagine trying that on my own like you did. Hope to see your future flattie assaulter at HG7!
Hope you guys are also getting some sleep!
Don
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Dude!
She is sooo cute...
Nice fish also...
Thanks for sharing the pics Bro.
Again, nice session.
Robert
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Glad you made it out of there minus the hand jewelry! I've been warning alot of people as of late regarding this very issue. All it takes is a split second to really change the situation lol. Your the first this year to score a ghost from the suds... I'm waiting for my AO to clean up enough to have my shot. Think there will be others soon. Welcome to daddyhood! Mikey
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