Whale Tale

  Friday morning  I went out from the SC Harbor, along with  Jared & Brian.   
 I had a brand new Avet SX reel  filled with 40lb braid that I'd purchased from Mel Cottons a few weeks ago.  I was dangling a Big Hammer Fish trap hoping for a Halibut.  We were fishing in about 70 FOW when suddenly that reel started singing ,  line was disappearing fast.   I pulled the rod around and braced for the sleigh ride of a lifetime, wondering what on earth it could be.???   It was like nothing I'd ever hooked into before, I could see it coming to the surface but still running away and quickly stripping line with it.   Then it breached !     Then I cut the line !!! 
        hahaha...  I've no idea what the minimum size is on a California Gray Whale...   

     For a split second I thought about turning on the GoPro... would have made a great video !    But my primary concern was not injuring  the whale with that braid line cutting into it.    One of Gods most majestic creatures. 
    Oddly we saw no signs of whales before or anytime after that event.    It was a fluke !       

   

Good move to get detached from the beast instead of turning on the vid.   

Next time try to have it rolling first.   

Would like to see your boats in action and try one out.

Man I bet your Heart was Pumping BIG TIME!!!  Whale of a tale indeed...  that would've made a killer vid... way to cut it off quick!!!  my heart gets pumping everytime I'm OTW and see one couldn't imagine starting to get spooled!!!

Had my back turned and heard a blow,  I looked and looked saw where it came from , but nothing else.  I was hoping it might have been a whale, but I think it was a  seal we were fairly close to Pigeon Point.

holy smokes!  just reading that had my heart pumping...hahaha.  I just remembered the time I hooked a seal on a boat and that felt insane, but a whale, thats a whole different story!  camera footage would have been cool, but good thing you decided against it and focused on your well being first. 

I have this great picture of your arrow shaped yak skiing behind a whale.  Very cool 

Thanks for sharing the "whale tale" experience with us Jim.  Great story to tell the grand kids