How to lose two fish of a lifetime in one day.

Damn.  You really got some bad karma dude.  Give the next homeless person you see a twenty.  Maybe your luck will change.

Nice work Jeff.  Definitely is a heart-breaker. 

I'm a big believer in karma.  Wonder if things would have worked out differently this time or on a future trip had you helped the poor SOB that ran out of gas.  I mean, you could have at least called AAA to bring him some gas.

Michael

Man, what a trip. And those waves are nasty looking. Yep, you'll be telling that story for years.

man your are Getting into some nice Bites out there..

 What to do.......

 Sturgeon @ both China camp and Montezuma, Halibutt in Alameda, Lunker bass delta and CL

 These are problems I Like....

Great story, pics and vid,    you always seem to have your share of adventures!

Jeff, I have never had to do it, but you could grab the spool with your hands (carefully) and stop it spinning. same as with thumbing the spool on a revolving spool reel. you really want the line to break at the lure knot, not the spool knot, for obvious reasons.

those waves look like a pain, the wind too, but a day on the ocean when it is big is something else entirely of course.

sounds like another good adventure there...   sorry I missed, ended up finishing work pretty late, so went walmart & bought more lures (another type of fishing, but we're getting fished)...
you got me all excited there, I might try there today or tomorrow if I can get off early...

Wow! Spooled from a yak. No way to chase it? Bummer. Yea, palming the reel would have done the trick for you. Best do it with some sort of cloth  so you don't get burned. I bet that was fun anyway!

10" baits with medium spinning gear? You're not going to do that again, are you? Remember, it's not just about you losing a trophy fish, it's about that trophy fish out there with hundreds of yards of line attached to her, doing who knows what kind of damage to the resource...

Regards,
Scott

  What a heart breaker!! Sorry you lost those pigs. Better luck next time 

-FF

Damn.  You really got some bad karma dude.  Give the next homeless person you see a twenty.  Maybe your luck will change.

Nice work Jeff.  Definitely is a heart-breaker. 

I'm a big believer in karma.  Wonder if things would have worked out differently this time or on a future trip had you helped the poor SOB that ran out of gas.  I mean, you could have at least called AAA to bring him some gas.

Michael

what about the karma of hassling a poster that told a good story with annoying comments like this? 

cut jeff some slack, he's a young'un out there fishing hard and telling good stories! 

J

I thought about palming the spool but it put way too much on my rod so i let off it a bit. I have a 8 foot med. Heavy rod i use but its too hard to keep casting over and over. The 7 foot one is comfortable and landed the 37 inch striper two weeks prior without a problem. I just got lucky and enticed a fish a little over the limit of my gear. But i will be out there tomorrow again! Jeff

I thought about palming the spool but it put way too much on my rod so i let off it a bit. I have a 8 foot med. Heavy rod i use but its too hard to keep casting over and over. The 7 foot one is comfortable and landed the 37 inch striper two weeks prior without a problem. I just got lucky and enticed a fish a little over the limit of my gear. But i will be out there tomorrow again! Jeff

Point the rod at the fish and then palm it. The worse that could happen is that it breaks your line. But it would have saved you from being spooled.

If your ever fortunate enough to be unfortunately spooled again. Try thumbing the spool before you get down to the bottom layers. No better drag than your thumb... As for the rod, you can apply a lot of pressure if you lower the rod to an angle where most of the bend is in the base of the rod ie the corks, and as the fish lets up you raise the rod then lower when he runs hard. I've landed 50# salmon on a flyrod, and the only way to apply enough pressure is to fight em in the corks. Hopefully there'll be a next time... Great story.

I thought about palming the spool but it put way too much on my rod so i let off it a bit. I have a 8 foot med. Heavy rod i use but its too hard to keep casting over and over. The 7 foot one is comfortable and landed the 37 inch striper two weeks prior without a problem. I just got lucky and enticed a fish a little over the limit of my gear. But i will be out there tomorrow again! Jeff

That rod sounds much, much better. If you don't throw the swimbait all day long, then doesn't it make sense to keep the big rod rigged up with the big bait, and use the smaller rod with your smaller baits for most of the day? Not that I'm the worlds greatest angler, but that's how I run...

Good luck out there,
Scott

So sad you missed those two very large fish and on the same day.  Ouch!

I'm also sad that somewhere out there is a rather large striped bass with three hundred yards or so of braided line trailing behind her.  I guess if there is a lesson to be learned here it might be that a ~30 lb fish + 50 lb test braided line + light bass rod = spooled and that it's always a good idea to match you line strength (and not the equivalent line diameter of mono) to the recommended ratings of your rod and reel.  My personal belief is that your line (or better yet your leader)  should always be the weakest link in you set up.

What kind of set ups do people normally use for these large rip-baits?  My guess is the same sort of rods musky fishermen use.  I can see why this type of fishing is considered a lot of work.

Brian

Excuse me, it is a 9' medium-heavy rod not an 8'er, Its one I use to use from the bank for striper bait fishing or trolling the big delta from a boat. The butt on it is way too long to be hurling baits from a yak since the butt digs into your ribs. I thought I could power a decent size fish but surely I was wrong. Don't get me wrong guys, I am as close to a environmentalist as it gets without it being a career. I'm not one to let it get off like that. It all happened so fast, and it was gone before I could blink an eye. I am hoping someone will snag the line or catch the fish and get the stringing line out of the water. There are many scenerios that could happen with the trailing line, and hate to think what could happen.

I may be sort of young, but I have a good head on my shoulders.

Jeff