Hookup 11/7 SWS or Pacifica

Any reports?

You don't wanna know bro...man I wish I didn't know either.  I'm going to hell for being there.

It was all bad. All bad.

Here's my report.

I was going to follow my plan from Thursday - catch some bait and mix trolling with fly lining bait. Could not find bait, so started trolling and pretty soon got first black. Being second time at SWS even after studying charts it took me some time to find spots I wanted, but by 10 I had half a limit of rocks  and one keeper ling. But I wanted larger fish, so kept switching b/w soft bait off the bottom and trolling, going further from shore.

Wind was picking up all morning, and at about 11 it seemed everybody left (thanks for checking on me on the radio, guys!), so I went closer to the shore. Then, suddenly fan turned off.

Saw what seemed to be a good ball of bait, dropped sabiki and immediately got 5 rockfish, including some 14-16"! (all went back for obvious reason). So I figured no live bait today and dropped bait I caught week ago in SC (i don't know what it was, fattier than mackerel)

And immediately BUMP. Actually I thought I snagged, but then I felt slow but very strong pull... I fought it for 20 minutes, my biggest fight to date.. And then with a light move it was gone. Figured maybe I pulled too hard, maybe reel drag was too strong...

[...]

So I dropped my other, last, frozen bait - and BUMP. By now I had my drag much lighter and I figured I'll take my time. When I started I had about 120 ft out and hour later it was in about 20 ft from surface. An HOUR, Carl!..

So, after and hour it kept fighting, both my hands were sore, I felt it's getting tired, but still was cautious... And then, as you guessed by now, it made the same light move and was gone.

F%*&$^)*&+)9

I was pretty sure I would not know what to do with it, but at least take a picture and, maybe, stub with knife (of course, I forgot my gaff in the car).

Any idea what I could do differently? My rod and reel performed flawlessly (I think), I was very careful pointing rod tip up (it is MH ugly stik tiger and it was doing full arch most of the time), I was not reeling or touching line when fish broke off.. During fight I slightly adjusted drag couple of times, to tire fish more, but not by much.

Surprisingly, I had my bait almost intact, so I dropped it back, immediately got ling and called it a day.

So, at the end - fantastic day on the water, variety of action, some more learning. 2+ limits of rf and limit+ lings. And hard time paddling back with sore hands

Here's my report.

I was going to follow my plan from Thursday - catch some bait and mix trolling with fly lining bait. Could not find bait, so started trolling and pretty soon got first black. Being second time at SWS even after studying charts it took me some time to find spots I wanted, but by 10 I had half a limit of rocks  and one keeper ling. But I wanted larger fish, so kept switching b/w soft bait off the bottom and trolling, going further from shore.

Wind was picking up all morning, and at about 11 it seemed everybody left (thanks for checking on me on the radio, guys!), so I went closer to the shore. Then, suddenly fan turned off.

Saw what seemed to be a good ball of bait, dropped sabiki and immediately got 5 rockfish, including some 14-16"! (all went back for obvious reason). So I figured no live bait today and dropped bait I caught week ago in SC (i don't know what it was, fattier than mackerel)

And immediately BUMP. Actually I thought I snagged, but then I felt slow but very strong pull... I fought it for 20 minutes, my biggest fight to date.. And then with a light move it was gone. Figured maybe I pulled too hard, maybe reel drag was too strong...

[...]

So I dropped my other, last, frozen bait - and BUMP. By now I had my drag much lighter and I figured I'll take my time. When I started I had about 120 ft out and hour later it was in about 20 ft from surface. An HOUR, Carl!..

So, after and hour it kept fighting, both my hands were sore, I felt it's getting tired, but still was cautious... And then, as you guessed by now, it made the same light move and was gone.

F%*&$^)*&+)9

I was pretty sure I would not know what to do with it, but at least take a picture and, maybe, stub with knife (of course, I forgot my gaff in the car).

Any idea what I could do differently? My rod and reel performed flawlessly (I think), I was very careful pointing rod tip up (it is MH ugly stik tiger and it was doing full arch most of the time), I was not reeling or touching line when fish broke off.. During fight I slightly adjusted drag couple of times, to tire fish more, but not by much.

Surprisingly, I had my bait almost intact, so I dropped it back, immediately got ling and called it a day.

So, at the end - fantastic day on the water, variety of action, some more learning. 2+ limits of rf and limit+ lings. And hard time paddling back with sore hands

Awesome report sebastian. When we headed in, didn't see you so i figured radio you a few times to make sure things were ok. Didnt see a yellow kayak from shore. Then you finallly responded with "something, something, i got a fish" didn't know what that meant, but i guess i do now after reading the report.

Can we safely assume its NOT a shark since you have shark shield equipped? Or maybe it was and felt the shock and freaked out. Did you have it turned on at the time?

As for my report: hooked up on about a dozen small rockfish. Kept about half up to 14".  Used some small ones for bait eith no luck. Scored a 21" fat toad of a cabezon, off a teaser, hoochie with frozen squid. Should be a nice p.b. for a while. Hooked up on a ling as well, almost did not measure as i was certain it was over 22". Lucky u brought a tape meaure, as i just got the kayak, and paddle, so i didnt have a convenient measuring device immediately. It was 21.5" After a long day without a ling, it was hard to say goodbye. I released him of course.

Overall it was a great hookup. A lot more people showed up than expected. It was great to see you guys again, and meet whoever i haven't met before.  Thanks frenchie for the help with carrying my beast of a kayak.

Also was mt first time taking my brand new wilderness thresher 155. No fish finder, but i think i did ok.  Will post review on my thresher thread

Went to FM1's pad for pablitoe's going away gig. Had a great time. Very interested, will not go into more details since this is a sws hkp/rpt thread. If someone decides to make a thread about it ill chime in.



If anyone has those group pics id like to see them. Thanks in advance.

Here's my report.

I was going to follow my plan from Thursday - catch some bait and mix trolling with fly lining bait. Could not find bait, so started trolling and pretty soon got first black. Being second time at SWS even after studying charts it took me some time to find spots I wanted, but by 10 I had half a limit of rocks  and one keeper ling. But I wanted larger fish, so kept switching b/w soft bait off the bottom and trolling, going further from shore.

Wind was picking up all morning, and at about 11 it seemed everybody left (thanks for checking on me on the radio, guys!), so I went closer to the shore. Then, suddenly fan turned off.

Saw what seemed to be a good ball of bait, dropped sabiki and immediately got 5 rockfish, including some 14-16"! (all went back for obvious reason). So I figured no live bait today and dropped bait I caught week ago in SC (i don't know what it was, fattier than mackerel)

And immediately BUMP. Actually I thought I snagged, but then I felt slow but very strong pull... I fought it for 20 minutes, my biggest fight to date.. And then with a light move it was gone. Figured maybe I pulled too hard, maybe reel drag was too strong...

[...]

So I dropped my other, last, frozen bait - and BUMP. By now I had my drag much lighter and I figured I'll take my time. When I started I had about 120 ft out and hour later it was in about 20 ft from surface. An HOUR, Carl!..

So, after and hour it kept fighting, both my hands were sore, I felt it's getting tired, but still was cautious... And then, as you guessed by now, it made the same light move and was gone.

F%*&$^)*&+)9

I was pretty sure I would not know what to do with it, but at least take a picture and, maybe, stub with knife (of course, I forgot my gaff in the car).

Any idea what I could do differently? My rod and reel performed flawlessly (I think), I was very careful pointing rod tip up (it is MH ugly stik tiger and it was doing full arch most of the time), I was not reeling or touching line when fish broke off.. During fight I slightly adjusted drag couple of times, to tire fish more, but not by much.

Surprisingly, I had my bait almost intact, so I dropped it back, immediately got ling and called it a day.

So, at the end - fantastic day on the water, variety of action, some more learning. 2+ limits of rf and limit+ lings. And hard time paddling back with sore hands

Sorry I was not planning on going but in as the the wind picked up I slowly made my way back, fishing in front of the cove  and when I saw everyone one on the beach, I paddled in but I should have let you know

I also had similar experience with 2 big take down on dead mackerel and thought it might have been a seal. I also had an earlier big take down on a swimbait earlier but what ever it was, it cut my line
Beside that, quite a few small RF that I released (I kept the two biggest one), 2 barely legal lings that I also released for next time and a 26" that I kept.

I had what I think was a large WSB on for a couple minutes.  It took my chrome 8oz iron and ran straight into the kelp.  Ended when my 40lb test braid snapped.  Whatever it was was really big. 

Fishing was pretty good.  Caught 6 lings, 7 cabs, 1 vermillion and a bunch of small blues and olives. 

Josh

I had what I think was a large WSB on for a couple minutes.  It took my chrome 8oz iron and ran straight into the kelp.  Ended when my 40lb test braid snapped.  Whatever it was was really big. 

Fishing was pretty good.  Caught 6 lings, 7 cabs, 1 vermillion and a bunch of small blues and olives. 

Josh

I think it is definitely possible. From the way my fish took my swimbait and made several runs stopped and ran again. ( several weeks ago ) Definetly reminded me of the characteristics of seabass I have caught in the past. A majority of the reports for seabass have been along the coast with an occasional one in the bay. My 30 lb braid felt like thread when I was fighting it. 

It was great to run into you guys.  Frenchie helped carry my kayak down and I helped Sebast carry his up.   We had good viz and some really calm spots.  No real lings to be seen.  I grabbed 8 RF(kelp, olive, B&Y, black) to 18.75.  Saw a monkey but took my eyes off it to swing the gun around.  When I took the shot, I think I was aiming at a rock.  Good to dive with RLuiz and Flyingdutchman for the first time and chat with trianglelaguna, beerhunter, and pablito.  See you OTW!

... and I helped Sebast carry his up.

Thanks a lot, man! - I would definitely have hard time carrying it upstairs  (not fun even for two )

Then you finallly responded with "something, something, i got a fish" didn't know what that meant, but i guess i do now after reading the report.

Can we safely assume its NOT a shark since you have shark shield equipped? Or maybe it was and felt the shock and freaked out. Did you have it turned on at the time?

No, that time it was my 3rd ling - fun started 20 min later.

I don't know if it could be a shark, never caught one. No vibration on the line till it came pretty close, just hard pull . Don't think shark shield has anything to do here though.  For one it works on much shorter distance, I think.  And I did not reel it close enough. Also, I think its battery died by that time.

Damn, I still have sore muscles. ..

Congrats on that cabbie!

last few minutes

No sweat, @frenchie - i heard people were leaving, just was not ready yet.

Thanks for calling this hookup, it was a blast ( and i'm sure even more fun i missed )

Thank for the reports and pictures guys.

Sebast,
Just a little tip when fighting fish, move your rod up and down, reel on the downward stroke. It would tire you out less.
I try to put the butt of the rod against my stomach, too, to give me leverage.
Hope you catch the big one next time.
Thanks for the reports and fish porn  guys. I wish I was out there.

 .. What a great time! I must have caught twelve lings. Biggest 30 inch. Great day lots of fun!!

Speaking of helping with kayak carrying. Sorry pablito, i was too tired to help you carry yours after i carried mine and frenchie.  But im really glad i didn't have to help you. Sucks for whoever did though.