First Timer Flattie


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ NMS WWWBoard Version 1.0 ] [ FAQ ]


Posted by SCAllen on 11:17:18 07/05/03

Now that it's legal to catch the lingcod, I of course targeted halibut yesterday.

I had invited an out of state fisherman, Tony F., brother in law of my best neighbors along. He's from upstate New York and likes to fly fish from a canoe and was stoked at the idea of yak fishing. He was on a family vacation and jonesing for fish.

I put him in my new caper, we got some live bait, and started fishing in front of the Santa Cruz harbor at about 6:45am.

I got two small flatties and was feeling pretty cocky, when he hooks up with "the bottom."

But the line was coming up? Uuuuh, tony.............

In short, he raised up a really decent fish. When I saw it suspended about 8 ft down. vertical, I actually got scared, since I was the designated gaff man. Oh, S*&^% !, how am I gonna get that thing in?

With encouragement from some nearby PBr's, Tony fought the fish. We declined their offer to gaff and land for us. Yak pride.

After about the fifth run, I got positioned and stuck the fish on the dark side, heaved it up on my SPTW, hooked it with the game clip, and methodically beat its head adding a couple careful jabs from the pointy end of the bat gaff in the brain for good measure.

It never went ballistic, for which I was very grateful.

The fish was so big, I had to put it inside my front hatch for transpo, a first for me. Next goal, I guess, is a fish so big it won't fit in the hatch.

We had entered the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project "big fish" derby for the day, and when we left the Harbor at noon, Tony was at the top of the leaderboard with a 28lb, 10oz flattie.

I think we may have a convert here.

Not bad for a first-timer!

Right now, there's a pic on the Bayside Marine website.

www.baysidemarinesc.com. I'll post link below.




Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:
Subject:
Comments:
Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL:

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ NMS WWWBoard Version 1.0 ] [ FAQ ]