Yesah, got into a brawl with a 40 pound Ol' Whore Doggah Bassy this evening a little after 8 o'clock. I was gonna head to tha Whore's Bed again this evening, after I had such terrible night out there last night due to tackle malfunction. I wanted redemption, and I wanted it bad. I decided to instead hit a more private, if you can call it that, rockbed along the coast....which happens to be probably my favorite place to fish on Summer evenings. Usually from 6 or 7 till dark is when I will fish it.
I got there, and decided to do the usual, half a herring on a 7/0 blood red circle sea hook, using a fishfinder rig with 3 oz. of weight. Well after about 30 minutes of fooling with that, and a lost rig, I decided I was not feeling confident in this offering.
I then started plugging some wood. And as I'm working the plug, I look up to see this black head peeping up at me. Scared me for a sec
Damn seal tryin' to piss on my picnic. I shoo-d him off, and he would appear again. The 3rd and 4th time he peeped up at me, about 25 feet away, I chucked a few rocks in his general vicinity, and it seemed he had moved along. I plugged for about 20 minutes with nary a slap.
Then, after rummaging, i found a glorious half a Mackeral in my cooler. I had forgotten I had brought it. It was the head half, and had been my freezer for almost a month
I put an 8/0 blood red circle sea hook on this time, and rigged up the Mack in a way which made it possible for me to "plug" it through the water as well as drift it. NO WEIGHT. Granted, I fish very shallow, and the water was only up to my knees on my waders, and is cnly several feet deeper max where I am casting to. I first drifted the Mack for 10 minutes, and in that time I had 5-6 very subtle hits, of which I wanted nothing to do with LMAO. So I immediately reeled the bait in, and away from the "Peckers". I casted one more time, and the Mack landed perfectly on its side, making a distinct slapping noise upon hitting the surface of the water. I then began very, very slowly reeling it in and kind of "plugging" it along, then letting it sink. Within 10 seconds, it was slammed and my baitrunner began singing. I reeled down to disengage the baitrunner drag, and the fish was on. Upon landing, it ended up that I had perfectly used this circle sea hook, as it was hooked right in the corner of this big gurls mouth.
At first I thought, damn it, I gut tha damn seal on!
But after laughing for a sec, and seeing this bass explode on the surface once I had disengaged the baitrunner and she knew she was hooked, I knew I had worthy Bassy on and I was in for a Demon Hellride. Once I had reeled down and lifted up slightly, she knew she was hooked, and she was peeling line. I know this rockbowl very, very well from years of working it, so I knew that she might head for the South end of it and head down the ledges, or, head due East and wrap me up with one of the lobster pots.
The ol girl ran for the hills, Peeling about 100 yards of 20# Fireline of my reel before finally slowing down a bit before I could even reel one crank on her. She then made another short lived run, and at that point, I was gently "palming" my spool, because I could start to see the mono backing under my Fireline. At that point, I almost crapped, and went into Battlemode 5 and really knew I needed to work to get her in now. I ended up finally gaining some ground on her, and she made several more shorter runs. After almost 15 minutes, I could finally see her dorsal fin and her back. As she got to my legs I could tell she was atleast a 40, and I was exhausted. What a broom-tail on this ol girl.
She had pretty succumb to the battle, and although I would've rather let her go, I dont think I could have properly revived her anyway. plus, with that seal around, it would've been a terrible waste to throw a belly up beaut like that back in the water. I started making calls, in order to see if someone could help me carry all my stuff up the rockbed and up the hill, while I carried the fish. But it seemed anyone who wasnt out of town and already busy, was not answering their phone. Luckily, Pete from the bait shop down the street from my house called back soon after I left him a message, and he and his dad came down in the big diesel pickup to help me get the fish out of there. I was lucky I was able to walk her up the 50-60 yards of slippery rockbed myself. I followed them back to the bait shop and we weighed and measured her up, 40 pounds-46 inches, took some pics, and then Pete gutted her and we put it in the walk in freezer.
What a beautiful night, what a battle. Calm water, just the way I like it at this spot. NO BUGS EITHER. Got my belated B-day Bassy. After years of working that water, smashin my bones up, missed fish, cut off fish, and other mishaps, I finally got something right
I proved 2 things to myself tonight.....I always knew where some quality fish were and nobody ever believes me, and second, I can tie some pretty mean knots, especially a damn palomar knot!!!!!
Pics comin' soon.
Enter - The 40 Pound Club
