It seems like forever since I'd been fishing and I desperately wanted to get out on the sand this week. After checking the surf report, I knew last night was my only chance. We have huge surf predicted for the rest of the week and sure enough, I could see it getting really big as I drove to work this morning.
I was so anxious to start fishing that I bailed a bit early from work and got to my spot right away. The conditions looked decent and turned out to be really good the whole night. 2-4 foot waves, very little salad, current, or wind. I was expecting it to be pretty cold, but I was comfortable the whole evening.
I set up two rigs. My 12' Penn Prevail with the Penn 9500SS and my 10' Daiwa Emcast with the Penn 970 Mag Power. Both with the same terminal rigs, but I baited the longer rod with bat ray and the short one with mackerel. Once I had them soaking I settled in to enjoy the sunset.
With the weather we've been having and the changing beach terrain, I wasn't expecting much. It was a really quiet evening. A couple of people walked the beach with their dogs and kids, but as the sun set I had it all to my self. I checked my baits a few times while I waited, but it was really slow. No bites or bait stealers or anything. Then about 6:00 some kelp rolled through and I had to reel in both rigs and reset. At around 6:45, I'm thinking to myself that I'll give it another 15 minutes and if nothing happens I'll head home. Right then my longer rod took a good bounce and then a deep bow! As I ran up to the rod, the drag was singing that beautiful song of "Fish On"! It was pulling so hard I had difficulty getting the the rod out of the holder. I finally did and set the hook a couple times just to be sure. The fish just kept running. Must have taken 150 yards on the first run. I was expecting a Sevengill, but this sure wasn't acting like one. Once I got him stopped, we had a few minutes of standoff where I couldn't gain line and he wasn't taking any. When I finally started getting line back, he started heading north. I worked him in closer and closer as he went, but as soon as I got him in the breakers he took off again and peeled another 80 yards off. This run must have tired him out because after he turned I was able to work him back in and with a few well timed waves got him in the skinny. I could see now that it was in fact a Sevengill, and a pretty good size one. It had a huge head on him and heavy body. Since I was solo, I loosened the drag and set the rod back in the spike so I could drag him further up on the sand. This was the heaviest 7 at this length that I've landed. He cooperated well for a quick hook removal, measurement and pics. Then I got him back in the water and he took off immediately. This male taped out at 89".
After he swam off, I sat down for a few minutes to enjoy the adrenaline rush and send pics to a couple friends.
I put out another bait, but it sat idle for the next half hour and it was time to pack up.
Met another buddy on the way out to share some bait then home to tuck the kiddos into bed.
It was a good day
Stats for Tom:
Male Sevengill
89" long
Tide just started coming in
bat ray bait
