So, I packed the truck on Tuesday night hoping to get out on Wednesday for the great rising tide. Steve texted and said he was out, but my bait was thawing and needed to get used. I get a text that he was back in and we picked a spot in the middle to meet. I was just packing up and got another text that he was a little premature for saying he was going and needed to be around the house for medical oversight.
I ran up to find decent conditions. Tide was about mid way up and the beach had some random eel grass and kelp, but thankfully the water appeared to be semi-clean after 3 practice casts. Every 15 minutes, the sets would come in pretty big, but it was a nice 2’-3’ for the most part.
First cast and I had my bait ganked. Second cast and the bait was ganked. Third cast and I was on, but the bait got ganked again… this happened a few more times before I realized I was casting into a swimming pool filled with calico!
Every cast for 14+ casts and I was bit. I started cutting smaller chunks since I was burning through my baits at record pace. I finally started holding the rod after the cast and started to catch them more frequently.
I moved down 20 yards in hoping to get away from them and pinned on a big ass chunk of mack. It went about 25 yards shorter than my previous casts, but I left it out there. I unbuckled my waders to take a piss and all of a sudden my reel starts screaming out! Trying to stop pissing mid-stream, pulling up my pants and grabbing my waders so I don’t trip and bite it on the way to the reel was a little much. Soon as I grabbed the rod, it dropped it.. UGH…. 0-1 on sharks already, but I pinned another bait on and kept going.
The bass and critters kept stealing baits and I was on my last mackerel out of the dozen I brought, but it was a big mackerel. I was sitting on my cooler when I saw a bounce in the rod and then the line just went slack! Shark on!
It was a sevengill as I could hear the tail slapping and got it into the white water. I was heading down to grab it, but my line was going left and the shark was thrashing in the wash to the right. WTF?!? I tried reeling to see what the hell was going on, and realized I had a HUGE KELP and GRASS ball on my line! The shark was going right, but he couldn’t pull the ball to the left since it was so big. I loosened my drag a little and ran down to tail the shark. As I grabbed it, I slipped into the surf and it turned on me! f@ck! It almost got me and I was freaking lucky as hell it didn’t latch on. I grabbed the tail, but force of the kelp ball yanked it out of my hands and then pulled the hook! I got to watch it slowly swim back out to sea… and then had to battle the kelp ball to get my hook and rig back which is now all tangled up in the ball of hell! UGH. 0-2 on sharks tonight.
I cut the line for a quick slide through the kelp and retie the same rig. I get the last mackerel head out in the same spot and go to have a seat. As I was sitting, my fat ass started to creak the lid of the cooler when I realized it was my rod clicker going off! Damn! On again!
This time, I had everything go right and got her to the beach. I kind of hurt my shoulder trying to pull her up as the waves were hitting the cliff near me and bouncing off. I didn’t want to be a part of that mess, so took a quick measurement and picture before letting her go.
83” Female Sevengill. Incoming. Mackerel. 2’-3’ swell.
Between my back and my shoulder, it sucks getting old, but I ended up 1-3 on the sharks and caught 7 calico. Not a bad night.
I got home to see my leader absolutely shredded! Man, this thing will need to be changed out as I don’t think I can even use it as a spare rig anymore.
Well, thanks for reading and until next tide.
