well…with L.A. beaches closed ‘n’ reports showin’ multiple swells…yikes!!!
now…without the crutch of easy launches…my eyeball keeps twitchin’…
the twitchin’ didn’t easy up as i explored the possibilities on PCH…
goleta…santa barbara…carpentaria…ventura…oxnard…port hueneme…
gunna be a long search… every spot looked wicked…the surf at all the beaches
seemed to focus on all the swell directions…
as i drove by beach after beach…gulp!!! i swallowed my nervous spit…
finally…i realized…it didn’t matter…i was gunna take a beating…so …
i just pulled over at the easiest spot i could find…’n’ gassed it…
somehow…by the grace of god…i made it out…not without a few waves
in the face you understand…now…wot to do??? with all the kelp beds
decimated along our coast this year…it was gunna be some difficult huntin’…
i picked up some jack mackerel during my exploration…when i finally found
some good reef-age…i sent a jack down on the bottom along the edge of the reef…
just in case a lonely halibut was hangin’ out like i was…
then i took a salas 6xjr ‘n’ sent it down mid column…jiggin’ once every
couple of minutes (an odd jiggin’ practice to be sure)…after a few calicos on the jig…
slurppin’ some nectar of the gods (metric fer heineken)…the idiot crew members
in my head said “well, no swine rat bastards here, let’s explore some other reefs?”…
so…i swung that jig one more time ‘n’ as it fluttered to a stop…i knocked back
a slurp off my beer…slam-zingo-bingo-kaboom!!! my rod goes bendo!!! holy-ba-jesus!!!
nearly crapping my pants…i grabbed ahold of my rod ‘n’ hung on fer dear life!!!
it was sooo heavy…a worthy opponent to be sure… the idiot crew members in
my head yell “it’s a thresher shark, look at that thing go!”…
it was amazing…it peeled line at a commanding pace…then…it would slow down
‘n’ leisurely tow at a slow speed as if it didn’t even realize it was hooked…then…
it would turn around ‘n’ peel line so fast…a boy scout could have started a camp fire!!!
sometimes…it would rise in the water column without peeling line ‘n’ towed me faster
than mr. toads wild ride!!!
such weight…such power…there’s usually 50 to 150 lb. thresher pups this time of year???
the anticipation was killing us (if you count the idiot crew members in my head of course)…
with no kelp…the only thing i was afraid of…was this swine rat bastard towing me out to sea…
it was a diabolical beast to be sure…
but…how strange??? this swine didn’t really go anywhere??? it headed to shore
a few times…then…back to the reef??? i soon realized…hey…this rat bastard has
been circling this reef fer 15 minutes??? i finally stomped my thumb to the line
against the rod…’n’ began to work the bastard with extra pressure…
that did the trick…i beat the swine into submission…nerves frazzled…as it reached color…
i couldn’t believe my eyes…it was the biggest sea bass i’d ever seen!!! i couldn’t
even get the swine rat bastard on my yak!!! i had to lean almost to water level
to slide the swine onto my lap…crazy!!!
it was too big to weigh with my hand scale…so a yakker i know who showed up…
suggested we go to his buddies warehouse ‘n’ weigh it on his certified scale…
it was 58 ½ inches long…the swine weighed 66 lbs...
holy-ba-jesus!!! by all that is sacred…there is a god !!!
i only wish i would have picked the rat bastard up horizontal to show the girth
of its body in a picture…
cheers !!!
