Chris and I quickly paddled out to 120 or so to check the drift, warm up and wait for Pete.
Once out there, we saw a huge pod of kings skyrocketing close to us and gain, the day just started looking better and better. We started off with a weak 1 MPH drift to the N which would only improve to 2 as the day progressed. A quick yaank, tear and slack told me the king that sliced roght through the tygerwire trace on my Williamson had some size to him....Oh well, it was early yet...
A few drops on marked fish yielded a few quick releases, which would be the pattern to come.....at least for me
Im sure the others will tell their version of the day after a bit
So after a while, Pete and his friends paddled out to meet us and we headed out to a ridge in 230, thats when the fun started.
First to score was Tony who added a nice football sized BFT to the cooler to break the ice. Pretty sure Pete has a few shots of that guy....
Shortly after that it was a blur of bent rods and Pete and Chris just put on a 'Clinic' with the AJ hookups. Many landed, many more quick released and more than a couple donated to the man in the brown suit...
Many landed, many more quick released and more than a couple donated to the man in the brown suit...
After running that ridge a while, we decided to paddle over to the Skycliffe and try our hand at some bigger fish....Shoulders needed some rest and the slow drift was a welcome break.
With the currnt running a moderate clip, we were able to make a few passes over the wreck with good hookup results...
Same story - Many big slammin hookups, some landed, some quick released and some more donated to the man in the brown suit.....
After paddling back a few times and wrestling AJ's, the shoulders all were begging to do a little drifting W the current again....
Chris and I decided to paddle ahead to a spot N of the Pier and S of Phipps, so we trolled along the ouiter edge of the 65' reefline to get to where we needed to go...
Paddling out to 120 again we set up on the Sailboat Wreck. We mark some nice fish just N of the wreck and Chris' first drop yields a nice fat Bonito. No pics - its like 2:30 P now and arms too tired to reach back for the Camera at this point...
My next drop w a Blue Mackeral Striped jig gets clobbered by a freight train ! I have the drag set for jerkin ( lol yea, as if...
) amberjacks from getting back into their holes, and that was kind of a mistake here.....This thing goes on a HUGE first run with an almost locked down drag and taked me for a quite fast sleigh ride....Chris laughs and waves bye bye as I head SE at a pretty good clip. I loosed the drag just a tad to let him run - Im thinking kingfish and after 2 good fast powerful runs, Im ready to reel in my prize.... I feel what I think are the tell-tale circling swimmings of a beat king and tighten the drag a tad.....BAD MOVE.....As soon as her gets closer to the Yak, away he goes on 4 MORE POWERFUL runs..... Finally after a couple good long rides, , he chews through the wired assist hook on the jig and Im left heartbroken with a half assist hook wire and a 7 oz butterfly jig bent like a half moon....
Hard to call - Either the BIGGEST kingfish I have ever yak hooked or possibly a good Wahoo - Hard to say, as he had power to spare after a 15-20 minute fight where he was still running hard...
Chalk one up for the fish !!! He won and deserved it!!
After we landed, We quickly saw that the AJ Pete kept wqas bigger than mine, so off to the weigh in he went and off to go home and lick my wounds I went!
Looking forward to Round II when I will NOT make the mistake of bringing a knife to a gunfight again !
Pete, thanks again for brining good friends, good numbers and and overall good company to the day ! Looking forward to your pics and take on the day Chris and Pete !
