Well... I couldn't make it up to the VC last night where I really wanted to soak this guy but I wasn't going to let him spoil either so I made a quick run to the pier nearest to me and ended up slide baiting it a bit after the sunset. So I started by letting an 8oz sputnick fly from my longrod from the corner end of the pier and slowly reeled in the slack until the Sputnik had a firm grip and gave my line plenty of tension to slide the bait down on. I added 6'of 100lb mono rub leader to the bridle and clipped it onto my mainline with a Breakaway slider which I attached a glow stick to so I could keep track of where the slide was in the darkness. I let it soak for almost an hour until I decided to reel in , check bait and recast...The good news was the bat came back up looking great still, hooks or wire didn't slip at all, so I almost feel confident this bait rigging could be straight cast from the sand and supplies lash down nicely....so I repeat the procedure and slide it down again and wait...after about 15 minutes I see the tip of my rod to yank, yank, bounce, bendo and hear a huge splash about where my line entered the water. Holy S!! I grab my rod and another big splash....and then another but with a. It exhaling of air sound with it...Someone yells "it's a seal"😒and sure enough a friggin seal came by and grabbed my rigged up bat...bastard, what a waste of a good looking bait...hopefully I'll run into another newbie baby bat as the rigging style seemed like it will hold up and present the bait well even being cast from the sand in VC....😕
