Well, it was not just any Tuesday.
With Tom out, I made plans to check out a few beaches and assess conditions. Drove some extra mileage and ended up at the second beach I checked. Oh well.
Got there well before sunset and made a few casts to occupy my time. A couple kids decided they were going to sit and wait until I caught a fish. At least a half hour. Ugh. Question after question.
Ray showed up, got his gear together, and on his first cast, probably five minutes in, he gets bit.
He totally Phonged me. I've been there for a couple hours and he shows up and nails one right off. Used to that when its corvina, but not so much with the bats.
It was a pretty nice one at 51"
Some time passes, I'm still not bit, and Ray is on again. Dang it. This time he hangs up on some reef, I follow the line to see whats up and there is his bat on the other side of the rock. Ray frees his line and I grab the leader to get the fish closer to shore for the grab. All of a sudden the line snaps and his ray is a free swimmer. Luckily it didn't notice and I was able to do a snatch and grab and land it, saving his rig as well as the fish.
54" this time.
Ray doesn't like to take pics with bats. He won't smile.
I had enough and made a move to the other side of Ray and cast out. Soaked a little while and decided to do a little housekeeping, tighten up my line, check for weeds, etc.
As I held the rod in my hand, I feel a nice bump. Then another stronger one, so I set the hook. Fish on.
Ray comes over to see what is going on and runs over to land my fish. Finally. Been a little slow for me.
80"
Snapped a few pics and sent it on its way.. It seemed like a clean release, and the fish appeared to swim off well, it was on the sand a much shorter time than others. But, Ray looked over 15 minutes later and saw it on the sand, washed up. We drug it into the water to revive it and after some anxious minutes, it swam off. We kept an eye on the shore the rest of the time we were there and didn't see it again.
By this time the sea monsters were beginning to show up.
We decided to pack it in. Then, just at the buzzer, on his last bait, Ray is on again.
He even had his backpack on.
68"
Guess he doesn't like pics with sharks either. Smile Ray, this is fun.
Maybe he felt bad because this one had a bite out of it.
Anyway, it was a great night. Sorry you couldn't be here on fishing Tuesday, Tom, but there will be more. Take your time and heal up.
