Well, where to begin...got off work at 5, got home and got a message from Steve, asking if I'm still heading out and where...and after some haggling we decide to fish local.
As I'm arriving, it's 7, I see Steve roll up, for once I'm the 1 early to the spot, sorta...he has all his stuff set up and quickly gets a bait in the water, while I shoot the sh!t, he gets bit by a spunky mid sized bat...so far so good...that was quick so I'm hoping it'll be a great session.
Far from it for me so far. I'm going without any bites and Steve gets a nice little hit...did he miss it? Nope, got a nice size round stingray (is this a -1?)
I check my bait, nada, rebait with a mack tail and send her out.
And well, not much is going on, no kelp, nice manageable surf, sob its nice, just lacking action...just when I'm gettin bummed, I get a slow run going south if where we are situated...not much of a dramatic fight, I get it coming in, it then decides it's gonna continue cruising south of our spot. Ever determined to get his hands on the big ray we thought I had, Steve abandons his rod that's still soaking and makes his way down the beach, somewhere in the area of 150' yards. Meanwhile I can't gain line, I can only follow it...when I see it finally exposed and I hear Steve scream holy sh!t Ray!!! I'm just thinking this is no ray...I run up and see an absolute brute of a 7gill beached on Its back and Steve doing his best to keep it from getting dragged back from the waves...luckily there's some joggers who hold my rod, while I grab the tail and me and Steve gave it a mighty heave ho! The 7 was just simply to heavy and we may have dragged it 5 feet and it was simply to much...the hook removal and pics will have to be while getting splashed by waves...I remove the hook which was perfectly in the corner of the mouth..we snap some pics, get the measurement of 108.5", and make struggle of dragging him back, followed by watching him slowly, but with authority swim off.
At this point, I'm good, I wind in, sit down and hope Steve cam nail 1...and he does, with another round stingray! By this time we give it 1 more soak, and call it a night...