With the tides not in my favor for my usual late arrivals, I hit the sand at 3:30am to fish the incoming.
Quickly got the first bait in water and opened up Facebook to see that Tom scored, but not Steve.... sweet. Baits went untouched the first hour then the critters showed up. It's a shame that primo macks have to go to waste.
I get my first grinner bite a little after 5am. My reel made one click and I look over to see my rod standing straight up with no bend in it. Run over and take in the slack and my line comes right for a hot minute then slack again. Bait was dropped. I let it sit for another minute or so to see if it'll come back. Nada. I reel in to see the whole bottom portion of my bait is gone. 0 for 1. I'm fishing big baits for big results, but maybe my hook is too small as this was repeated 2 more times. 0 for 3.
First light shows and I start to see pelicans congregating over an area of water just south of me. So, I pack up and head that way. As I set my gear down I see the pelicans are divebombing away!! I quickly rebait and have a my bait out. I'm on in seconds and can see a splash and a fin break the surface. And then I'm off. WTF?!! I reel to find my bait absolutely shredded. Repeat the process and I'm on before I could even put my rod in the spike. And just like that, I'm off. What the phuckity phuck?!!!! I decide to scale down my bait size and quickly have out as it's already 6:10 and I have to leave by 6:30am. I see another big slash and my line comes tight. I do an insurance hookset since I'm using a J hook just to make sure. A couple moderate runs and I slid her up on the hard pack. Kind of disappointed with the fight, but happy to pad the lead. 67".
