After getting some honey-do's done last night I made a quick run out to soak some bait for a bit. Had a couple hours before the Sheriff would kick me out and I needed a break from the heat also. I waited for the last few beach goers to pack up and got my first bait in around 8:30. The arsenal was my old reliable Penn 9500SS with upgraded drag, Motive Fab Titanium AR kit, bailless kit and power handle compliments of Sal mounted on a 12" heavy Penn Prevail. Second outfit is my Ugly Duckling 970 on a 6'6" Tsunami Airwave (not the usual surf setup, but I've been wanting to use it really bad!
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Conditions were perfect! Nice high tide right at dusk. 0-1' surf. Zero salad. No wind. Actually, I was wishing there was a breeze because it was still pretty hot. I fished for 2 hours, changing baits on each rod a couple of times, and having no action at all. At 10:30 I started packing my gear. As I glanced over at my long rod, I see the line go slack, here we go! Tighten the drag, set the hook, fish on! I knew right away it was a sevengill, and it felt like a small one, but I’m always excited to land one of these! A nice big surge help push it up on the beach and I see it’s a female. A first for me since all my others have been males. She taped out at 77.5” and was back in the water swimming away in a couple minutes.
As I was loading the rest of my gear the Sheriff rolled by, gave me a thumbs up, and headed on his way.
Date: 07/09/2018
Species: Female Sevengill
Length: 77.5”
Tide: Outgoing tide
Bait: Bat Ray