Well, I had a great write up last night, but my computer automatically updated to Windows 10 and I lost it all as my rant in the general category entails. lOl
I met Steve for a critter hunt last night. I have been painting my house all week and spent 10 hours in the heat trying to finish it up. The only thing it finished up was my bad shoulder and a bad sun burn. I wasn't sure how well I would hold up if I caught anything big.
I get there to a crowded beach and Steve has already released a 4' leopard. He didn't get any pics since he was bum rushed by a crowd of kids and tourists and didn't want to deal. The sand fleas are out in full effect now that Memorial Day has come and gone.
I get my first cast out when Steve's reel starts singing and heading down the beach. I started messing with my stuff and missed a smaller bite when I decided to start to track the Squatch. I saw a shadow on the sand and said "Are you bringing him back this way?"... The shadow responded "I think you mean your friend all the way down the beach". In the distance about 300 yards away I could see a faint headlamp. WTF!?! I wasn't doing that walk that far from my gear with all the rug rats around. 10 minutes later, Steve shows up with a busted line. Definitely a bat and definitely a beast.
I'm next up with a screamer and quickly realized I had a big bat on also. I actually buttoned down the drag as far as she would go and she was still screaming line out! The reel handle at the drags were getting hot! My shoulder couldn't deal with that pressure, so I straight armed the bat and thumbed the spool... for 30 minutes until I finally got her close enough for Steve to anchor. He didn't quite move her as she was too heavy, but she was on the sand and that's all that counted.
Super Preggo and as I was telling Steve how I can't believe she wasn't giving birth... they started coming!
As we grabbed the tape, I realized she was hitting the magic number for bats that has eluded me all these years.
Well maybe a 1/4" shy of 60"! (From the babies she spit out, she would have been 60" on the button) Yowzas! I've only heard of Chris getting a 60" plus bat, but don't remember if I saw the tape shot or not.
Steve took a "Sasquatch fuzzy" photo of my personal Best Bat. We had to throw 2 babies back and didn't know how many more she gave birth to while fighting her in for all that time.
Steve's rod was the next to start singing and it was another bat! The bats were thick tonight.
Another monster at 52"
(Notice how my pic of Steve came out.... lol)
Steve wound up with one more that we thought was a leopard, but turned out to be a smaller 30 pound ray. Funny how a 30 pound ray looks like bait after a 60".
We called it the night and felt pretty good. I however am good with bats until the winter now and hope to not tangle into too many more of those girls in the surf or I'd be going in to surgery for sure!
