Went out again last night with Mike and we hit up another location in SD county. When we arrive around 8:30ish. The tide and current continues to be amazing. High tide was forecasted to be around 1am (Little 1-2 feet waves and no current.) Mike was fishing his long rod in free spool with just the clicker on. Our first location tonight was weedy for me and I was pulling in 4-5 feet long brown ribbon kelp and small red lettuce kelp on my rig. We move down the beach 100 yards and the conditions were much better. (No more Ribbon Kelp) Mike is the first to hook up with a nice 47” Bat.
While Mike is hooked up I see my rod go bendo too. I set the drag on my fish and I have it on for 30secs before it pops off. I reel my line in while Mike’s bat runs in front of me. (I reeled my line in just in time to get out of his way) The bait on my rig is crushed like it was hit by a bat, so I’m not too hart broken.
I rebait my rig and send out another chunk of Mac body and I sit back and wait. I see Mike land a nice size Calico Bass when then my rod goes off again. This fish was a beast. Right away I know what this is by the fast runs and top water action. It makes a dash to the left and breaches the surface and then moves right. I love the way these fish fight. It takes a couple of tries to beach her because she did not want to come in. I finally get her to calm down enough to have my trusty sand hand tail grab her. Every time Mike tries to drag her up the beach she does the death roll and gives him the tail slap. (I think Mike has a few scares from this shark) We do a quick tape measure and she’s 75” long and very thick. I drag her back into the water but it takes 3-4 tries before she wakes up and swims off.
We stayed for another hour and I land a nice Calico, but that was it for tonight. This run of grinners has been a blast for me.
Good luck out there.
