I promised Tim, the guy who loaned me the kayak on Saturday, that I'd take him surf fishing, so Sunday night I took him to the kitchen to see if the shark bite would continue. He used my 13' 1-6 oz rod, and I used my 12' 4-8 oz rod. We both used circle hooks, because I am
NOT going to gut hook another shark.
When we arrived at sundown we found Andre already set up with two rods. That guy has been fishing hard! He didn't have anything to report, and we set up to the left of him. It was a slow night. Every half hour we swapped out baits, and occasionally we pulled in empty hooks even though we didn't see our rod tips move. There was almost zero kelp.
Finally I see a few small quivers in my rod. I pick it up to be ready, and then something starts pulling line. I set the main drag and my rod bends over hard! Whatever is on the other end doesn't change direction or shake it's head - it just swims towards the horizon like it's no big deal. Had to be a bat ray. Tim pulled in his line, and little by little I brought the fish in. When it was close to shore it veered hard towards the reef, so I carefully thumbed the spool as I backed up parallel to shore away from the reef. I felt it become immobile when my line became parallel to the surf. Sure enough, it pretty much beached itself.
51 3/4", but maybe for story telling sake I'll call it 52"
Thanks Andre and Tim for helping, and thanks Tim for a really good photo!
Tim I stuck around until 11, hoping to see the grunion run start, but we didn't see any. We didn't get any more hits on our rods. A biologist was walking up and down the beach throughout the time we were there looking for them as well. He said if they documented spawning activity then they would petition to shut down dredging in the lagoon nearby for two weeks until the eggs had a chance to hatch.
