I was itching to get back out after last Wednesday's productive session so I caught a score of Macks and headed out Monday night at around 1am to try and fish the incoming until sunrise. Water was flat calm, surf was minimal, wind was light, but the SALAD. It was without a doubt the most ridiculous amount of kelp and assorted seaweeds I had ever seen. I'm talking clumps as big as five feet across and weighing 20-30lbs at a time. Salad that made the clickers on both rods scream within minutes of casting and would take drag in the undertow. I should have taken a picture. Somehow I got a run in the midst of the stuff and hooked into what was definitely a nice shark. However, once I got it close to the undertow it rubbed right through my 100lb shock and broke off...great. I kept trying for another couple of hours but as the tide switched to outgoing the salad that had been washed ashore began to get pulled back out and it got even worse. The salad was so bad that I lost two rigs trying to drag the ridiculous amount of deadweight through the undertow. It was pretty unbelievable and I called it at around 4:30.
The next night I headed back out to the same spot despite the adverse conditions the night before. Madness? Maybe, but I knew there were fish around. In addition to the shark I lost I reeled in several missing or shredded baits. I was planning on fishing from 1:30-6am or so and figured that if I deserved a second chance on the grinner it would happen. I cast out both my rods and was immediately pleased to discover that the salad situation had drastically improved from the night before. I was still catching plenty of it but nothing compared to the night before. At about 4:30 I felt a thump on the rod I was holding (I only have one PVC pipe so I just hold the other rod). I held my breath as the line slowly started pulling from the clicker in a manner similar to the way the salad had been doing throughout the night but a few seconds later I realized this was no kelp and I set the hook as hard as I can. I saw the splash about 100 yards out and a screaming run followed. I tried to keep the fish in front of me rather than running sideways into underwater obstructions and it surfaced a few more times to let me know its location. About 20 minutes later I landed my new PB soupie, a tank of a female that I measured out to be roughly 6.25'/76'' in length. I tried to get some photos but they didn't do the fish justice; I haven't found a good way to take photos of nighttime fish while solo yet. I didn't want to keep her out of the water any longer though so I quickly worked out the hook and released her.
The big female wasn't the only soupfin around. As the sun slowly began to rise I got two more runs in a span of about five minutes, with one dropping the bait before I could get to it and the other spitting the hook as soon as I connected with it. I was soon down to my last piece of bait and flung it out. As I was beginning to tear down my stuff the clicker screamed and I set the hook into a fish that melted about 50 yards of line off the spool so fast I burned holes in both of my thumbs trying to stop it. I was thinking giant bat ray but the head shakes and sudden direction changes were definitely sharklike...about another fifteen minutes and a few more fast runs later I beached a smaller 5.5' soupie. Hardest fighting one I've hooked so far! Since it was daylight I was able to get a photo of me holding it by propping my phone against the rod spike, flipping the camera, recording a quick video of me holding the fish, and taking screenshots from that. I sent the shark back and by that point it was around 6:00 and time to head back to make my morning classes. Great session and proof that persistence pays off!
Photos are here
https://kamran-walsh.smugmug.com/My-New-Gallery/
