10/30 trip and lessons learned.
Oct 31, 2016 16:35:57 GMT -5
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mwardncsu and tblspoon like this
Post by bigd7400 on Oct 31, 2016 16:35:57 GMT -5
Hit the water about 630 and caught bait pretty easy. Scrounged up a half dozen dollar bills but not before learning lesson #1 DO NOT blindly throw your net at flips if you havent checked it out with sonar! We shredded a brand new net to the point of no repair. This brings us to lesson #2 back up nets are not only a good idea but a necessity lol! Luckily we had a 2nd old beat up net and it did its job. We started pulling and had some real nervous bait almost from the get go. Got a few quick tugs here and there on both bank side boards and downline set around 12ft but no serious takers. The wind kicked up around 12 and in the midst of fighting it in the kayak of course one of my boards got crushed. A huge mess ensued with all kinds of tangled lines and snagged hooks but the fish stayed button up, the problem was....it was a 4lb green fish. After cussing and untangling and cussing and cutting and rerigging and a little more cussin I was back to fishing. Pulled all the way back to the ramp and was about to call it a day when I got absolutely crushed. The drag was screaming and the rod almost pulled out of the holder before I grabbed it. I reared back as hard as I could and started reeling with little effect, the drag just kept rolling. I tightened it down and the fight began for real. After a 3 minute tug of war I felt the dreaded nothingness of a lost fish. Much to my surprise the line was intact but the hook was bent to a 45 degree angle and I will never know if it was a huge striper orgiant flathead but either way it was a rush. That was the final lesson #3 my hooks are woefully light for serious striper fishing though they have handled fish up to 15lb with no problem in the past. We live and learn so til next time tight lines.
