Morning Everyone!
Figured I would throw up yesterdays update this morning, since I was occupied with something else last night, which I will show you later.
Yesterday wasn’t one to write home about, that for sure. However it was a beautiful day to be on the water, and we had great company along to pass the time. “Barnacle” Brad made it up, and a new fishin’ friend came up with him, her name is Vivian. We also had Mackie along for one of his last 2 days in town, and of course there was me and Lonny.
The day started out with a lack of herring, we did find a few but they were playing hard to get. Good thing we decided to bring the frozen herring as a just in case measure. Past experience has taught us that sometimes they are just hard to track down so have a back up plan.
We make sure everyone has their gear ready and I pull us into our first drift of the day. Brad and Mackie get their gear in the water, Lonny is showing and explaining to Vivian what to do, slowly releasing her line down to the bottom, touch bottom, lift up, bam “F.O.B”! Lonny hands off the rod to Viv, so she can get a feel for how her new rod reacts and feels when there is a fish on the line. She cranks and cranks and brings up the first fish of the day a Greenling. Not exactly what we were hoping for but fish in the boat is a good thing.
Folks I don’t care what people think, there is a such a thing as beginners luck. 99% of the time when we take someone new with us fishing, they are the ones that catch their Ling Cod first. Viv was no exception, I’m not sure if it was her 2nd or 3rd drop, but tick tick, bam “F.O.B” and it was a nice little fighter for her. Not sure who was tuckered out more after that fight Viv or the Ling. Here is a picture of her with her very first Ling… 27 1/2 inches of deliciousness…
After Viv caught her fish I was up to bat to try and get a Ling. My season so far has been less than stellar, I think a lot of it has to do with me wanting others to catch fish more than myself, so I am paying more attention to them than to my own fishing. I have lost a few monster hit, and fights so far. Its not as though I’m not getting fish, they are just smarter than I am at this point in the season. They either get my bait, get me snagged or just plain old out fox me and get off the line while the fight is on. Today however I finally got a little revenge on one of those buggers… 29 3/4 inches…
Mackie unfortunately had another frustrating day. He hooked 3 more ling that were under size limit, and a Black Sea Bass. None of which we were able to keep. I really want him to at least catch one keeper before he goes home today. Its always great to have him around, he is such a great guy and a a really good friend. We will miss him when he goes back home.
Brad had a frustrating day too. Remember that whole thing about the fish being smarter than I am so far this season, well they are doing the same thing to Brad. Nice hit, and into the rocks they go. Snap, pow, tie a new leader on. After a half dozen of those in less than an hour and anyone’s frustration level will rise. The day wasn’t a total bust for our boy though, he did manage to catch Taco 1 and Taco 2, 2 nice size Greenlings that will make wonderful fish tacos! He also landed and released 2 Brown Rock Fish. 1 of which made for a nice Eagle snack.
Lonny had an off day also, he did manage to land a couple of Red Irish Lords, that Viv took home with her to try. He did have some reel seat issues on his new rod and reel, when he was pulling up the first fish he hooked the reel just kind of popped of the rod. NOT COOL. I try to help him get it situated but it keeps jumping off, finally he holds it in place long enough to get the fish in. After a thorough inspection we can’t see a problem. So we write it off until we have a break or get it home to figure out whats going on with it. At this point I just give him my setup to use. A bit of time passes and everything seems to be going ok, other than no fish, when all of a sudden. Lonny has a strike, when he sets the hook he accidentally his the thumb release on my reel. Yep you guessed it folks MAJOR and I do mean MAJOR free spool, which results in the worst birds nest I have ever encountered.
Which leads me to why I am writing this update this morning and not last night. I was trying to contend with this…
On the surface it doesn’t look thaaaaaat bad, but trust me when I tell you folks that sucker was DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. I spent 4 hours, yes folks you read that right 4 hours last night trying to unmuck that mess. I had the reel completely broke down, spool off and it still took that long. Whats worse is I wasn’t able to save it all. I lost close to 50 yds of braid to that mess.
Since I had the reel broken down anyway, I gave her a major cleaning and inspecting. As I was doing my close inspection I noticed that my thumb bar release has a big ole crack in it. I don’t think it had anything to do with what happened to Lonny, but that crack would explain why the reel had been acting funny for the last 2 days. Not sure if it got hit, or if it is just a fatigue crack, things like that occur when the reel is over 7 years old. At least I know where to get a replacement for it =).
Ok that’s it for this update, I will leave you with a couple close ups of the fishes we caught today, I know how you guys and gals love your fish porn…
Until next time, “F.O.B”
Fishin with Winkstr 