Took my 1st serious trip of the season last night at the local inlet.
Fished almost the entire tide stage with little blues running around making all kinds of splashing with no stripers to be found. Was working my way back down the inlet and switched to a SS Bottle. I saw a double shooting star and **WHAM**. Rod doubled over and line starting peeling. Put the pole against my thigh and held on for dear life. Fish broke the water once since it was close to the rocks.
Started to make my way down to see what was on the other end after the battle was nearly over and the fish was dropped, all I got back was the swivel that connected my 50# mono leader to my main line braid. Rocks cut the leader off along with my bottle and whatever was on the end of the line. The leader was probably too short and my heart sank a little. First fish of the season and it ended like that.
Put on a loaded Redfin and made a longer leader in hopes of catching whatever got the bottle. Hooked into a nice bluefish. Sadly it was foul hooked in the gills once I made my way down to the water and had to bring it up and had no bottle attached.
Next cast had a miss. The next one was the hardest hit I ever felt. Line started peeling like crazy (my drag isn't set exactly light either) and the fish stayed under the water the whole fight. Made multiple strong runs. Judging by the "pumps" the rod tip was making I figured it to be a very upset bluefish. Since the last fist I fought was a good sized blue, this felt like Godzilla. Turned out to be...
http://s1095.photobucket.com/user/JM..._3881.jpg.html
My first ever gator!!!! Off a modded Redfin that I did with my father which also contains copper plated BBs from my Great Grandfather's BB gun from way back in the day.
This fish was also foul hooked along with slamming itself into the rocks, no point in throwing it back to die in minutes. Took it up, made a new leader, had a miss or 2 and left with my catch since it was 2am and I was about 45 minutes from home. Got in the door, my mother was awake and saw the problem we had, 3am and we can't fit this thing in the fridge as it barely fit in the cooler. Dad wakes up pissed off that he saw lights on and I got a ton of ice to hold it over. Went to bed and got the best sleep in months.
But it wasn't completely the catch that made this so sweet. Next to using a customized plug, I learned that I need thicker mono for rocks (the longer leader still got dangerously frayed after that one fish), I got over my leeriness of fishing the inlet after falling in a few years back (I avoided the inlet until now), and don't use a $20 plug if rocks are going to have a chance of cutting it off.
In the end, the fish measured 34" and weighed 6 lbs. Dad had the audacity to say,"Congratulations on the catch, but it isn't worth causing you to wake up the house. Oh yeah, and it wasn't even a striper." I just smiled even though he meant it seriously and told him to go do better.
My mother was excited as all hell (she grew up fishing) and man that fish was gooooood. The interesting part was that in both fish GI tracts there was no evidence of bait. They didn't even puke.
http://s1095.photobucket.com/user/JM...25814.jpg.html
Whoever catches a fish with a yellow SS bottle treat it well! Now then, time to fight a Gorilla blue....
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