Long day. Launched earlier than I meant to and got to the pier in the dark. Nothing much doing so I moved off and waited to be shown the way. Sure enough, like a switch being thrown the bait starts popping at gray and not long after that there's 2 dozen in the tank. Start heading north to resume the but hunt. Tyler joins me and we hit the reefs. Nobody home and the slight morning breeze dies so we have no drift. Take the opportunity to keep paddling up.
Get about 2 miles north of the reefs and start working the sand. Slow. Then Tyler gets hooked up. Looks promising....
but turns out to be this nonsense....
.
Long story short, we hit every piece of sand from TP golf course to the TP reefs for only a few scraped baits. Tyler headed in but I still had some bait and beer so I stayed on the hunt. Was resigned to my last drift after 11 hours of fishing, when I finally get picked up. Feels right, but comes unbuttoned halfway. Damn! Reset and drop back down. Drift over the same spot and, bang!, hook up again. This one holds and at color its flat, but small.
Fling it in the boat where it proceeds to flop around and smack me in the nuts. Looks close so I finally get a hold of it and measure. Measured four times and every time it was 22+.
Decided to release and pocket the points as I didn't feel like dealing with it anymore after the shot to the groin. Reset the drift and immediately caught a short (~18in) on my finally bait: a lizardfish. Out of bait, out of beer, and out of energy, I called it a day and landed 13 hours after I launched. While I guess I got my but, I want the one I dropped so I'll be out there again tomorrow. 8)
Looking forward to the 1st of the month, when I can fish for YT again. Halibut fishing sucks! :lol: :lol: