Kayak Fun 5-19-17!

I took a quick trip out of the harbor with Jack to make sure I can still handle my kayak.  I was pleasantly surprised that it all came back to me even though I hadn't been out since last fall. 

The weather was beautiful - sunny and barely a breath of wind.  The water temperature was 65 degrees and glassy calm.  We headed towards the pipeline.  Jack brought a package of frozen squid for each of us.  We also brought our sabiki rigs to try for mackerel. 

I had three new rods and reels that I got just for fishing in my kayak.  Two Penn Fathom 15NLD 2 Speed on Penn Carnage II Light/Medium Rods (12-30 pound) and one Penn Fathom 25NLD 2 Speed on Penn Carnage II Medium Rod (15-30).  One was set up as a halibut rig with 20# fluoro on 50# Spectra.  A second was set up with a sliding sinker on 30# fluoro tied to 50# Spectra.  The Fathom 25 was set up to flyline a mackerel on 40# fluoro. 

We were just a half mile out of the harbor when we decided to bait up.  I pinned a squid on my 20 pound halibut rig with a 3 ounce weight.  I traveled a few yards and got slammed by something big.  Head shakes at first then a long run.  I tried to tighten my drag but it didn't help.  I would get a few winds and the fish headed back to the bottom.  It was like trying to bring up a garage door.  Even dropping into low gear couldn't stop this fish.  My rod was bent nearly in half but nothing would stop this fish.   I sure wish I had been on 40#.  I was drug around, fighting this fish for over 30 minutes and only got it to come up once just enough for Jack to get a glimpse of it.  He believes it was a large halibut especially since a 33 pounder had been caught in the harbor the week before. 

It was fun until the line finally snapped.  Since I brace my rod on my left knee when I pull on a fish, my knee got pretty beat up.  Nicely bruised now. I switched to 40# for the rest the day.

We headed out to the barber poles.  When we got there, the current was screaming south.  It was very difficult to peddle with the current.  The wind came up too and that brought the chop on the water.  We decided to head back to the pipeline to fish but before we got there, the water was so rough we decided to call it a day.  We had traveled 7 miles and were ready to call it a day.