Another Fishy Day

Got out to Sunset Bay This morning/ mid morning (one of those days- the weather not holding for any amount of time and the ocean not sure what it wants). Could not find any schools of blacks so went and did the next best thing switch flies for lings, figured what the hell did real good last Thursday on the lings figured I could do a repeat(9 lings- 3 broke me off in the kelp, 3 got hook but wanted their freedom more so I ended up with 3 sets of lips- not just a chunk but half of their lips"that surely had to hurt or at lease leave a mark" and 3 that followed my fly from 30ft of water up to the surface all the way to my kayak). With the first cast out and just short of dragging the bottom"WHAM" on the fourth pull the rod doubled over and the race had begun. It was your typical ling feeling some head shaking and straight for the bottom, he got stopped short of his sanctuary tried to run for the bottom again but got stopped then tried to run for deeper water when that to failed he tried to do circles (what's up with that move) then I could see a shadow forming at the end of the fly line. Then the shadow became a fish and the fish became more defined and lo and be hold it ends up being a black. OK I can live with that! So another cast or 2 and "FISH ON" this was definitely a black of some size. Two fish 2 cast -Yes I'm starting to like this day already. Then it died like no tomorrow, I hunted for fish but could not find any schools around any place. So give was thinking of giving up because the wind was starting blow pretty good but I wasn't ready to wave the white flag yet.  Found a spot next to a reef with no wind made my cast , the fly settled down near the bottom or so I thought when my fly line started to wander off. Made short work of that fish- it seems he wandered right up to the surface next to my kayak(netted and on board before he even new what hit him "well maybe not what hit him kind-of looked surprised on that one") Nailed one more on that ling fly before the wind started making things ugly. On the way back decided to try something totally off the wall troll or more like wind troll a brightly colored crab spawn fly. I cut through the outer reef and by the time I had made it to the entrance of Sunset I had a limit of blacks. Not a bad day at all but then any day out in the salt is a great day with fish being a added bonus.

Loved your report, thanks. Last time I went out I caught my first black on a fly! Fun, I will be doing more of that! 

Great tale!  Almost as busy as it always is when I manage to join you.  Great job hanging in there when the winds built up, too.

And now I know why I always catch the tiny rockfish!  I'm only using 3-4 inch flies.  Back to the bench for me!

(Did your greenling fly survive?)

all that wind, you really earned it today.