Saturday I didnt do too well in the tournament. I was in the top third but did not place. I got my red and speck and then loaded up to make the drive to my floundering spot in the pass. I never fish on the weekends and when I got there, the jetties were loaded up with divers. Needless to say by then I didnt have time to formulate a back up plan. Im not too disappointed though because less then half of the one hundred and seventy five anglers weighed anything in.
I do wish I had decided to fish the offshore division because where I would have gone was on fire. Over twenty really nice mahi mahi and two sailfish were landed that day.
After hearing that report I went out there today to see if the fish were still there. Not long into my troll I get my first hit on the naked ballyhoo and its a soft hit and hardly pulling out any drag which was set extremely loose for kings. I figure it was a remora so I barely set the hook and star cranking it in when then I see blue and gold. It was a really nice mahi at least fifteen pounds which is really nice from a yak. I set the hook again and the fish finally realizes its hooked and goes ballistic. At first it rips out some drag and then decided to jump well over the height of my head and spit the ballyhoo back out at me.
I wasnt discouraged because if there is one mahi there is another.
The next piece of action happened when a big ole loggerhead pops up not even fifteen yards of my port side. I reel up my ballyhoo and grab my cobia rod and throw at the turtle. About that time three fish left the turtle and started coming right to my yak. The first two were remora but the second was the brown clown. Because they were coming at me, the jig was behind the fish. By now the cobia is a little over a rod length away and he whorls around and inhales my jig and heads straight for the bottom. I work him back up but see that he is kind of small. So, with out a law stick to measure him, I gently lip gaffed him and released him. Cobia have to be thirty three inches so he wasnt a small fish, just too close to call with out a law stick. I was still pumped to get a cobia from my kayak though.
A little while goes by and I get another soft hit like the first mahi. This time I free spool and let the fish eat before hitting home and its a mahi again. Sadly he was no where near as large as the first mahi but at twenty two inches I cant complain for another first from the kayak in the same day. Plus, the fish will eat just as good.
Sorry for the long read but it was a nice day on the water which almost made up for a crappy tournament.
