Fished Newport Harbor during this morning’s incoming tide. Some favorite docks were my choice considering the height of the tide. With minimal time to fish I thought I’d try to cover as much water as possible, so I started out with suspending stick bait hoping for a short WSB or maybe a halibut. After 20 minutes with nothing on the other end but the preverbal salad of eel grass, I decided it was time for a grub. The AA chartreuse & gold color was calling my name, so I pinned it onto some new fishco football heads with premium mustad hooks. Man these jigs are expensive, but they sure paid off. Three casts later I had my first Spottie of the day. Then it was steady pickings for a good half hour, until it started to slow.

As I was moving to a new section of the docks I decided to drop straight down on a pipe next to the wall. No sooner was my grub out of sight than did line start to peel of my reel. As I put the reel in gear and swung, I knew this was a big fish. I couldn’t stop it as it ran right under the dock and into the weeds. I had half my rod underwater and bent under the dock as I worked to regain line. Then I saw it, and it was HUGE! The Spottie had grass and weeds all over its head, and was trying to wrap me around the pipe. Luck was on my side as I reached down and was able to lip the beast. It was so big I was thinking World Record. There was a guy working on a boat in a near buy slip that had a tape measure. It taped out at 17.5”. WOW, what an adrenaline rush! It was the biggest Spottie I’ve ever seen, and bigger than most Calico’s and Sandbass I’ve caught. It was a tuff choice, but since I didn’t have a scale, I decided it should live to fight another day.

Total count for an hour and a half was 8 fish. But I will never forget the last one.

JP