After fishing Carneros this afternoon (let's just say it wasn't worth a report), I got home at around 3:30, kicked around the house for a while and was back out in the harbor by 6. I was amazed at how many people were fishing. There were 6 or 7 guys fishing FROM the bait barge, 4 or 5 fishing from shore, 2 or 3 on the jetty, one guy in a float tube, and 4 or 5 people on the end of the sandbar!!!! Every single person had cleared out before it got dark. Perfect, all the harbor to myself for the seabass. I decided Pete has been having too much fun with his light gear catching seabass, so I took the crankin rod with 10 lb. test. I threw the fastrac minnow (4") around the bait barge for about 10 minutes before I saw a small seabass follow it up. It was far from legal. I've seen bigger ronkies. Next cast, tap, tap, KAPLOW!!!! Solid fish. On the hookset I thought it would be the typical, 26, 27 inches, but to my delight, zzziiiinnnngggg... Off to the races. I'm sitting there in my float tube, watching my spool of line melt before my eyes, and I decided something had to be done. So, I followed it (or it towed me, I don't know which...). And I followed it. And I followed it. It pulled me from the bait barge, across the boat lanes, and over two rows before I took control. The fish was aiming for a row but that's where I drew the line. I wasn't about to let him wrap me around a piling. So I held my ground, and eased him in. With all three trebles on the bait, he had one in his mouth, and one in between both gill plates on the bottom, so gilling was out. Because of the light line, I didn't want to crank his head around to grab him behind the eyes, so, the fish was pretty beat, so I got a death grip on his tail and kicked like hell toward shore to deal with him. Finally got that taken care of. Unfortunately, I took so long fighting that fish, I had missed out on the rest of the bite, so I called it a night. The fish went 13.4 lbs. and 38". I'll try to post a pic. Man, what fun. I have to say that the fish tonight was more fun than the 23 lber. I got last week.


http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/396567361d68d900.jpg