Woke up late on Sunday and finally made it to the water about 10:30. Water looked good enough with no apparent red tide and small surf.

About 5 min into fishing I get thumped on the 4 inch 'Blue Shad' hammer. When I wound down I could tell this was something big. It immediately took off for deep water, ripping line off my new Curado 300. At first I was thinking big flattie or a black, but after it sat on the bottom for about 5 min, I knew it was the wrong kind. I was bent big time and couldn't budge the beast off the bottom. After 10 min, I convinced myself that it was a big bat ray and decided I would winch it up or bust it off. Drag was basically buttoned but I still had to thumb the spool. It was everything I had to get it coming up 5 inches at a time, but I finally see a big triangle appear. Must of been 4 feet across at least. I had it wing hooked about 1/3 of the way back on the leading edge. Beacause it was hooked on the edge, it never sawed me off like they usually do. Finally released with a new piercing and some Big Hammer bling.

Even though it was the wrong kind it was still fun getting my but kicked by that big boy. Must of done 10 circles in the tube.

After that I worked the inside beach and outside kelp. Finally found a piece of kelp in close to shore and caught a decent yellow fin croaker on the 3 inch 'sea wolf'. Never really got into the halibut groove till late but had a flurry about 1:00. First was a 14 inch flattie, then about 5 min later came a 20.5 incher, then in short order had 2 fish that came unbuttoned but left nice deep slashes down the sides of my bait.

Not a great day but nice to get in the tube again. Hard to believe it's my first of the year. With a new boat parked out back it's hard to think about anything else. Forgot how fun it was.

Bryan