from over the summer.
Went to port a in july. Second to last full day there, it finally got flat and clear enough to take out the yak under the birds. Yakked out around a mile or so. Fish were busting the surface. Bait was flying around. Saw a few small tarpon roll and a kingfish jetted probably 10 feet into the air. Started tossing a red/white cocahoe on a quarter oz jig head while soaking cut bait out the back of the yak. Lost a shark and landed a gafftop all the while getting lure after lure broken off. Finally set the hook solid on a fish. On speck gear, this fish was kicking my butt. Took probably 30 minutes to get it to the yak just to see it. A gorgeous kingfish. Fought it longer and tried to figure out what I would do with it if I landed it. Let some line out on the fish and just kept pressure on it while I got the net from the front dry storage. Unfortunately, the fish didn't fit in the net. When it looked tired enough, I grabbed the fish by the tail and tossed it into the dry storage, where I had to bend its tail to make it fit. Came back to the beach and got some pics:
Went out on my last full day as well. The birds were more spread out. I ended up about a mile down current and probably a bit less than a mile out while chasing the birds. Unfortunately, the bait balls that had before yielded good game fish were filled with gafftop. I saw one small kingfish that came up to inspect my kayak and then quickly disappeared. After throwing jigs of various kinds and spoons and only a few gafftop, including one that stuck me in the leg, to show for the effort, I turned around to go have a cold beer on the beach. On the way back, I spotted a large dark shape about 30 or so yards away. Thinking it might be some debris that would possibly be holding some fish, I began to paddle over. A tail then came out of the water. Probably the largest tail I have ever seen. I decided, well heck, might as well go see what it is. I came almost on top of the creature and found it to be a large whale shark. I reached down and touched the tail, because who can resist such a once in a lifetime ordeal? I realized then that the whale shark had a gang of cobia steering along with it. Big cobia. Monster size. Some were 80+ lbs. Well, sitting in that kayak with 10 lb test, those cobia sure didn't have much of a problem breaking my old line with the first burst of energy. I only ended up landing one at 27 inches after hooking and losing quite a few others before lost track of the shark and his companions. I also had hailed a boat over and they got to catch a few fish off the shark as well. Headed back worn out. That beer waiting on me was the best one I ever had.
