After being contacted by Puget Sound we set up a day to fish from the beach. We
met in the morning and tried our luck fishing for silvers only to get blanked. I told him that the night tide and bite should be better and we agreed to meet in the same spot that evening. I arrived before him and started fishing. Not too long after a friend of mine showed up and sat on a piece of driftwood tying up & looking for any silvers to show themselves. Meanwhile I noticed Puget Sound walking with his daughter towards me, he then stopped about 100 yds. short of me and started fishing himself.
I caught and released a 14" ling and went back to throwing a white & hologram
buzz bomb. Something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. It was a school of needle fish boiling on the surface with no diver duck in sight. I quickly made my way down the beach (about 20 yds.) so they were directly in front of me.
I made a cast directly over and past the commotion about 10 feet working my lure
back to the baitfish. All of a sudden I got a thunderous strike and my line was peeling
off my spool at a high rate. Fearing that I was going to look down and see the polished metal of an empty spool, I started thumbing it to get some control. With
10 lb. line I couldn't get too agressive and risk getting broke off. I managed to stop him and gain quite a bit of line before he took off on another run. Again thumbing the spool stopped him allowing me to get him thirty or so yds before his next run.
We went through this about 4 or 5 times before he was close enough that the surf
surged him up on the gravel beach, still being partially in the water. I made a quick move to the fish and realized it was a nate. With the waves crashing in rhythm and fearing he would take off again I grabbed him under the gill plate and tried to remove the hook. It was deep in his mouth and stuck in his boney mouth but good. While I was fighting the fish, Puget Sound made his way down and watched the whole thing
go down. He quickly offered his pliers and the fish was free of the hook. The friend that was sitting on the log pulled out his cell phone and snapped a picture before I released him back into the salt.
Puget Sound, it was nice to meet and fish with you. Too bad we didn't get into any silvers. Maybe next time.
