Breaking in a new gun

[Bill McIntyre]

I went out today with two guys that were in serious need of breaking in their new Wong guns. Jake Wright has a 60" Magnum hybrid, and Josh Allen has a 55" GR gun, and neither has been properly introduced to a fish. I vowed to do my best to correct the situation.

The vis looked pretty marginal at the first stop. In fact is was so marginal that I volunteered to let the guys have the bed to themselves while I took a nap. That would have worked a lot better, but Josh owns his own company and his employees call him with crises all day long, so every time I was almost asleep, his cell phone would ring. I didn't know how to silence it, and I managed to restrain my impulse to throw it overboard.

They worked it hard but said the vis really sucked worse than it looked from the boat, so we moved on. As we were running to a new spot, I looked out and saw a blue line a quarter mile offshore of us, and wished that it could be moved in a bit. But as we progressed, it actually seemed to be slanting in toward us, and by the time we got the the spot, we were in decent water. I decided not to nap this time.

As usual, I was the last one in, and while I was still on the stern putting on my fins, Jake popped up from his first dive and said he had seen a yellowtail that was a bit out of range. That seemed like a good omen.

The vis was at least 20 feet and there were lots of green mackerel, salema, blue perch, spanish mackerel, and barracuda running around, so it looked very promising. I was hearing a lot of croaking too.

After maybe 20 minutes, Jake called for a spot. I went over to help, and he said he had a nice sized white sea bass. He was holding his line, but the swivel on the end of the reel line was only a foot or so below the surface, so I was relieved that the fish couldn't be over 25 feet deep.

His first dive lasted all of 15 seconds or so, and I was relieved to see that I'm not the only one who can hardly dive right after fighting a fish and while the adrenaline is still pumping . But he was able to see that the fish was wrapped up and that his shot was good, so he relaxed a while and then went down and cut the fish out with no problem. I couldn't resist following him back to the boat to get photos, particularly while he was still in the water. And it turned out he has one of those submersible Olympus cameras, so I got a few shots under water.

The fish weighed 45 pounds, not bad for the first trigger pull with a new gun. I think he's going to keep it.

Josh and I went back in and worked the hell out of it, but we couldn't find another wsb, and surprisingly now more yellowtail were seen. It was very pleasant diving though, with water temp 68 to 70, a bright sun, a very light breeze, and almost no wave action.

We finished up at another spot where I keep hearing that people take fish, but I never have. I preserved my perfect record.

So we came in early and put the boat in a guest slip so that it will be easy for me to go tomorrow or Friday without having to launch. I gave Josh a rain check, and promised that he would break in his gun next time.

I hope some of the underwater photos came out, and that Jake will add them, along with the details of the kill.

[Bill McIntyre]

Jake just sent me these from his camera.

[Mongrel454]

Wow what a way to break in a new gun

Nice catch