Weekend Tubing Report

[tubeN2]

[size 1]I'm sure most of you saw that it was my B-day on Friday the 16th. I tried to fish that day but ran into some problems at Disneyland when I went with the family.[crazy]

First of all they wouldn't let my family take a picture of me fishing in the Jungle Cruise ride in Adventureland. Every time my wife would stand up with the camera, she was asked to sit down. Then they turned to me and told me to put away my object of projection. (telescopic 4'6" rod).[]

They wanted all hands and feet inside the ride at all times and nothing was allowed to protrude from the boat. I almost got my gear confiscated and kicked out of Disneyland.[pirate]

I have to admit, I was tubless for the day.[]

Saturday: Day two.[]

I took my tube to Santa Barbara Ca to fish for Flatties (Halibut). I caught the outgoing tide around 12:15 and it was nice enough to bring me back in promply around sunset or 6:30pm. The weather was a baumy 78 degrees and the water was a chilly(hee hee) 65 degrees. Just right for the "Breathables" and my Shorts.

I did manage to catch 3 undersized Halibut, 1 legal Leopard Shark, 15 Barred surfperch and 1 leaky gasket on the tube. [shocked] All species were released to live another day.[]

The gasket was not a problem. Beings that I have a strong plumbing background, I was able to fix it so that I could go back out the next day.[]

Sunday: Day Three[cool]

I went farther down the coast to Summerland to look for some more salt action. Tube was working fine and holding air. The Barred Surf Perch were in abundance and nailing a new Shrimp pattern fly that I had just tied the night before. Around 35 made it aboard and disembarked by the same token. It wasn't their falt that I was there for fun. 1 more flatty made it to the picnic and left early too.

I decided to pull out of the water and get to one other spot before the tide change was ready to occur.

I moved farther down the coast to just above Malibu Cali. The tide was in my favor, took me out a short ways and left me to play with the Calico Bass for a few hours. The water had dropped to 63 and the Calicos slowed down slightly.

I changed up on my plastics threw out and though that I had reached the end of my good luck.[unsure] A stray Yellowtail had grabbed my plastic and pulled me out about 1/4 to 3/8 mile off the beach area. It turned around and luckily headed for the Kelp again.[blush]

I had never reached such speeds on my tube before except for when I had some 25 mph winds a couple of years ago at my other freshwater playground in Castaic.[shocked]

Finally the Yellow Tail was tiring out, so was I but my 14lb test (can't tell you the brand yet) was holding well considering that I was playing with a 30 lb fish. It was getting dark, the fish was tired, I was slightly pooped and guess who was invited to dinner??[cool][cool][cool][cool]

I battled the 1/2 hour drive home so that I could at least get 1 picture for the weekend. see attachment

Monday: Day 4 (am I stupid or just crazy) I just got my BASS whooped and I'm at it again.

I decided that since it was raining, I would go to my local freshwater lake and hunt some finless Freddies.

I got to the lake at Sunrise, went through the regular Tube Prep, download,continue prepping, downloading .......etc.

The sonar showed no fish to be found. A few dumb, raindrenched anglers on the shore proved it too. I changed rigs to search for some Kittys instead. Since the lake is only a few acres big(small), I was able to cover alot of ground and only got 1 strike. A little 2lb kitty that had been hiding from everyone.

He went back in the drink and I went home after 2 1/2 hours of kicking around.

All in all the weekend went well. I almost got kicked out of Disneyland, I kicked my butt all over the coast, I almost got my butt kicked by a baby Yellowtail, the finless Freddies left me high and dry and 1 small Kitty said good bye.

Yellowtail actually makes some of the best Sushi/Sashimi and other grilled delights as well. Just ask TubeDude. I'm sure he has caught enough of them in his life to know that a 30lb is just a baby. Even on light line.[cool] see attatchment of my dinner. [/size]
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[Fishhound]

[black][size 3]Hey tubeN2,[/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]Nice looking yellowtail (at least I think - my monitor sucks or maybe it's my eyes getting old). But anyway, in that photo, it could be just about almost anything from a super sucker to a shark- you shoulda used photoshop to paint it yellow or something so us folks with dinosaur computer monitors could tell what it is. It really is a fish isn't it ?[/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]BTW - Happy B-day ![/size][/black]
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[Tarpon4me]

Looks like you took a butt whoopin', LOL, you look worn out. You sure that yellow tail didn't get the best of you? []

Sounds like a cool trip though, wish I could have been floating beside you in my nice, dry boat. [sly] Sorry, but I can't have leapard sharks nipping on my extrematies.

I've never eatten yellow tail before, much lessly caught one. How does the sashimi rate with Wahoo sashimi?
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[tubeN2]

Yes it was a whoopin. Float tubes were not designed for high speeds like I was experiencing. What else can you do with a 30lb fish on 14lb line? I can't wait till this line hits the market. I still have a whole 5lb spool to play with but I can't give any out either.

As far as the Sushi/Sashimi grade goes, the West Coast people prefer the Yellowtail collar, then the rest of the YT. After that comes Halibut belly strip, then rest of Halibut.

Somewhere after the Yellowfin, Bluefin, Toro, Unagi, Tako then comes the Wahoo.

Yellowtail is very expensive in the markets. When it is in full swing, the catch the hell out of them on the commercial boats.

I just can't see paying 22 bucks a pound for Yellowtail or 28 per pound for the YT collar.

My goal for this year, is to still go fish Disneyland without getting kicked out.[cool]
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[Tarpon4me]

OK Steve, you're dieing to tell us what kind of line it is. So, spill the beans. []
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[tubeN2]

I can't just yet. I could cost me dearly to break the confidentiality aggreement. All in good time, it will be on the market. Then when you ask " Is X line worth the price"?

I can just tell you, "That's the stuff". Then you will know what I mean.[cool]
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[Tarpon4me]

You didn't mention a confidentialality agreement. See, you got my hopes up, and droped the bomb. Just like a wet dream you can't remember. (wet fishing dream[angelic])
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[tubeN2]

Just from our testers forum that we communicate on, there are 17 others testing this line as well.

Of course the Crappie and Trout dudes are whinning about the thickness. That takes care of 5 of them.

The rest of us are using it on stuff that it wasn't designed for. You know what I mean?? This stuff was sent to bass dudes that only have like 5 to 7lb bass as state records. That line is perfect for a little toy like that. I would still prefer 6lb Izorline XXX for runts like that.

Some of us other Salt Nuts are going after other things. I decided to structure fish with it. In the weeds (kelp) there are several different species that can be hammered out with a good line.

It just so happens that I went into a "Tea Cup Poodle" party and got bullied around by a "Bull Dog". That's the kind of stuff the sponsors like to see.[cool]
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[Tarpon4me]

On our testing board? I must have missed that one. That must have been a little while ago, I don't remember seeing line on there. Oh well, I missed out. [unimpressed]
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[tubeN2]

Oh no. Not the one here. [crazy] Some of the companies have a forum to communicate likes and dislikes with other testers that are out there.

That helps us to weed out the disgruntled tea todelers from the big gamers on a medium size line test.[cool]
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[Tarpon4me]

Gotcha, now I don't feel so left out. [] LOL Na, atleast the companies are passing out the product to let people test it before they put it on the market. I'd be ticked off if I bought a product that sucked because they were too cheap to give the product an honest test first.
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[tubeN2]

Wouldn't it piss you off more if they had some super line out and only tested it on Trout anglers?? The test wouldn't be fair nor accurate. Next thing you know, your buddies are telling you,"Don't use that line. The studies showed that it sucked". Only because they test a 20 or 30lb line with people that are used to only using 2 or 4lb test.

At least in the Salt, we can see the 4lb as a challenge for some of the inshore or even bait species that are out there.

We use the other forum kind of like here. It's mainly there to hash out the difference of opinions on the products that are being tested. We also get to laugh at other peoples pictures too.[cool]
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[Tarpon4me]

Right on! The thing about saltwater fishing is sometimes you have to downsize to line that small to get stubborn fish to bite. 6 to 10 pound line is very common when targeting fish like Cero Mackerel, Flounder, and other choice species. Of course, you know me. I dig the lighter side of life anyhow, i'm always light tackle angling.[cool] As far as i'm concerned, for instance, any Ya Hoo can catch a 6 or 7 foot shark on 80 pound line and a 300 pound steel leader. Now, take that same Ya Hoo and give him a med action rod, 20 lb line and a 90 lb 7 strand leader and see how he fairs. That's the ultimate way to test equipment, in a situation that exceeds it's manufactured capabilities. [cool]
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[tubeN2]

I have a little Okuma Pusuit rod. It is 5' and rated for 80lb. I fish shark on it with 25lb Big Game Blue(remember that one) and a 30lb steel leader.

2 years ago, I had the shock of my life with an 8 foot 250lb shark that I caught on the pier. There was no way to get it up. Nor did I have anyway to run it up almost 1/2mile to the beach to land it for a picture. My rod was too short but I had the rest of the night to catch another one.

The whole fight was close to 1/2 hour to get it to color and another 20minutes to figure out how to get it somewhere for a picture with the 5'rod.

The shark finally broke the line with a few hard thrashes and slowly returned to the deep blue.[unsure]

I'm glad I didn't get one of those on the float tube. At least the Leopard Sharks like to stay in the shallows.[cool]
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[Tarpon4me]

LOL, yeah, I remember the Blue Big Game. Man, I was still in Guam then, we had that conversation over 2 years ago. [] I never did get any of it. But no matter, I dig the Power Pro now.

LOL, it's kinda funny, back then, you couldn't give me a spool of braided line. But since they've made the super braids, i'm totally sold.

I've been there many times with the sharks and other large fish on a pier. We actually beached about a 240 lb sting ray one time. We fought that thing for over 2 hours on one of the old Shimano speed masters with 20 lb line. LOL, remember those reels steve? They are graphite and about the size of a Penn squidder. We were useing 20lb big game, but the dark green. Actually, we were flounder fishing when he hit it. I'll never forget that day because it was and still is the biggest damn sting ray i've ever seen. The stinger was over 10" long. He ran strait off the side of the pier and then just stopped. That's when we knew it was a ray, but we also knew it was a doozy. We finally got down to the foot of the pier and handed down the rod to my buddy standing on the beach. Once Rusti got it, he hauled butt in his direction, picking up the slack. We weren't far from being spooled. We kept taking turns cranking, as fighting a huge ray is probably more exausting that fighting a 300 lb striped marlin. Once we got him into the breakers, we tossed a rope gaff over him and stuck him. It took all three of us to drag him on the beach. We didn't waste him, I don't believe in that. We filleted his wings and grilled them that night. Of course, the stinger was the prize. That ray could've killed a child, or taken a foot off a grown up, if someone would've stepped on it in the surf. Everyone talks about the crocadile hunters accident, But rays are responsible for many serious injuries. They don't do it intentially, but out of survival instinct. Bluefish chew up alot of swimmers too. But, it if the dumb butt tourist would get out of the water when a school of fish is in the breakers, that wouldn't happen. LOL, I dunno, it's all in good fun. [cool]
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[Dryrod]

[center][font "Poor Richard"][green][size 3]Hey there Fishhound TubeN2 is too busy fishing to mess with his pictures. Super fly to the rescue.[/size][/green][/font][]
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[tubeN2]

Thanks for the edit Dryrod. I havn't bothered to download any photo editing software on this Puter yet. I'm trying to find the software that I had on my old puter for my camera.

That pic was taken with my friends Camera Phone. Then he emailed it too me. It was too big to upload and post so I just left it for now.[cool]
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[Dryrod]

[font "Poor Richard"][green][size 3][cool]No problem TN2. I have Adobe 4.0 which s a pretty good program. Must say for a cell phone it took a pretty good picture. I have a Motorola V3 and I must say it picture quality is one [/size][/green][/font]

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