Dang it, just typed up the whole report and now it got erased...

Anyway, fished with Brian #2 at casitas today, not too many big ones in the morning, but we did manage a few decent fish. Brian busted the double bed rape and caught a 4.5lb female and her slightly smaller cohort.

Started to get windy at around noon so we ran over to Dead Horse Canyon to get some shelter. Came across a slug sitting on a really steep slope with a little male. They both took off when we came up on em, but we decided to crash into the shoreline and set up on em to see if they'd come back. Sho nuff, they came back to the spot but were kinda sketched out, so we let em settle for half an hour without casting. I threw one jig toss in there to see what would happen and they didn't respond too well, so we let em sit for awhile longer. The male was really agressive and would attack the bait almost every cast, so we were really scared of catching him because he was doing a really good job of keeping the female in the area. With the wind and all, it was hard to distinguish the two of them, especially to discern which one was biting your jig, so we just watched and waited. Long story short, two and a half hours and maybe 12 casts later we got a little window of about 20 seconds where we could see the big one by herself pretty well, so I pitched my jig and kinda tapped her in the side and she spun right around and slurped it. Short fight and one half hearted jump later and we got the scoop on her. Weighed in at 12.0 even. Length was 28" and girth was 21". We looked around a little more after that, but we bailed shortly afterward with hurt batteries.

Gear:
Lure Logic 3/4oz football head jig w/ zoom spinnerbait trailer
Castaway JWR610
Shimano Chronarch SF 100
12lb P-Line CXX

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/957.jpg


http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/958.jpg


http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/959.jpg

Bro, you better check your scale ;) That fish looks like it could go 14. Congrats on your new personal best. You earned that one big time.

Congratulations!!! And I was just going to say the same thing, that fish looks way bigger than 12lbs. Awesome!

Yep, totally looked 14lbs. We weighed her on two different scales and she was 12 on both. Just like that one from rancho seco that one night, looked 14 but weighed 12... Can't explain it. Either way, no complaining here... :) :) :)

Way to go! Awesome fish. Awesomer pics :)

Way to go Brian! That thing is a friggin obese beeyatch!

Can I steal that one for the trophy pages on my site ?

I just caught a 12.1 last week, and your fish looks a lot bigger ! BTW, your length and girth would point to a long, but not so fat 12 lb'er...... but that fish looks fatter than a 21 inch girth too !

I guess its OK when everybody is disagreeing about the size of your fish..... "and saying its bigger" right ? (smile)

Continued success to you,
Fish Chris

BTW Brian, what is your PB ?

Yeah, absolutely put her on the site.

Have any of you guys found that eggs actually do weigh less than say, trout or a belly full of crawdads? That's really the only thing I can think of. According to the weight calculating formula she's around 14, she definitely looked like she had the body of a 14, but two different scales say otherwise... Just wondering if the eggs aren't as heavy as normal food items, or maybe just spawning takes up a lot of the fat in the fish's body or something like that. Kinda interesting.

This one was my PB chris. But we'll be back on weds to raise the bar :)

Oh, ps, I got a video of the release on my camera. Unfortunately I left the necessary cord in san diego, so I won't be able to get it online until friday or so. I'll start a new thread when it's up.

Brian,

You mentioned something about "weight calculating formula". What is the actual formula? BTW very nice fish guys. One of these days, I will get me one of those. Still trying to break in to double digits.

That fish is a pig. I've heard of a few big bedders in Dead Horse recently, but that one was definetly the QUEEN! Full Moon is on the 16th, I think they'll be a few more pigs coming soon at Casitas. Way to put that Lure Logic jig to work, I think that one should be retired now. Awesome job Brian!!!!!!

Definitely a nice stick um! Proving once again that patience is the virtue of sightfishing the big ones. I suddenly have a burning desire to ditch work and run to Casitas. Again, nice fish.

nico tells me-
length x length x girth / 1200

I noticed that the pair of fish had a chart colored hammer hanging from there mouths. I also remeber your post back from Cachuma where you caught some smallies on the same bait. What bait size and color is it??? What size head did you use?

Brain, you Dawg!!!! That is one heck of a fish brother!!! E-mail me some of those shots, I will print them on good wax paper, and throw them in the album here @ work!!!
Dane

Nice fish Brian!! Congrats on that beautiful pig.

5" sandbass special swimbait is standard, head size varies depending on depth. Go as light as you can get away with because the fish can throw that thing out really easily. I stick with 1/2oz and 3/4oz, Brian #2 will use 1oz, but I don't recommend it.

ROOK- I'll email pictures when I get em off my camera once I get down to san diego on fri or sat.
-brian

Nice Job!
Patience young grasshopper!

Good lord Brian, nice fish!!! If anyone deserves that one its you.

Tsunami

Dude you must be YODAS brother cause that beeeyatch looks bigger than twelve. Nice shootin TEX