We’d had some awesome shots at big Roosters during the premium lighting of the day but the good light was beginning to fade. Dad radio’d-in that he’d found a good ladyfish bite so Brandon & I headed his way.
When we got there we scaled our flies down from the big 15 inch chickens we were hunting Roosters with to the smaller 4 – 5 inch stuff for the Ladyfish grab.
Man, Dad wasn’t kidding… we began hooking Ladyfish on almost every cast.
We were having a ball consistently getting grabbed & stripping-in the acrobatic ladies when one of mine suddenly put on some heat and started tearing-off line. 
It turned out to be a 10 pound rooster! It was a blind cast, but I’d take it.
I was feeling like pretty hot stuff – for all of about 10 minutes…
Then…
…while Dad had another ladyfish halfway in a big grande rooster came roaring-in…
Ladyfish & mullet blew up in all directions and suddenly Dad’s ladyfish got ridiculously heavy and calmly began taking line out for the deep.
We had a pretty good idea of what had happened and once Dad put some pressure on him, Bubba figured it out too and the real fun began…
Such a helpless feeling…
100 yards of GSP backing was off the reel in a flash…
All you can do is pray they eventually stop
After recovering most of the line from the initial run the fish then turned and started down the beach.
We got our first clear view of how big it was and then Brandon pointed out…
“He just puked a lady fish!”
Sure enough, there was a dead, full-size lady fish floating in his trailing wake.
If I told you how far down the beach this fish took us, you wouldn’t believe me. If we hadn’t measured it later with a GPS I wouldn’t believe it.
Dad was using a stout 12 wt rod, a strong leader, and was doing everything he could to work the fish…
It took some fancy foot work, a lot of beach, and countless leader-straining direction changes – but he eventually got him in close enough and I was able to make the grab…
And the photo shoot began…
Dad, Bubba, and Me
Dad, Bubba, and Brandon
Beat-down, worn-out, and couldn’t be happier. None of us could.
Check out the rest of our Baja 2009 Trip.
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