Slid down to the gulf Monday with ALDeer's own MarksOutdoors for some more plastic boat action. Put in a Seagrove Bch and tested the new to me Jackson Cuda in the big water. It was sure enough summer time hot, but right off the bat, we had bait balls blowing up around us. Had a few hits on gotchas, but never hooked up. Trolled frozen cigars out to the reef, and by the time we got there, the wind had picked up out of the SE, and we had to work pretty hard to try to stay on the bouy I dropped on the coordinates. Never found the triggers that were supposed to be there, but I did manage an undersize triple-tail that came up and hung around my yak. About 11:30, we had separated some, and I decided to put on a sabiki and see what kind of bait we were seeing around us. Caught lots of small hardtails, and after a few minutes brought up a rig full of threadfin. Picked the biggest and prettiest one, hooked him through the nose, and tossed him off the back. Slow trolled him for maybe 15 minutes, and my reel exploded. He had 3 big runs, and a small 4th one...took me more than 10 mins to catch up to him. Turns out I left my gaff at home, so I took a few pics and wound up performing a billfish style release with him beside the boat. I've caught lots of spanish, blues, mahi and bottom fish, but this was my first King... and it was from my kayak! After over 5 hours of paddling and most of that in the wind, I was content on just the memory and pics after the fight. I don't think he was 3 foot long, but he had to be close.



I didn't take too many pics, but in the top right corner is MarksOutdoors

Heck yeah! Good times.

Indeed

Very cool. I've heard those Triple Tails are very good eating.

Congrats

Fresh triple tail is truly great eating. Almost sweet tasting. Maybe you can get you a keeper sized one next trip out.

And a fresh King is decent eating too. At lest the smallish-medium sized ones I’ve eaten.

Good luck next time out!!

Looks like lots of fun. Well, everything except the paddling...

And the heat...

And the teeth...

Seen fellows doin that before near the peer. Might be something I could get into later.

Looks like a lot of fun

Is Mark's yak rainbow?

Nice

Visibility is a good thing!

Believe it or not, it didn't feel that hot to me while we were out. Wearing a long sleeve cotton shirt helps, because you typically get a little wet launching. A damp cotton shirt with the wind does a pretty good job of cooling, and when it starts to dry and you feel the heat begin to build, you just grab a handful of water and dampen it again. It was still hot, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't oppressively hot to me.

Here ya go, Ben. Have fun!

Markoutdoors.......EHH would be proud of that rainbow rig.

I think he will now have his Avalanche painted like that