# Saturday West Beach Whiting Slaying



## Garbo (Oct 2, 2007)

Tonya and I went to West Beach yesterday right after lunch. She likes to lay in the sun, and I don't mind going with her, but I got to have something to do other than just sit in the sun and bake. So I took my pier cart, 4 rods, 4 pvc stakes and some fresh shrimp. 

We got to the beach, walked east to the first washout we came to and that is where we sat up. Tonya put the umbrella up and sat up the chairs while I put out the 4 pvc stakes, two east of the chairs and two west of the chairs. By the time I got done setting the stakes, Tonya had already sat down and started enjoying the beach. I baited up the first rod Far East and the second near east, by the time I got to far west to bait it up Far East was doubled over and I yelled "TONYA...Far East". She got up ran to the doubled over rod with drag steadily being taken, and took it from the stake. After a short, but strong fight (Tonya don't play, she flat out hands it to whatever is hooked), a 2 1/2# Whiting comes ashore and soon finds itself in some much colder water in a white box. I get far west and near west baited up and far east goes down again and Tonya beats me to it, but near west goes down right after she get the rod out of the stake and I take care of it. 

This pace of action goes on for a few minutes and a family of 3, Mom, Dad and Daughter come by as they are walked on the beach. Tonya and I are both fighting fish and Far West goes down so I asked the daughter to get the rod and she does. After Tonya and I get our whiting double in the white box, the daughter is still working on getting something much stronger to the beach. I go to her as she is steadily walking down the beach with a bowed up rod, to try to help her. Every time she makes any progress it is soon taken back by whatever is on the opposite end. She pulls and It pulls back for a good while and eventually it shows itself to be a very large stingray. She is on Cloud Nine, and I looked at her and told her, "it's a stingray", and she replied, "It's The First Fish I Have Ever Caught". This young lady is somewhere around 20 years old and this was her first catch, and to say she was thrilled would be a gross understatement. I took hold to the top end of the 3 hook dropper rig and persuaded the large stringray to water shallow enough that I could work with him to get himself free. I got him turned over so he was white side up and used pliers while holding the end of his long tail, to get him unhooked. After freeing him of the hook that was solid to his lower jaw, I pulled is tail up to expose the long barb that would be what makes him dangerous and with the same pliers pulled the barb from his tail. I then took him by the tail and held him for Mom to get a few pictures of Daughter and the Beast she conquered, before walking him to deeper water to allow him to be free again. 

Our three guests stayed and helped us man the four rods until we were out of shrimp. When we ran out of shrimp, the Dad shuck my hand and gave me a twenty dollar bill, I refused it and he stuck it in a rod holder on my cart. I took the twenty wrapped it around the Barb that came from his daughter's Great First Catch and gave it to her. She was Thrilled.

Final tally the White Box had 31 large Whiting, 5 Pompano and a Stud White Trout. 

The greatest part of the afternoon was Tonya's genius in chocking our cart to keep it from rolling down the incline on the beach to the water.........


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## kanaka (Oct 3, 2007)

Great story!! Ya know, if you left that cart in gear, it wouldn't roll away........


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## PurpleNGold (Mar 15, 2011)

Nice catch man! Was that in GS?


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