I fished Ft Casey Sunday. I was definately a cracker that day and hope that I got it out of my system. I thought that I'd try my 12'-6" Shimano summer run rod as the fish had been running small. 8 lb main line & leader on a spining reel. Early on the surf was big and there was a lot of kelp paddies floating around. 3rd or 4th cast a 12+ lb fish hit and ran me into a kelp wad. Fish gone, float rig gone. 30 minutes later a fish around 10 hit right in the surf and ran me into another kelp wad. fish off... I had 2 dz fresh dead herring that I had my daughter pick up at Woody's for me. They were either 3 in minnows or 9-10 in horse herring. I doubt that there were 3 that were the size that I like to fish. of course I never looked at them until I got up to the beach. All my hook tie ups were the wrong size for this bait, and an old lazy fart like me didn't want to bother cutting up tied rigs and retieing them to the right spread. Well, I ended up missing another 7 or 8 bites before a 7 lb hen felt sorry for me and committed suicide by grabbing the trailing hook dangling behind a 2-1/2" herring and promptly beaching herself. The water flattened out as the day went along but the lettuce was so bad that you rarely could get in a reasonable drift.
The noodle rod will now go back to jigs and summer runs. I'll pay more attention to my bait and terminal gear, and I'll pay more attention while I'm out there rather than just chucking the gear out there. Sunday was a good lesson in humality.