my second halibut

I took advantage of the flat ocean and ventured into the land of whitey, north of santa cruz, by myself.  Haven't been fishing for a while, been surfing.

A 35" halibut (which according to http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/howold.pdf is north of 23lbs and 9 years old), hit my 3.5 oz bunker/sardine pattern megabait live jig. It was a good fight. I had a 2 piece 10-20lb bass rod, my alan-tani upgraded $20 used-on-ebay abu 5501. 30lb spectra, 40lb yozuri hybrid line for a leader. Blew one gaff attempt, it went to the bottom on that one, but it was hooked well and I got another attempt. The written words of c-level were in my mind, "don't pull the head out of the water, gaff it just behind the head which will stun it, then put it on the game clip with the head still under water, only then pull it in and dispatch it". or at least that's what I remembered and that's what I did.

A copper also hit the megabait, getting hooked on the front hook.

There is mixed rocks and sand/eel grass there, I guess I'm lucky I don't have a fishfinder and just kept jigging right over the sand.

Also 3 underlings and a copper. the copper hit the megabait, the lings hit a swimbait.

lots of smelt on the surface.

Nice catch!  I bet you were stoked!
At least you didn't use a 5/8 kroc.  Ha ha ha.

nice work  

Did you fish in front of Scott Creek?

Got to love those sardine megabaits!

mooch, not in front of the beach, rather, north into sharkier territory,  .

Today, bait got zero, lures got it all. a little surprising, I had carefully saved 4 croaker from free fishing day with my wife, thinking they would be the shizniz for lings. I put them on a big bullet jig, but got nothing. my squid was also largely ignored.  

got bored, tossed out a fishtrap, got two lings. paddled around, dropped it through a school of smelt, got a third ling. great fight but he was 23.75". fishtrap was mortally wounded (I bought some soft "seconds" from big hammer), so I put on the megabait. copper and halibut. The copper actually fought hard, he was decent size. But the halibut felt big right from the start with low frequency shakes.  longest fight I have had yet fishing in california. after the halibut I sort of fished for awhile, but I was pretty much done.

Great Catch!!!

A Nov butt is pretty rare.  Congrats and enjoy!!

Stuart

thanks stu!

maybe they were late getting here this year and stayed a little longer? I did see a lot of baitfish on the surface, so I guess as long as the baitfish are in close and the halibut haven't finished spawing they might stay?
Sounds plausible, but it sounds plausible that the earth is flat too.

What a great fall score!

How deep was that procrastinating fish?

Pat

seabreeze, I don't have a depthfinder but it was beyond the first thick line of bull kelp. But not real deep either. so 50-80?

The written words of c-level were in my mind, "don't pull the head out of the water, gaff it just behind the head which will stun it, then put it on the game clip with the head still under water, only then pull it in and dispatch it".

That lesson alone will up prevent lots of heartbreaks.

CONGRATS!

Great catch. A halibut this late is truly awesome!