Go S.C. Rockfishing, catch halibut

Scouted out the West beach launch at New Brighton yesterday, one sign says open at 6:00 a.m., one says 8:00a.m., but it looked fairly easy with a good cart in low-mid swell.  Asked the attendant, she said I could launch at 6:00.   That would be plenty early on a drizzly morning; I'd caught a big ling out there last week and wanted to let him know today that rockfish season was open.  Turns out you could launch at 6, but you can't get to the parking lot till after that.
    Cussing all the way, I drove to the SC Harbor, which was as busy as I'd feared it would be with PBers at 6:30. Tho there was heavy fog, I could see the wharf.   Very small swell, light wind waves. Patches of anchovies within 1/2 mile of the entrance.
    I headed to the lighthouse and out to 50ft of water near the SC7 yellow bouy.  Dropped my big rootbeer lead head with a shrimp fly above, both tipped with pieces of squid.  I was bouncing in against the bottom when I got a light hit and then knew I had something heavy, maybe a good sized ling.  I cranked it up without much trouble and it was a flattie, but I thought it was too small to keep so I tried to net it a couple of times, but that clearly wasn't working and I then could see it was probably a keeper, so I gaffed it, put it on the dive clip,cut it's gills and waited ten minutes- I was glad I had a 3 ft gaff so I could tuck the other end under my arm on the side opposite the fish so's I could continue in my singleminded quest for rockfish.  It had hit the leadhead.
    The butt was still alive so I took my tack hammer to where I thought its brain was, cut its gills some more and waited another 10 mins.  It gave a couple of good thrashes, so I gave up and fought it into a burlap bag and put that inside a plastic bag and tossed it in the crate.  
    A half hour later, I tossed my bait bucket on top of it and it thrashed some more.
    I caught a couple of non-keeper rockies and met Eric and saw his brother out in yaks. They weren't having any luck that I saw on rockfish, either.  I headed in about 11:45. The wind had held off more than I thought it would.  
      The butt was 34", 14lbs - my first ever.

Thanks for the report Tom, glad to have you on board! That is a decent flattie, a few weeks ago that would have won you a new yak!

Far cry from barely legal too!  Here I was picturing a 23" fish...

If you go in with your knife and cut their spine behind the head it's curtains.  No returns, no refunds!

Congratz on the halibut, Tom, and welcome.

I'll have to study up on spinal surgery.

7-1

fished out in front of the bouy and in the kelp.got a 25 inch ling and some rockfish.let all of them go.my brother got a 30 inch ling and kept it and let all the rock fish go.the rockies were on the small side ,but i know theres bigger out there at least for the next few weeks .nice flatty tom got ,it was big.also nice meeting you.