earth day in paradise

well awoke this morning at 430 with sir mix a lot running through my head, took it as a sign and jumped up and made coffee ate a bagel and headed south, arrived at loch lomond ten minutes before kieth, when he arrived i drafted six of his finest warriors for a little action, kieth must have been in a good mood, when i checked the troops on the water there were three extra guys for todays mission. arrived at paradise at 7 and launched by 730 and proceeded to paddle up to paradise cay to drift the slack and top of the falling tide, there was just a slight breeze and chop, but it was a glorious paddle up, got to the cay and sent one of the draftees into action, drifted all the way back to the launch, even went through the old pilings for naught, so paddled back up again and drifted back, by this time the drift is moving pretty well so decided to spend some time by the "club house" drifted that area and around the point for awhile for naught. checked the soldier and he was still spunky so headed back up to the cay for the slack at just before bottom of the tide. no real drift so slow trolled it back to the "club house" when i got there the tides were changing and the washing machine effect of the point was going pretty good. marked a few places and got all set for the wild drift through there, changed out warriors for a fresh one, this was about 1 o'clock and havent even had a scratch on the bait all morning, sent the new guy down and in a few minutes i get a real light tap, tap, tap, and dont think much of it, they were real light and was thinking bullheads, drift a few more minutes in the whirlpool and check bait, damnit he's gone, so send another one down at this point the water is rocking everywhere, ferry wakes, tidal movement etc, so dont have good contact with the bait but thought i felt some thing so real in and the whole belly of the little guy is gone, time for another, send him down and then bam, good hit, i wait feel the weight and then set and the rod goes bendo big time, feels like a snag but then it moves, its got alot of weight to it and now im thinking, was that a good enough hook set, so i give a little tap and feel a head shake so a give it another harder hook set to make sure, then i feel the hook pull out, they must have heard that scream of anger in berkely, reel up and no more soldier, send another one down and bam he gets bit, but short bite again, send another one down and bam another hit, wait and set but no weight so reel in and just his lips are left on the hook, so to make a long story not so short between 730 and 110 not a scratch, but between 110 and 150 i lose 9 shiners to short bites in a fast and furious whirlpool of action, lessons learned today halibut bite alot lighter than i thought and even if the shiners are small run a stinger, especially when the shiners are small.  also i marked alot of bait out there today, but did not bring a sabiki rig, also if you havent been to paradise at low tide be careful of the ramp, its bad right now, after breaking and tearing my wrist last year it must have looked funny to the peir guys watching me launch and pull out, i was old lady cautious today. cameron

also saw a kayak put in around 120, tried to hail but no answer, he headed toward paradise cay, hopefully he did better than me

Nice try Cameron.   

nice one cam, that ramp looks nasty at low tide for sure.

Wow...you got lots of "actions" but unfortunately no fish to take home for dinner    Thanks for the report and pictures Cameron.  Hope we'll get better lucks tomorrow.

thx for the report. After out non-yak skunk at Paradise, and seeing Roger lose a Hali to the pier, I was hoping to see a picture of a landed halibut at the end of your report.  thx for the pics and happy Earth Day.

I'm not looking forward to slipping on my butt again at that ramp. I wonder Cameron if there is a way to get down the beach area to launch. Better luck
next time bro and thanks for the report.

Jedmo

I'm not looking forward to slipping on my butt again at that ramp. I wonder Cameron if there is a way to get down the beach area to launch. Better luck
next time bro and thanks for the report.
Jedmo

If you launch at high tide and return at high tide then it won't be any problems

Oh that sounds brutal. At least the weather was good. On a side note, I believe that you absolutely have to use that stinger. They almost never grab the bait by the head, always mid-body, and once they have it they lay back down and might hold it until they are sure it's dead before they attempt to reposition it for swallowing. Often times, the stinger is all that hooks them. I had a similar day late season last year in my glass boat. I was fishing Raccoon Straights. I caught and used some of those huge sardines that came into the bay for bait. I slid the single hook farther up so I could stick the stinger in the tail. Three times I had the tap, fed line, felt weight for a moment and brought up a head and a tail with the midsection chomped out. When I finally shortened the lead and placed the stinger right smack in the middle of the baits belly, that is when I was able to finally hook up. As I recall, the whole single live bait hook rig was used mainly by those who were targeting stripers on the pot-luck trips. Of course for bass you needed a real lively, easy swimming bait with minimal hardware, and they usually inhale the whole bait in one shot. For halibut, that treble hook can make or break your trip.

Good luck.

I quit using the stinger with shiners and hooked and caught last year but with sardines I think its a must.

Good try Cam! That must have been frustrating as hell. Theres nothing I can say but that you got out there, gave your all and thats the best we can do sometimes. Now where exactly were you?

Awesome sounds like you had a lot of action! I don't have a lot of experience with shiners but I would say that for halibut in general you don't have to set the hook that much. Let them eat it for a as long as you can stand it and then give a gentle reel down and lift to set the hook.

If you use quality sharp hooks this seems to work pretty well. The toughest part is feeling the tap tap tap and then waiting for them to get it in their mouth.

Thanks for the report!

-Eliot

Hey, getting the tap tap is most of the battle.... sounds like you had a great day of figuring out the toughest part. Two hooks. definetly a good call. Looked nice and calm out there too. I'd consider it a good day OTW Any time you run out of soldiers is an action filled day...

thanks guys, yeah it was a fun day of learning, thanks for the tips, hopefully next time will be better, and sonny even at high tide today there was moss showing, be careful tommorow guys, i hate that ramp, cameron

Hey Cameron, at least you got time on the water! I have to sit here at home and live vicariously by all the reports.
That launch is scarey, and "old lady cautious" is the way to go there, all the time. Felt soled shoes help some too.

Thanks for the report, Cam.

I'm so tempted to give it a shot tomorrow...but my baby boy is due any second now.