Santa Cruz 6.19.10

Greetings, FYI, I changed my screen name from "witness." 

Out of the Santa Cruz harbor at sunrise with a bait tank full of lively sardines thanks to Boccie.  Water temp 52, zero wind.  No ground swell to speak of though there was a small wind chop that incressed as the morning progressed.  Scattered bait, no birds.  Not many boats out.  I paddled SE at about 150 till I was in 35 feet then I let it go with two live bait rods.  The drift was up-and-out but mostly up and at a perfect rate (I thought).

At 7:15 all hell broke loose (sort of).  Thankfully the fish bit on the rod I was holding.  I had it in freespool and gave the fish all the time it needed before laying into it.  Not a real impressive struggle but that's ok.  Once at the top, things hit the fan.  The beauty got tangled in my other line at the surface, and made another run for it.  Thankfully the other rod was in free-spool with the clicker on, no worries.  I gaffed it at the next showing and when it was between my legs, I stuck myself trying to thread the game clip.  Then smacked my knee cap with the bat while swinging like a wild man.  I paused for a few moments.

Not much else for the morning other than a scratched bait.  The wind started to come at about 9:30.  I was out of the water at 10.  It measured 31 inches.  Enjoy the eye candy, thanks for looking.         

Good post!  It looks from your photo that you were between the Buoy and the Steamer Lane Lighthouse-I guess you drifted up that way.  I was at the harbor with the Sons of the Beach ukers and about 10:30 the wind started up and was howling by 11, and the PBs were coming in.  Music stands were blowing over, even tho I had a 1 lb ball hanging on the bottom of mine (good use of otherwise useless salmon gear, and I've never lost it in the drink!)
   "SCAllen" Bushnell, I think, had a post yrs ago about how to boat a halibut - gaff it, clip it, beat it, THEN bring it aboard, remove tackle, secure it well - in that order.  It's worked for me, the damn few times I've gotten lucky.
 Hope to meet up with you someday out there.

Perfect 

You rock,

-Tsuri

Nice fish dude! Its all about getting it on the clip and you did it. Congrats. 31= 12or so. NICE!

Nice hali DC!! It looked like you had a blast securing that but I know if I was in your seat, I would be frantic and likely woulda lost it lol. Way to go brother!!

Awsome fish!! my advice, for what it's worth... hitting a halibut on the head only makes them mad . Give the fish a good whack on the base of the tail this works very well to subdue these guys. Also, laying them upside down (white side up) works well to quite them. Great catch, I've gotta get out on the water.

Great fish,  funny story. Thanks.

sweet fish DC, congrats, sounds like they are showing up down there, i have also heard about the hitting the tail section from stormscrambler, but unfortunately have not had a chance to try it, cameron

Very nice fish, congrats DC!

Nice flattie!  Those suckers are definitely a handful up on deck.

Job welll done!  Thanks for the report and eye candies.

Great job dude!!

Way to persevere and get him on the clip!!

Thanks for sharing!

Sincerely,

Jim

Nice one - I like your deck layout too.   

DC,

Nice catch.  You are not kidding about that wind.  I got in the water about 10:30 and it was howling out there.  Good thing I decided to take my boat.  There was a sailboat race in the afternoon and we almost got runover a few times.  Stayed there till 6 pm and we only got one 25"  Hali and 1 RF.   It's hard to believe but among the 3 of us we lost at least 6 possible hali bites.  Don't know why but I think our live sardines where a little too big for them to swallow right away and we didn't give them enough time to swallow it first before we started reeling.  Our sardines have those scratch marks like everyone is talking about Hali bites.  The bite started to get hot around 4pm when the wind died down a little and our drift slowed down a bit.  They were out there.  Too bad we just did not know how to keep them in the hook.   If anyone has any suggestions on how to best hook them halis and keep them hooked let me know. 

Rey

Nice Butt DC,

 I learned a hard lesson my first year yak fishin when I tried to take the wood to a big ling before I had him on the stringer. He went balistic and I lost him. I always get that stringer in em first.

Way to get it done, good job and tight lines, aka-kimo