7/3 Davenport-Mooch goes BIG

Geeze, it was blowing 20 kts at 6am!  you know you're in for a ride when you have to deploy drag chutes on the first drift of the morning....

Adam, who is a whitewater and surf yakker from Tahoe and i were gonna go out for a few tasty rockfish.  since he's very experienced kayaker, we said go for it.

pleasant surprise was seeing Mooch pull up.

Soon after our initial drops, mooch yells over (remarkably calm, I might ad, no 'girlie screaming') "Hey Allen, I got a halibut.

Then about 20 minutes later, he paddles over with this

He says he always gets halibut when he is with me....is this related to the fact that i haven't caught an alibut from the yak all year????

Anyway, Mooch did a heck of a job securing the beast without a gaff or net, and nary a whimper.  Mooch  is my hero.

Adam caught a limit of nice rockfish (great for his 1st ever go-out) and I took home 6 handpicked gophers for fish and chips

Here's a couple more shots on the beach.

What are the stats on the butt??
great fish Mooch!~!!!!!!

Solid flattie MOochy!!!

!!MOOCH!!Way to HOOK the BUTT Baby!!That thing looks BIG!&UGLY You deserve it!!
Adam/FisHunter

Damn!  Thats a beast!  Way to go, Mooch.

Mooch... Way to represent! Nice catch. How big was it?



alien

Thanks fellas! And THANK YOU ALLEN for being my "rabbit's foot" once again.

For the record: I caught a Halibut Last year when I was helping Allen do a guided Kayak Fishing Trip with 6 clients at MBK. I caught a 15 pounder with an Iron jig - while fishing for rock fish. The same scenario this year  Go figure 



here's more about the Halibut:
http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/bb/index.php?topic=4545.0

Mooch, great job. especially without gaff or net.  I have a theory about why the Iron jig has worked so well for you.  Basically after spending many hours at the MB Aquarium i notice how close the Halibut stay near the rocks. practically right on them.  That is no secret.  My guess is mooch is bouning that jig right near sand and, Boing right on the top of the head of the hali. It reacts and bites.   Next time I am out of linda mar I am going to use irons for Hali and rockfish.

Jason

Jeff Krieger AKA Rhino, has caught lot's of SO Cal halibut using swim baits as well (he bounces the bottom with it)....his biggest one is a 50 pounder 

FYI: Jeff is a big guy....so, he makes the halibut look small 

I have one more theory. this one is pure speculation. horizontal movement is good.

Mooch did not have a drift chute. means his drift was fast.

if using a lure, some motion, both up and down but also horizontal is good.

if you don't have the faster horizontal motion, then the live bait is good.

halibut have pretty good eyesight. probably stereoscopic vision with two eyes.

either something really convincing (live bait) at slow speed, or something that
has some good movement (lure moving) is best.

The halibut I got on metal hit when I cast out over sandy eel grass area and bounced
back to me over the bottom. some rocks down there, but not a ton.

swimbaits are good for the horizontal movement too.

mooch yells over (remarkably calm, I might ad, no 'girlie screaming') "Hey Allen, I got a halibut

Allen, the reason why I was calm was because I was still fighting the halibut...but once the Halibut was dead and secured on my deck....I stood up on my kayak and did some tap dancing    

*hint* dropshot *hint*

MolBasser

We have to call you Sir Mooch Alot now.

"I Like Big Butts and I cannot lie!"

Nice flattie

"I Like Big Butts and I cannot lie!"

Sweet.

MolBasser