Halibut try #6 and a popped cherry (G-Rated Vid on Page 2)

Met up with my buddy Mike (mikemcg on here) and Hotplate and his Dad Skillet up in Santa Cruz.

My first time diving in SC and I was stoked!! 

Mike put us on a BEAUTIFUL little beach to launch from, and the scenery was fantastic...soft sand, lapping waves, big rocks, and girls in bikinis.   

Paddled out to first spot and spent a couple hours exploring promising looking sand patches and channels in between rocks, reefs and grass patches. Water was warm, viz was good enough, habitat looked promising...but no butts.   

I came across one nice chunk of reef and blasted a half limit of black/yellows, blacks and a greenling. I thought the greenling and one of the bnys might have been an upgrade for DOTY...they weren't.   

Then Hotplate and Skillet bailed and we moved to a spot that Mike had heard good things about. Nice looking patch of offshore kelp, but bottom structure was a pretty flat and barren sandstone...except for one side of it where it ledged off and the crack under the overhang was deep and dark...

I explored inside and it went back for days...I was more than a full body length in a few times and my light could still sometimes not see all the way to the back!!  Unfortunately most of the crack seemed a little too big for Lings, and all I found was sand and swirling kelp pieces. 

I followed the crack for a loooong ways and found another half limit of bnys, blacks, a nice grassy and spooked several cabs along the edge of it.

Met back up with Mike and we cut loose from the kelp and the wind carried us all the way back to our beach without paddling while I gutted and scaled the rockies. I gifted Mike the greenling for him to try and to get practice filleting. 

Another halibut skunk, but a great afternoon in the water with good friends, and in a new place!!

My first speared fishies in Santa Cruz County!! I have now shot fish in Monterey, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt counties! Gotta eventually get all the other coastal NorCal ones as well!   

Thanks again Mike for showing us around!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

You had me there, Jim. Thought you  were going to say you got your hali. 

The quest continues......one of these days! 

Nice stringer of beer :p

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At first I thought you popped THE cherry!  Something tells that me we will be seeing "THE cherry" report before too long...

Congrats on yet another "cherry" popped by you    Thanks for the report and pictures Jim.

no kidding what a tease!!  Also text me when you do thwack one, i think its gonna be a "BEACH PARTAY?!!!

I heard this has been a bad year for spearing halibut.

I'm looking forward to seeing a halibut on the stringer report!  (well, not for doty sake  )

Loving this quest. Way to get on some new water. 

Thanks fellas....trust me...I want my next butt report to have one on that damn stringer!! 

Here's a pic of the bowl of rockie by catch...the grassy wasn't very big, only 16 inches, but it was cool to be able to show Mike how to tell a grassy from a Kelpy by pectoral fins, head shape and first gill raker length.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Had me going there Jim!  I thought you got one.

Let me know if your up for a weekday Halibut dive.

Cool write up and right on for the non butt cherry pop  Your an animal!

Thanks for getting me out there Jim!  Still fun even though
I got skunked. Jesse was stoked on the greenling. I got a plan
for our next halibut search.

Thanks for getting me out there Jim!  Still fun even though
I got skunked. Jesse was stoked on the greenling. I got a plan
for our next halibut search.

Glad you had fun buddy. That area is super cool. Totally different structure than I am used to, but still really cool.   

Glad Jesse liked the greenling!! And now you know what they look like underwater! 12 inch minimum size, can shoot up to 10 within your 10 bag limit of RCG... so blast away!

Thanks again Mike!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

ps...let me know when you're free for the next round of staring at sand! 

For sure Jim.  Next week looks like there is a little swell around so might be forced to get back into surfing.