HAPPY Hollow Sunday (9/3)

I am happy today, so I call this place Happy Hollow again for this report. 

The condition at Bean Hollow was glassy today. It is kind of treat to us in such nice condition - 3 weekends in row. Mooch, eyeatbay, Jason, Eric, Henry, Bill joined the outing and fished out of Bean Hollow. We launched around 6:30 and came back around noon. Both launch and landing are a piece of cake.

Fishing - I scored one HALIBUT (see pictures below), 1 ling and 1 cab (6#). The halibut is 42” long and weighs 28#, witnessed by Bill, Eric and Mooch. It was heavy too; I had hard time to hold it on kayak as well as to carry it in the long walk from beach to cars.

The battle was fun. I kept tension on this monster consistently. Drag was not so tight, but not loose. It took line a few times, but went not very far. When it came to color, I saw a big halibut. Immediately I realized I could not land it by myself.  My net was miniature compared to its size. I have neither a stringer nor a gaff. (I lost in Big Sur and a string of fish together – another story  ). I screamed Mooch for help and he paddled over in no time. He had tried to net it a few times. But the halibut was big and did not fit to his net easily. Finally it was netted and pulled in against the kayak. He clubbed it really good. My yak had no big hatch, so I stuffed it in Mooch’s yak. As you would expect, it came alive a few times, while we were fishing. 

A big thank to Mooch for his assistance. He took a few shots and will post them later. 

Mooch has a nice string of quality fish (see pictures below). Jason had a nice cab. Bill got 1 ling and Henry had 1 ling and 1 cab + RF. I let them to chime in and post some pictures.

My Sturgeon picture must go, to make room for this Halibut, as Mooch suggested. I will follow to do so. I also need to upgrade a few items (net, stringer etc.) for future adventure.  Thank everyone for good company.

Halibut - 42" and 28#

Joel called me up Saturday and coaxed me out to Bean Hollow.  Many days in a row of football and no family time but some how had enough waf to get the nod.   Met up with Eyeatbay, Joel, and Bill at 600am. After superstar radio personality bill did his thing he met up with us.  GTO came later as well.

Due to a dead battery  I had to rely on Joel for a guide service.  Thanks Joel.  Of course Joel knows where the fish are and immediately we get into some C&R rockies.  I keep a couple of decent Blues.  Just before bill makes it out I hook up with my first ever Cabezone.  It was a decent size one too.  It ran 24 inches long and about 12 pounds.  Rough weight measurement as I had to use the bathroom scale holding the fish. after some easy math I came up with a pretty good measurement.  later before leaving I hooked my second Cabie, though much smaller, probably 18 inches or so.  After a succesful release that was pretty much it.

Just before leaving Bill and I were drifting over some sand between reefs in hopes of a hali and  wham I get nailed hard.  After about 5-10 seconds of solid strong pulls and thrusts the hook comes unbuttoned. Maybe a hali, maybe a ling?  We'll never know.

Halibut on yak - longer than ruler

Moonch's nice string of fish

great Hali!!!!! It was fun watching the battle.

jason

Again amazing fish Eric! I got on the water late and on the first drop landed my first legal ling of the year! After that the bite totally died for me. I watched Eric land the beast shortly after I landed my ling. I think the bite was early today.

The highlight of the day (and maybe my fishing year so far) was watching a big thresher about 10 yards from Joel, Jason and I. Slap bait with its tail for about 3 minutes. It was BIG and at one point its tail was totally out of the water. Incredible!

Jason - You have a nice size of cab. How big was your cab? Does Mooch have its picture?

Eric you ROCK!!!!!!


What a beast!  Good job playing and landing, your heart must have been pounding!

lucky joel was there with his depth of experience landing halibut  (what, no gaff Joel??...hee hee)

I am duly impressed and it couldn't have happend to a better guy.

Allen

NICE FISH Eric!!!  Great job of teamwork finishing the job.  Those flatties are a real handful.  Good work!

EK

That is an outstanding kayak halibut!!

Was that on bait or artificial?

MolBasser

nice fish eric! yeah tell us the tackle and depth and all those fun details. did you use a leader or just spectra, 

nice fish eric! yeah tell us the tackle and depth and all those fun details. did you use a leader or just spectra, 

I tipped squid onto jig and next to lure - kind of strange, but worked. Last weekend, I gave a couple of squids to Craig. He tipped them onto diamond jig and worked too. The area I caught the monster was ~53ft deep with pockets of sands and reefs, judged from the graph on FF.

I have attached a leader to spectra. I made 3ft resistable 25# mono leader with good knots. I did not worry about line breaking during the battle, which had happened to me many times, yet it is very sensitive. I examined the tackle today and it is still in good shape. Thank your guys for the leader tip. It was in time and handy.

 

Nice catches everyone. Great Halibut Eric! thanks for the pictures Mooch.

As a bit of a newbie to Pacfic ocean fishing, it would be great if posters tell us what they were using. I want to use lures almost exclusively if I can and want to get away from Shrimp files and Squid because I hook too many small Rockfish and wtn to doo less damage with C & R. I also want to go after bigger fish. i've read teh Fishing Tips section but there are som onay different recommendations in there, it is hard to discern the best way to start.

The water is nice and smooth--what is the name of that lake again? I hope these conditions last a while longer so I can get out there. I don't have many windows in September or October