Halibut from the beach

Went over to the beach near Capitola this morning with my spinning rod. Got a report yesterday that one guy landded a 24 pound flattie from the beach there. I met a great local guy, Mike who was with the guy who caught that fish.

He gave me a little 3" fluke to use with a small leadhead.  thanks Mike!

I watched him catch about 5 or 6 small halibut, all released.

I got a good number of hits, but nothing stuck.  Mike gave me some great pointers on how to fish the fluke.  It was halibut 101 for the kid.

Well, I finally hooked up, and was pleased to seee the size when the fish got close enough, in the surf.

keeper!!

27", landing assist by Jackson, another surfcaster who is also a yak fisher, and a great guy. Hope to see him posting here soon!

It's pretty rare for me to get a flatty from the beach, sure is fun, and tasted great for dinner tonight!

Allen

sweet, that is amazing to hear that you guys hooked up that many from the beach.

So, no beard growth this year?  Or is that only kayak-caught hallies?

-- Dave

Funny....I am not that desperate yet, and yes that only applies to yak flatties.

last year I caught a keeper in that same spot, but the beard stayed on til the yak flatty in late august/early sept.....

Maybe with some grecian formula so you guys will stop calling me santa....

Allen

wow sounds awesome!   27" is a nice keeper, more than I caught (no Halibut yet)...
congrats!

The teacher getting schooled.......and proving to be a precocious student......congrats Allen!

WOW!  Hope you at least got a pic before dinner!  NICE JOB!

What's a fluke, Allen?

Congrates, Allen. What techniques did he teach you?  Hali was that close to the shore.

Dude, Triple digit fish then this 27" from the beach the master has returned grasshooper.....

Pics taken but my new camera needs sofware installed and my OS is too old...... Gotta upgrade before I can download onto this computer.

The fluke is a skinny little swimbait with a scampi type tail. I used pure white, then switched to pink when the white one got too chewed up.  Fish came on the pink one.

The technique involved a slow retrieve, with the slightest popping of the rod tip to keep the fluke 'just' off the bottom, swimming in.

Fish were all caught less than 30 feet from shoreline, probably in 5-9 feet of water.

Mike's rod was shorter and stiffer, which made it easier to accomplish the presentation.  My longer limber rod took a lot of experimentation before I got some semblance of the technique down.

Isn't it great to keep learning all this stuff?  Gotta stay green and growing, I say.

I did get a lot of hits (even some slams) and had fish holding on about 5 times, just not hooked, apparently.  Part of it may be that we were rigging weedless, with the hook buried back into the body of the swimbait.

I finally popped the hooktip out to see if I could get some penetration.  That seemed to do the trick.  He really sucked it in, down in the gullet.

It was so beautiful seeing the fish finally, backlit inside  a wave.  Specially because it was obviously big enough to keep.  On the next wave I beached her, and Jackson gave me the hand.  Thanks again jackson!

Allen

that is cool!

the big hammer swimbait site has some tutorials and one is about a so-cal surf
halibut fisherman, he uses very similar techniques.

good to know that they can sometimes work here!

allen, you don't need that software typically. just plug the camera in, the
memory card will appear as another disk.

I try to avoid installing software when it's not really needed.

J

NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE...!!!

I thought Crapitola was pretty much devoid of life... You've tempted me to give that area another go at it... damn you...

Freddie

my only surf halibut was in the same area, at new brighton beach, just a bit south.

I was out riding my bike down the wharf today and lots of guys fishing live bait, one decent striper in the box that I saw.  Thats crapitola for you, timing is everything!

Yeah, it really is a matter of timing.  some guys have really good records there from the beach and the wharf.  Of course, they are fishing there every single day, so they're on the spot when it hits.

Captiola has a pretty good record so far this year, with a number of legal halibut and stripers being taken from the wharf.

then, there was that EPIC day two weeks ago when the bait moved in followed by umpteen #'s of WSB......6 legals and dozens of undersized hookups of WSB.  One day only.  I had to work.  DANG!!!!

the guy Mike Burkett who schooled me yesterday was there for the WSB.  Lifelong Capitola fisherman and he recounts it as being one of the best ddays ever.  countless hookups.

When it's "ON," whenever possible, I will post details here.  For my newpaper and radio reports, I'm deliberatly vague on such bites, protecting the local sources to some extent.  NCKA gets the inside track, if I can provide it.  You are my peeps!

Allen