Santa Cruz Halibut

Pole pole and I met this morning for an early go-out.  Live bait guy was late.  We waited for a while, then impatient, we just bought some frozen chovies. The guy showed up about 10 minutes later as we were leaving the harbor, but we did not turn back.

Allen made some nice smelt for bait and gave me a peice.

we fished the edge of Black's point in 40-45 FOW then later at 35-40 FOW.

Steady bite of small rockfish.  Allen got on 23.999999999999 underling.

Allen got a big Butt up to the surface and missed with first swing of the net.  Just got it back up ready to strike and....*doink*.....  line snapped.  Must have been nicked or something.  He took it like the true gentleman he is.

Important thing was, we now were sure there were larger halibut in this area.

Later, I got a hookup on a much smaller fish with a dead chovie.  Played it with a VERY lose drag, I remember the one I doinked two weeks ago in the same spot.  I missed my 1st gaff attempt and got a good look at how small it was.  Decided when I got it back up again to net instead, which went well.  Turned out to be 27-28-inches.  KEEPER!  (Maybe Allen will post the exciting video)

We came in around 11-11:30, cleaned up and filleted the fish at the Upper harbor fish tables.

Great day with Great Company. 

Allen

Stop it. STOP it I say...you are killing me. 2 hour drive away it appears the halibut just jump in the yak. here, i survive the wind  blasting long enough to manage to DROP my first and only good take down.

Someone tell me the wind will stop, else i might just have to take up golf

LOL   So it's howling up there?  This morning early the wind was pretty stiff from due North.  I even put my drift chute out.  But then it moved to NW and backed off a lot, almost the perfect drift speed (*sorry Steve*)

for anyone ineterested, now would be a good time to hit the Santa Cruz area for butts....harbor area, Lighthouse Point, Capitola at 45 feet, or next to the kelp beds.

Allen

thanks for the report. i'll be hitting tomorrow or tuesday morning.

james

sounds like a sweet day!
jason

nice report, Allen.  I think I'm going to head over to the harbor on Wednesday.

Ok, ok, so now you know you won't need to grow a beard.  Unless you don't catch a Pacific hallie that is!!   

Nice work, Allens.  I'm now also thinking of SC or Davenport for the 4th.

-- Dave

Thanks for the company Allen.  Good times as usual!!!

Yep, that was a nice butt I got up to the yak.  I'd say 17-18 pounds or so.  It looked to me like I got a nick in my spectra mainline.  Bummer to lose it.  Oh well.

The fish were really chewing the jacksmelt today.  I managed to make about 10 pieces over the course of the morning just dangling the sabiki in the rod holder.  Even the schoolie browns were sucking down 10-12" jacksmelt.  If I sent a 6-7" inch one down, it didn't last long.  At one point my sabiki got mobbed by a school of 5" lizardfish with all 6 hooks hanging one.  Those went back down as bait as well for instant bites.  The bite was bit slower on dead chovies, but I went through a tray and a half.  I didn't get a single hit on squid, did you Allen?  It was a bummer that the bait guy was late.

That 23.9999 ling was oh so close and it may have made the mark, but it swam off to fight another day, as did all the other fish caught.

Got home and took a 2 hour siesta.  Life is good!

-Allen

I was out at Capitola at the same time today. The conditions were flat and nearly windless, except for an occasional breeze from the east (sorry Steve). No action out at the buoy. None of the PB's were catching anything out there, either. Picked up rockfish and mackerel in the kelp beds, but no lingcod. Lots of people fishing the sandy areas for halibut, but nobody seemed to be catching any. Looks like Santa Cruz was better today.

SWEET HOOK!   get down scAllen! You are on a BUTT ROLL down there!

Allen ~ hate it when that happens next one will be BIGGER(karma)
Thanks fer da port! 

we should have just went there instead of MB.....oh well as they say

I also hit Capitola yesterday AM.  Great fogless/cloudless day from the start. Strong offshore breeze until ~8:00 then perfect until we left at noon.

Drifting from 1st bouy with live anchovies produced some brownish rock fish.  No Halibuts.  Had one line ripping strike. Couple different boats near us scored lings.  Another kayaker got a couple catch/release lings casting white hair raisers.

Cheers Gordo.

I was catching grass rockfish. Did your brownish rockfish look like this?

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=5203.0

You must have been at the buoy earlier than me. When I got out there around 10:30 AM, nothing was hitting.

I also hit Capitola yesterday AM.  Great fogless/cloudless day from the start. Strong offshore breeze until ~8:00 then perfect until we left at noon.

Drifting from 1st bouy with live anchovies produced some brownish rock fish.  No Halibuts.  Had one line ripping strike. Couple different boats near us scored lings.  Another kayaker got a couple catch/release lings casting white hair raisers.

Cheers Gordo.

great report, especially the use of the smelt! 

pole^2, how did you rig them? no stinger like you said before?

you fish them with reel out of gear and let them get eaten?

If I could get a fish to eat a smelt I would be a happy man!
pole^2, you are my hero for getting rid of a few of those sabiki destroyers.

my frozen anchovies on saturday were re-frozen, really bad bait,  .
should have taken or bought a good tray.

SCAllen, I feel silly for asking as I know santa cruz/ capitola pretty well, but which point is blacks point?

I am catching BROWN rockfish there, not GRASS rockfish (I have caught both, pretty sure I know the difference).
the BROWN are usually OUTSIDE the kelp, the GRASS are IN the kelp has been my experience.

I have also caught some decent young COPPERS IN the kelp there.

I will try to be out there the morning of the 4th myself.

J

J-

NP-  Black's Point is tat first Point East of the Santa Cruz harbor.  the surf spot just to the east is called "Mary's" the next surf spot is 26th Ave.

Work the west side of that point from the yellow sailing buoy area to the aea in front of the cliffs.  Classic halibut spot in Santa Cruz when the halibut are here.

Apparently there are some here right now.

Don't know how Pole rigs his smelt, but I have been using the single/treble rat trap rig, with a hard tie snell on the top hook.  Alan Tani swears by the single treble hook rig for drifting halibut.

I may change.  Lost a big one a couple weeks ago with a line break at the snell.

Yesterday, I was astounded to find the treble hook GONE from my rig when I got the fish out of the net.  Later found the treble and 4" of line on the nose of my yak.  Can't believe the snell held by itself, and am bummed my snell knot may have pinched the line sufficiently to break below the snell.  Glad I did not lose the fish!  35 pound flouro leader.....(!?)

Good luck!  I won't be foing out again till Friday, probably in that same area, depending on fish and weather reports.

Allen

jmairey, funny you should ask about the trap rigs as I didn't fish how I normally do.  I was rigged for dead chovies with double 2/0 hooks about 5 inches apart.  I was too lazy to switch to a large single hook every time I got a jacksmelt so I just nose hooked the jacksmelt with the front hook and let the other dangle.  Probably had equal hookups on the front and rear.  I think I'll continue to fish em this way for a while.

I would fish with the reel in gear and just drop the tip when I felt a nibble.  On the butt, for whatever reason, it felt different and I had dropped the reel into freespool for a bit before swingin tight.  Same thing on the ling.  I think I'm starting to get a good feel for when it's a smaller fish messing around and a bigger fish that I should take the time to feed some line to.

I actually prefer smelt when fishing live bait.

-Allen