BH 2007/08/19

WTG on the butts guys!!! Those are some beautiful fish. Good job on not listening to the forecast.

FF

Craig - It is funny that you mentioned that your halibut hit as you were done with your drift and reeling in.  Both mine and Eric's were caught in the exact same manner!  Might be something to that...keep alot of action on the lure?

I have had two hit by casting a megabait out and bouncing it across the bottom. so I think a fair bit of horizontal action
seems to work.

I want to try bottom trolling for them out there sometime.

J

Nomad, yeah good point.  The drift was slow when I was drifting frozen bait, and just had one tail bite.  Last time I did that, I landed one, but the drift was very fast.

Yes J, next time I too will try trolling my frozen bait (or swimbait) slowly, instead of drifting it (unless the drift is very fast to begin with).    Might be next Sunday.

Gary, thanks for thinking of me... I would never have thought you'd wait.   Plus you guys had major catches to cool and clean.  BTW, I am now on Ch 69, just in case you consider it next time.    See you out there again soon i hope!

Ron's resized carnage picture

So do butts hang out near the edge of rock piles waiting to ambush something that swims by or bite sized fish that come off the rocks?  So if we're drifting in the middle of the sand desert well between rocky points we're wasting our time? 

Craig, I use a stinger for my popsicle baits so I tie on two hooks about 5 inches apart using Palomar knots with 50 lb test mono.  The bigger fish were hooked on the first hook (head swallow) and the smaller fish were tail biters.  Its not that often I reel up half a fish anymore but some fish take chunks out of my bait without getting stuck.

Actually the drift was slow enough that I pulled up a bait that was sliced in half by a crab.  It probably tried to hang on as the bait was drifting by.  If you feel dead weight or a sudden increased drag without a head shake, its a crab. 

Ron (Sail Fisk) didn't blink an eye when I told him that we were on the spot that the land lord came to visit last time and he could be right underneath us...no fear, he's got the sickness alright.  Oh for you Tarpon fiends, he has a 160 double hatch like Bluekayak, Nate and Mooch...cool ride.

Adam, you might not want to look at my avatar...yep, that one is all of 20".

Yeah, weather wise the NOAA buoys had always posted 5 to 15 knot winds for days prior to Sunday so I'm not sure where and when the high wind forecast was posted.  True to form they were correct so it certainly verifies the faith I had in them.

Interesting question: if 18 yaks show up at BH looking for butts next week, will the land lord come out and remind us who's property it is?  Hmmmm...

Gary

I left for 3-day camping trip, so did not reply sooner.

You guys provided good analysis on lure movement attracting Hali. IMO - We just happened to be at BH at right time. We were simply lucky. or It must be my new P15 that brought in Mojo in the opening day.  2 Halibuts hookups in one day would be rare.

Hali will be still there next weekend or disappear. If you go, good luck to you.

This weekend is the MBK Derby...let's leave the BH hali's alone and support scallen with a good NCKA turnout if we're going to be out on the salt.  Sounds like if anyone lands a hali you'll have a great chance of taking home 1st place. 

Adam, you might not want to look at my avatar...yep, that one is all of 20".

Thnks for rubbin it in Gary!, i'll get one, I hope before X-mas.

Adam, next time we do BH and if you hang with me, I'll put you on top of cabbie central.  However, the Bean is loaded with cabbie's so you should be able to bag a big one soon enough.

Gary

As soon as the swell drops and the wind ain't blowin.....I'm there!, not alone of coarse.
..and any guidance towards a cabbie would be SWEET!    see ya at MBKT!

great job on the halibut guys! im jealous. as far as halibut habits, they do like reef areas and stay on the edges in the sand waiting to ambush prey. I have seen them going over reefs and have had them attack bait half way to the surface. halibut dont only ambush prey from the surface. they chase bait to the surface as well.

where you find one halibut there are probably more around and where you find them they will return about the same time each year unless there is an el nino year where they will be there maybe earlier and leave later due to higher water temps.

halibut use the same places to spawn each year and they return to the same places.

there are places in monterey where they consistently show up when the times are right. they use the same spots and can be found pretty much on a schedule.

once i was diving at del monte beach looking for halibut and saw a commotion form the surface. i dived down thinking it was a bat ray going wild and it was 3 halibut feasting on dead anchovies.

weird eh?