Monterey Bay report 7/4/22

Conditions today were perfect for Halibut and I managed to get a couple nice ones. 18lb and 29lbs. Also landed a nice ling around 28”. I launched from Monterey bay kayaks and fished between 35-50ft on the other side of the dive buoys. The bait was plentiful, tons of smelt and a few schools of sardines swimming around. Water temp is around 58 so hopefully that will keep the bait around and more fish will move in soon. Both halibut were caught on big smelt between 9-11” on a sliding sinker rig with about a 6’ leader. 30lb Seaguar Inshore fluoro on the leaders. I might go chase them again later this week between Wednesday and Friday if the conditions are right. If anyone is interested let me know!

Nice fish! Did you see any squid while you were out there?

Yea when I went out on Friday there was a ton of squid between 80-100ft in front of the hotel. Most of the squid boats have been fishing in front of lovers point tho I know it’s still pretty thick out there.

nice fish!!  I was wondering, how do you decide on the size of the weight to use?

Brad all depends on the the drift/wind speed, water depth, and what kind of structure I’m fishing. If I am fishing mixed rocks and sand I try to go as light as possible. In less than 40ft with a .5-.75mph drift a 4 oz torpedo usually does the trick and doesn’t get hung up too much, I bump up to a 5 or 6 if I’m going into water up to 70ft. Anything over that is usually an 8oz. If I’m fishing wide open sand with live bait 6-8oz up to 100 ft. I rarely fish for them that deep, Even in the winter months I found quite a few fish in 70-90, so that is usually the heaviest I carry.

Nice and nicer!

Wow thanks for the very detailed information!  This will surely come in handy on my first outing

Nice pair

Nice work, Todd.   

Nice job. Congrats

Congrats buddy.  You're the Halibut whiperer.

Way to go!  thanks for sharing!

Bushy

Great report and outcome. Thanks again for sharing. Was worthy of a second reply.