LJ 8/19 - Hali

[mattamatta]

Things were generally slow out there. Tide change was really minimal and none of the bait wanted anything to do with a sabiki.

Launched around 6:15ish to a little bigger waves (some 2ft-ish) than the nearly-nothing that was forecast, but still manageable. Some ~2ft swells sweeping through though mostly calm.

I headed NW of the point out toward the canyon edge in hopes of finding some wandering yellowtail for the yoyo. Not much on the finder, but I did see a couple little marks on the bottom and drop a flat fall for some 12" sandies that seemed to bite well.

After a while I headed in toward the kelp line and was maybe half way between canyon and kelp, maybe 1mi NW of the hotel when the line got heavy and hard to reel. Wasn't sure if I had snagged some kelp or something, but it just felt heavy. When I got it half way up I saw I was all tangled in the sabiki line I'd been dangling, so I figured that was why it was so hard to reel in. Then reel some more and all of a sudden there's a monster at the surface!

25lb, edit:39.5" Halibut! I had him foul hooked right at the edge a bit behind the head with a 6x JR on the yoyo. Not sure what his deal was, but he didn't really fight at all, just splashed me a couple times when I had him at the surface.

Finally got to use the gaff (struggled with that...) and game clip (Struggled with that...) for the first time. What a mess trying to get that thing clipped and up in the boat with two lines tangled on it, trying to figure out where to put him and how to keep him from going off, trying to find the brain with my screwdriver shiv! Also was a hassle trying to figure out a filleting setup around the house... first one that doesn't just fit in the sink and on a small cutting board. Need to get that figured out. The body has been stinking up my trash all week since it doesn't go out until tomorrow morning.


Only other fish I saw caught was one yellow that a guy on the beach had. Nobody seemed to be making bait, but he said he went all over the place and finally got a mack that his yellow hit on the flyline. Saw a couple more come in empty handed and said they never found any bait. Good thing I had a lucky lure (which is now attached to a sea-lion at the Coronados from a Tuesday full day on the Mission Belle, hanging out with my flat fall which is also at the bottom there...).

First legal or even "real" hali (just a 12" or so once from the surf and a ~6" baby once is all I've had", first real big fish for me. Quite a week, since my full day added my first yellow and first ling. Enough in the freezer now to set me up for a while.

[dpricenator]

Nice fish! I'm glad to see that we don't have to have a $3500 yak to catch fish. I ride a Ocean Kayak Mulibu XL II. I would like to see your set up, as I am all bungee cords and a milk crate for rod holders, and a 5 gallon bucket with a bubbler in it, for bait. No fish finder, or other goodies. Pretty much just set up to drift. Gong out of Dana Point this weekend. Hoping I do half as well as you did.

[FISH11]

Nice Hali. Thanks for sharing. I have had the same experience on the last couple trips about the bait being hard to find or better said, hard to catch. Even using squid on the sabiki and sometimes trolling it most of the day along with another line with any bait caught that day has not been productive. Sure there are rockfish but, I think most of us are thinking Yellows or some exotic that don't normally reside here. I have seen the water temp get as high as 80 and then drop to 75 in less than a week. Still no change in the fishing. Enjoy the Hali steaks.

[Ggiannig89]

hell yes! Good job Matt!! That’s a hell of a catch right there!

[jorluivil]

That’s a nice fish but either you measured it wrong or your scale is off, there is no way a 30” halibut will weigh 25lbs.

[mattamatta]

Thanks, guys. Between that and my Tuesday's full day islands trip, I've caught more fish already this week than pretty much the rest of my life, so that's pretty rad.

Originally Posted by dpricenator

Nice fish! I'm glad to see that we don't have to have a $3500 yak to catch fish. I ride a Ocean Kayak Mulibu XL II. I would like to see your set up, as I am all bungee cords and a milk crate for rod holders, and a 5 gallon bucket with a bubbler in it, for bait. No fish finder, or other goodies. Pretty much just set up to drift. Gong out of Dana Point this weekend. Hoping I do half as well as you did.

Yeah, that's my boat as well. I'll have to do a thread on it. One of the main downsides I've had with it (though I'd like something faster, too, if I'm going to be covering lots of distance) is that there aren't a lot of obvious places to mount things like all the fancy new fishing-designed kayaks have. I think I've come up with some pretty neat things, and had some of the stuff I wanted to have just happen to fit perfectly together in a pretty slick way. Better take some pics and put up a walkthrough. I know I did a lot of googling trying to find ways other people have rigged theirs when I was trying to figure out what to do with mine.

Originally Posted by jorluivil

That’s a nice fish but either you measured it wrong or your scale is off, there is no way a 30” halibut will weigh 25lbs.

Shoot, that's a typo! Cheated myself out of some length! Should have read ~39.5". Editing post...

[GTboosted]

Congrats on your first!


I lost my first one. Wasn't prepared for him to go crazy when gaffed. Broke the line and took off with a gaff attached to its belly. Learned alot with that one...so just because this one was tame don't let it fool you. lol