LJ Halibut - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

Whizz Bang · 07-21-2009, 10:52 PM

Anyone who has been fishing LJ with any regularity recently, has probably seen me. Sand colored wilderness systems ride, and a brown pathfinder (I feel silly calling it granite). I am new to Kayak fishing, and have only had my kayak for a few weeks. In that time, however, I have managed to get out to LJ about a dozen times. I have spent untold hours online (wasting taxpayer dollars) surfing a handful of kayak fishing sites like this one and reading and rereading articles on how to catch this or that from your yak. I have been focusing on YT and have seen beautiful fish taken near me on several occasions while I was paying my dues.
Friday was a little off, in that the area I was focusing on (which had been bait heavy for the last week) was absolutely dead. I caught one sorry mack and dragged him around for a couple of hours, until I finally passed over a little more bait. I dropped the sabiki and caught a single solitary sardine. Pathetic. I replaced the mack with the dine and proceeded to drag him on a tour of LJ. After an hour and a half of that, both I and the dine had had it. I pulled the little feller off of my flyline and threw him on a carolina rig, down he went mumbling something about overtime and unfair practices. Another hour passed of slow trolling/drifting different depths. In 55ft of water my clicker made a little a little noise, and again I thought that the kelp fairy had visited me and my little buddy. The clicker made some more noise, this time in a decidedly unkelpish manner. I stared at my rod dumbfounded. What do I do? What is happening? What is down there, and why is it messing with me? With growing fear I pulled my rod from its holder and as the line again loaded with the weight of some surely hideous leviathon, I swung and the rod bent. Idiot! Now what? I vaguely remembered something about reeling, maybe keep some pressure on it. The fight was all vertical with a little back and forth, when I saw color, I realized this was gonna be a bit of baptism by fire. Every article about catching halibut from a kayak that I have read, stresses the difficulty and danger. Gents, this was only my second fish on this boat, the other being a foolish 14 inch calico. I prepped my gaff, and game clip and cleared my deck, all the while praying to an assorted pantheon of lower gods, and trying to keep pressure on the butt while he was doing his head shake thing. He freaked out on me three times and on the third time up, I sunk the gaff. Somewhere between seeing color and sinking the gaff, my forebrain shut down. This was evident after I wasted an inordinate amount of time trying to get the game clip through gills and out mouth instead of in mouth and out through gills. Twice he almost pulled me in, and I must have hit him with the billy club about a hundred times in between using my gaff to rip at his gills and soft vitals. At one point I made the very dumb move of trying to stab him in the head, and as the knife slid across his armored skull, he grinned and laughed. It was a dark laugh, an evil laugh, a graveyard laugh. My bladder loosened, and the world swam before my eyes. This was it, he was gonna win. He was gonna take me down there with him to stay, forever and ever with all the little fishees. My thoughts turned to my wife and family. What were they going to do without me? I had to live! With new found resolve, I rallied, and the rest became a blur. From the little I remember, there was a lot of screaming and flailing about. There was certainly alot of splashing. At one point I believe there may have even been a small fire. Some kindly passerby must have motored over and put it out.
When it was all said and done, I took it by Ric’s OEX Kearny store to get it weighed. I bought my kayak from Ric. He talked me through the process and offered his valuable insight, and for that I am grateful. Thank you Ric.
41lb. That is what the halibut weighed. This is not a record, many guys I’m sure have caught bigger, only a few days prior, Josh Pruitt had been telling me about a 50 pounder he had just landed. But I am not Josh, and last Friday I got my first California Halibut from a Kayak. Last Friday I got my first successful paddle back with a kayak that wallowed in the swells, worrying all the while that what was lying across my lap would wake up again. Last Friday, I gotta tell you guys, I felt good, real good. And today I got to put in my first post. Hello everyone, it is a special thing we share.
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TCS · 07-21-2009, 11:04 PM

Good story Dude, and a great fish too. Your description is funny, but its also true that when you have to take on a big fish in a kayak mano a mano it does test your mettle. Particularly those of us with less experience. You should be proud. I have thrown out the Carolina rig a few times at the end of the session in the hope a getting one of those. Guess I'll have to keep at it.

Tom

bellcon · 07-21-2009, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Hello everyone, it is a special thing we share.

Amen to that my friend!

Helluva a first post!
Way to go!
Congrats on your first big butt, that things a beast

bigbarrels · 07-22-2009, 03:57 AM

nice one! congrats and hopefully more to come

467echo · 07-22-2009, 04:32 AM

Good Job! Evertime I have been out I have seen you. Way to put the time in to get that whopper. I'm sure that yellow will come soon too!

Montesdad · 07-22-2009, 06:51 AM

well done -

Dennis · 07-22-2009, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whizz Bang

I pulled the little feller off of my flyline and threw him on a carolina rig, down he went mumbling something about overtime and unfair practices.

That's some funny stuff...

Rik · 07-22-2009, 04:38 PM

Loved the report Eric and congrats again. as I was reading your story I realized that you already broke in that calcutta gaff I wrapped for you a few days prior! nice job on getting it bloody.

Whizz Bang · 07-23-2009, 03:52 PM

Thank you all for your comments and encouragement.

Josh- I am in the process of digging the change out of the couch and will probably be talking to you soon about a guided trip (Do you accept payment in lint covered nickels?).

Ric- That gaff now looks like it has been through a couple of seasons, not a single week and one fish. Sorry.

In the interim, I will be out again this weekend searching for my yellow. If you are out there and see me fishing a carolina off the bottom, please stop me.

07-21-2009, 10:52 PM	#1
Whizz Bang Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 396	LJ Halibut Anyone who has been fishing LJ with any regularity recently, has probably seen me. Sand colored wilderness systems ride, and a brown pathfinder (I feel silly calling it granite). I am new to Kayak fishing, and have only had my kayak for a few weeks. In that time, however, I have managed to get out to LJ about a dozen times. I have spent untold hours online (wasting taxpayer dollars) surfing a handful of kayak fishing sites like this one and reading and rereading articles on how to catch this or that from your yak. I have been focusing on YT and have seen beautiful fish taken near me on several occasions while I was paying my dues. Friday was a little off, in that the area I was focusing on (which had been bait heavy for the last week) was absolutely dead. I caught one sorry mack and dragged him around for a couple of hours, until I finally passed over a little more bait. I dropped the sabiki and caught a single solitary sardine. Pathetic. I replaced the mack with the dine and proceeded to drag him on a tour of LJ. After an hour and a half of that, both I and the dine had had it. I pulled the little feller off of my flyline and threw him on a carolina rig, down he went mumbling something about overtime and unfair practices. Another hour passed of slow trolling/drifting different depths. In 55ft of water my clicker made a little a little noise, and again I thought that the kelp fairy had visited me and my little buddy. The clicker made some more noise, this time in a decidedly unkelpish manner. I stared at my rod dumbfounded. What do I do? What is happening? What is down there, and why is it messing with me? With growing fear I pulled my rod from its holder and as the line again loaded with the weight of some surely hideous leviathon, I swung and the rod bent. Idiot! Now what? I vaguely remembered something about reeling, maybe keep some pressure on it. The fight was all vertical with a little back and forth, when I saw color, I realized this was gonna be a bit of baptism by fire. Every article about catching halibut from a kayak that I have read, stresses the difficulty and danger. Gents, this was only my second fish on this boat, the other being a foolish 14 inch calico. I prepped my gaff, and game clip and cleared my deck, all the while praying to an assorted pantheon of lower gods, and trying to keep pressure on the butt while he was doing his head shake thing. He freaked out on me three times and on the third time up, I sunk the gaff. Somewhere between seeing color and sinking the gaff, my forebrain shut down. This was evident after I wasted an inordinate amount of time trying to get the game clip through gills and out mouth instead of in mouth and out through gills. Twice he almost pulled me in, and I must have hit him with the billy club about a hundred times in between using my gaff to rip at his gills and soft vitals. At one point I made the very dumb move of trying to stab him in the head, and as the knife slid across his armored skull, he grinned and laughed. It was a dark laugh, an evil laugh, a graveyard laugh. My bladder loosened, and the world swam before my eyes. This was it, he was gonna win. He was gonna take me down there with him to stay, forever and ever with all the little fishees. My thoughts turned to my wife and family. What were they going to do without me? I had to live! With new found resolve, I rallied, and the rest became a blur. From the little I remember, there was a lot of screaming and flailing about. There was certainly alot of splashing. At one point I believe there may have even been a small fire. Some kindly passerby must have motored over and put it out. When it was all said and done, I took it by Ric’s OEX Kearny store to get it weighed. I bought my kayak from Ric. He talked me through the process and offered his valuable insight, and for that I am grateful. Thank you Ric. 41lb. That is what the halibut weighed. This is not a record, many guys I’m sure have caught bigger, only a few days prior, Josh Pruitt had been telling me about a 50 pounder he had just landed. But I am not Josh, and last Friday I got my first California Halibut from a Kayak. Last Friday I got my first successful paddle back with a kayak that wallowed in the swells, worrying all the while that what was lying across my lap would wake up again. Last Friday, I gotta tell you guys, I felt good, real good. And today I got to put in my first post. Hello everyone, it is a special thing we share. fficeffice" />> > Attached Images Last edited by Whizz Bang; 07-21-2009 at 11:14 PM.

07-21-2009, 11:04 PM	#2
TCS Senior Member Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 478	You Da Man! Good story Dude, and a great fish too. Your description is funny, but its also true that when you have to take on a big fish in a kayak mano a mano it does test your mettle. Particularly those of us with less experience. You should be proud. I have thrown out the Carolina rig a few times at the end of the session in the hope a getting one of those. Guess I'll have to keep at it. Tom

07-22-2009, 04:32 AM	#5
467echo Rookie of the Month Club Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Mira Mesa Posts: 483	Good Job! Evertime I have been out I have seen you. Way to put the time in to get that whopper. I'm sure that yellow will come soon too! __________________ they are getting bigger....

07-22-2009, 04:38 PM	#8
Rik OEX Oceanside Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 113	Loved the report Eric and congrats again. as I was reading your story I realized that you already broke in that calcutta gaff I wrapped for you a few days prior! nice job on getting it bloody. __________________ Artist formerly Known as OEX Oceanside

07-22-2009, 03:57 AM	#4
bigbarrels Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Vista Posts: 1,111	nice one! congrats and hopefully more to come

07-22-2009, 06:51 AM	#6
Montesdad Grey Haired Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: So. Orange County Posts: 53	well done -

07-23-2009, 03:52 PM	#9
Whizz Bang Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 396	Thank you all for your comments and encouragement. Josh- I am in the process of digging the change out of the couch and will probably be talking to you soon about a guided trip (Do you accept payment in lint covered nickels?). Ric- That gaff now looks like it has been through a couple of seasons, not a single week and one fish. Sorry. In the interim, I will be out again this weekend searching for my yellow. If you are out there and see me fishing a carolina off the bottom, please stop me.