Couple of days at the Jewel

[dmrides]

Fishing at La Jolla never ceases to amaze me, it truly is a Jewel. It is such an amazing place that constantly surprises me with new sights and experiences.

My brother was in town for a bachelor party and our job was to get some kind of fish for the party on Friday night. We paddled out at o'dark thirty on Friday morning knowing that we were going to catch some fish. Made it out to the squid grounds and soaked some fresh dead for a while. Nearly every squirt that went down caught a few barracuda and had a lot of bait devoured by macs. I moved around a lot looking for signs of the right kind of life while my brother just drifted out to deeper water. After a while I look over and sure enough he is bendo. Knowing that he does not have a gaff or game clip, i cruise over there to see what he's got. As I get closer, he says its a halibut. When I get close enough to see it, the only words that came to mind were "Holy F@&$!". The head was huge. I swoop in for the gaff shot, right in the belly. Stoked! Get it on the clip, pop the gills and about 15 minutes later I hand it back to my bro so we take a few pics.



Don't get me wrong, we were beyond stoked to know that halibut was on the menu, but at the same time we were hoping to have some sashimi for the party. It seemed really slow at the beds, so we headed out to the NW corner in search of the right kind. We both dropped back some macs and shortly there after I got slammed by a yellow, but he did not stick. Bummer. Then a little further out we hear some whales and we paddled over to find a pod of four massive blue whales. Insane to see them up close from a yak. We were so in awe that we completely forgot to take out the camera. We trolled some macs back to the barn, but there was no sashimi to be found for our party.

My brother's halibut measured 45.5", 45# and had some serious girth.



We cooked up about 10#s of meat for the party and made some tacos. Man that was a tasty meal. All his friends were stoked and wanted to head out and catch their own fish.

As it turned out, one of his friends talked us into another adventure on Monday. So Monday morning we head out again in the dark. This time there were some waves at the launch and we had to really pick the right time to punch through, but we all made it out without an incident. The squid grounds were nearly empty, just a few of the regulars. We drop down some fresh dead and they all got instantly tore up by macs and 'cuda. We all got sick of this and thought that we should again head out off the squid beds and troll some macs. I tie a sabiki on my bass rod, since I loaned out all my other rods, and drop it down on a nice size bait ball. As soon as it hits the bottom I put it in gear and line goes ripping off. This ain't no mac! This fish decided that it would be smart to head out for deep water and away from the kelp, so I decided it would be best to remove him from the gene pool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC_L0...ature=youtu.be
(I am not sure how to embed the video.)

It was a small yellow, 22# but was quite a fight on the bass rod, especially since he was tail hooked. And I was not sure how hard I could pull on the sabiki hooks.



I wanted to get the other guys on some fish and they wanted to paddle, so again we made our way out towards the NW corner and dropped in some macs, which were instantly stolen by a seal who then proceeded to follow us for the next 45 min, preventing us from doing any more fishing.

It's always fun fishing with my bro, somehow we always seems to come back with some great stories and most of the time they are based on reality.

[wiredantz]

damn fish are so smart... they only show up on weekdays

[mtnbykr2]

No $h!t, "craykee, look at the size "o" that buggar" nice job, thanks for sharin the video

[ful-rac]

Awsome!!! come'on a 22# yellowtail is not a small fish!!! You must be spoiled! But that's a good thing! Great couple of day for you guys!

[lamb]

Wow, that halibut is THICK!!!!

Great going!!!

[skrilla]

^ ditto. Big 'but!

[Gigafish]

Pics and vid bachelor party. Congrats. She's a beauty.

[Bennyblanco]

On a sabiki rig? How many lbs test?

[Cbad Mike]

Nice fish and pics. Glad you and your brother had a good day.
I guess you don't need those extra rods anymore... You obviously only need one which will make launching and landing alot easier. CONGRATULATIONS.
Mike

[jorluivil]

Epic fishing going on right now. Congrats on one hell of a Hali!!!

[j mo]

Awesome Darren!!!! Id say the same thing if saw a flatty that big at color....

[drseiler]

Great story and great report. You had a great time it sounds like. I'll bet the B.P. was fishy too.. Congrats

[Dirty Curti]

Great report and nice Butt. But c'mon, a yellow on a Sabiki rig WTF! Well done.

[dmrides]

Thanks guys. I was pretty stoked to see such a big Hali and was amazed I landed the YT.

Originally Posted by Bennyblanco

On a sabiki rig? How many lbs test?

Last summer I hooked a big fish on a sabiki, but it broke off as soon as I tried slowing it down, now I use the owner rigs most of the time. Stronger hooks, 30# mainline and 20# to the hooks, just in case.

[steveooo]

Yeah buddy! Nice couple days fishing

I've hooked a few big fish on the sabiki, but never been fortunate enough ( or had the patience) to get them in. Congrats

[GregAndrew]

Nice couple of days. I hope your brother does not think that Halibut like that are just laying around everywhere out there? But cummon, tacos really? That is what they make rockfish for. You know that fileted California Halibut goes for about $23/lb and whole it is about $10/lb. Anyway you slice it up, or not, that is one hell of a catch.

[dmrides]

Originally Posted by GregAndrew

But cummon, tacos really? That is what they make rockfish for. You know that fileted California Halibut goes for about $23/lb and whole it is about $10/lb. Anyway you slice it up, or not, that is one hell of a catch.

I hear ya, it was sacrilegde. But it was my brother's fish, so he got to do with it as he pleased. Luckily we only used about a third for the tacos, since then we have done the fish justice. There was a lot of meat on that one!

[blitzburgh]

Nice FEEEESH!!!!