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.