I have been hitchhiking a lot this summer, and having some fun with halibut. I post on a couple of other sites, but keep forgetting to post here on blood decks. Enjoy the report below...
Here is the scoop:
Once again DickE was gracious enough to take us out fishing today. Greg, Steve, and I arrived at Berkeley at 6a.m. The original plan had been to head out for some tuna, but given the forecast we decided it was not worth the risk. So, time for plan B: halibut fishing.
Motored over to the bait guy. Picked up a full scoop of sardines for the 4 of us which ended up being the perfect amount by the end of the day. After a brief discussion we decided to head out the gait, check out the conditions, and fish the North Bar.
The crew: Dick, Greg, Steve, and Myself (taking the pic):
Got outside the gait, and the conditions were awesome. Bright sunny skies and pretty flat conditions. Set up our first drift on the north bar. About 15 minutes into it my rod goes off. Fish On! Short fight later and nice 8lb'er hits the decks. Alright skunk OFF! Not only skunk off, but the last few trips Greg has always been the first one to hook up. Not today Greg.
I was fealing pretty good about myself having landed the first fish instead of Greg today. We had 1 or 2 raked baits, but after a few drifts we decided to try some other spots. Dick took us to a little honey hole of his he knows. We dropped down, and ended up with pretty steady shaker ling cod action. In fact Steve was the hot stick with 3 lings. One just barely made the cut off, but we didn't want to risk it so back it went. This was about the time when I found out you don't want to tick Greg off. Greg yells fish on, and as I turn my head to look I see his rod double over. At first I thought he had caught the bottom, but then I see these big head shakes. Greg plays the fish to the surface, and out of the murky depths a huge brown shadow starts to appear along the surface. I'm pretty sure I said a few expletives, and Steve might have as well. Dick went for the gaff shot, but missed. This pissed of the fish, and Greg's lining started screaming as the fish tried to get back down to the bottom. This is where Greg's experience shows. He played the fish back to the boat, nice and smooth the whole way. No trace of panic in his face, just concentration as he worked the fish back to the boat. This time Dick was not going to miss. After a quick gaff we ended up getting this big sucker to the boat:
Ended up measuring out at 45 inches and 38lbs. DAM!
This was capped off with a 26inch ling cod a few minutes later. I hooked into another nice fish on the next drift that was about 10-12lbs. Moral of the story: Don't piss off Greg unless you want to see some monster fish. I'll try to piss him off more in the future if these are the results we'll get.
Spent the rest of the day prospecting for halibut with not much luck. Ended the day back around the gait. Greg got one more keeper to the boat, about 7lbs. I hooked into a nice leopard that we released at the boat.
Dick spent most of the day enjoying the weather fishing only about half the time, and wondering if we should have made the run for tuna instead. The 38lb butt did help lessen the blow, but I think he would have preferred to be tuna fishing. All I know is Captain SquidSlayer was able to put us on some nice fish today .
Steve is still learning the fishing ropes, but its obvious he is getting into this. He has been very observant and bringing up some excellent questions with regards to tackle and technique. I see a future Ace in the making if he keeps it up.
Final count for the day: 4 butts. 1 ling cod, 2 rock fish, 1 stary flounder, 1 leopard (released), 2 sand sharks, and 5 or 6 shaker ling cod. Not bad even though it felt slow for some reason.
Thanks again Dick for taking us out. We really appreciate it. Here are some nice parting shots:
me on the left, Greg 2nd from the left, Steve 2nd from the right, and Dick on the right
Greg getting the final measurement, and a comparison shot:
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