Had a little Summerfest Halibut Derby for a few friends at West/East Beach on Saturday morning. The tide was extremely low at first which didn't help the slow fishing. Finally, after about 2.5 hours I find the first halibut - a short but still a halibut - on a 3 inch Mackerel Big Hammer. Then my cousin Josh (Team Striper) gets another short. A little later I run into a little flurry and get three in a row on the Excalibur Long A. One was 21.5 inches with at least an inch of tail rot (would've been legal) - DO NOT NET FISH YOU'RE NOT GOING TO KEEP!!!! - Buy a BogaGrip or a Berkeley Lip Gripper. This is the second fish I've caught this year near Stearn's Wharf with tail rot. With about 5 minutes to go and no legals caught my brother-in-law Mark announces that he's going to go to the other side of the pier, make a few of casts, and give up. Sure enough on his third casts he hooks up with a 23 inch halibut and takes the pot. So to sum it up: 10 anglers, 1 legal, a dozen or so shorts, a few sand bass, and quite a few lizardfish. About half the halibut were caught on soft plastic (swimbaits & grubs) and half on hard plastic (crankbaits).

Thank's for organizing another great event, lots of fun.
Would you consider a smelt class next year?

Damn! I forgot to mention your trophy smelt :) :)

I know I could have taken the lizard fish title. They were wide open. Thanks for a good time.