Went to DP harbor 7am-10am.
Wide open on halibut, bait or jig. Most around 18." I lost count of those. More than 10. A lot more. Three obvious keepers. I got bored- and my arms were tired from catching those guys on 6# trout gear, so I went back to the bait receiver and got 6 10" sardines.

A pelican got one. I dropped two trying to bait them. (don't laugh, it ain't easy!) Two were slammed explosively, farmed one, broke off the other. The last one made it to the dock on the troll on the way in. When I examined it- it was completely skinned and shredded from 2/3 of the way to the tail, with big teeth slashes all the way around.

Lessons learned. 1. I ran out of trap rigs early, and had to keep making them while fishing. 2. I miss way to many hits with the halibuts, even using a trap, I need to make better ones, and learn how to put the hook in the tail better. All my biggest fish came on bigger chovies/sardines. The bigger the better. 3. almost every fish was hooked on the trap hook, VERY important!

If you are not getting bit immediately, move. The fish are VERY aggressive, I caught a number on the cast or on the retreive near the surface. Halibut are NOT sluggish bottom feeders, they are active predators and move shallow just like bass.

Halibut are concentrated in the Harbor. Move if you don't get bit. If you do, work that area, they are never alone.

I'm gonna get a MONSTER out of Dana Point, you just wait.

Quietman

Quietman

http://www.kayakfishingpro.com

Quietman,
I like your reports. I know it's more popular down south to use lite line, but what do you think about maybe breaking out some 20lb florocarbon leader and fishing 15 or 20 main line on bait ... or using some 14 to 17lb test for swimbaits? The only reason I ask is that when I fished halibut more inshore, I had no problem getting bit on straight 20, and I mostly used 16 or 17lb test with my swimbaits. Of course I wasn't using 3" baits, but it just seems like if you're after the one that looks like a giant brown rug when it comes up, you might want to consider some beefier test :-) Good luck going for the big one. That would be really awesome to get a 20+ fish in a tube.


-Rob

Quietman,

I am new to inshore fishing new to the "Fishing Lingo", what are you referring to when using a "trap rig"
Thanks
OneEyedJack
SanDiego

A trap rig is usually a 2 1/2 foot or longer mono leader with a treble hook at one end for near-tail hooking a bait and a single stiffly sliding (for adjusting to size of bait) single hook above it for nose hooking the bait. These can be bought wherever saltwater tackle is sold. I prefer to make my own using 100% flurocarbon.

Although trap rigs can be used at any depth I prefer swimbaits in shallow water so that short halibut can be released with minimum damage. If I use a trap rig it will be when halibut fishing in my boat in relatively deep water, where, at least for me, I find a better ratio of legal to short halibut.

Bob