After hearing of halibut moving in shallow, I decided to try catching one from the beach. So I armed myself with 3" big hammers and 3/16oz leadheads, and went to Goleta beach at the steps by UCSB.

Didn't get any bites so I made my way towards the point in front of the marine bio building. Saw a patch of seaweed and eel grass in close, so I waded in to my knees and cast right into the paddy. As soon as my swimbait hit the water...BAM...a boil!! Visions of something great popped into my head but it turned out to be just a surf perch....12 inches though. As if it wasn't something to see it boil on the plastic, it also EASILY inhaled the 3" bait. Took some work to get the hook out, considered keeping it, but ended up releasing it safely.

Continued up to the point where there were some boiler rocks. Couple casts along the rocks resulted in a couple more big perch, also on the 3" swimbaits. Also had something big that hit and took drag before coming unbottoned. Perhaps the funniest moment of the day was a big perch came and hit the swimbait, and BIT the tail right off.

My experiment with the swimbaits from shore didn't land me any halibut, but it was interesting to note that the perch hit the 3" bait just as aggressively, if not more, as they hit the 1.5" grubs. I also think that the swimbaits are easier to fish than the carolina-rigged grubs, so I'll probably continue using the 3" baits in the future. Tight lines!

** tight lines make all my troubles go away **