Saturday:
I was sitting at work all day thinking "man, i need to catch a fish today." When i got off work at 6 i rounded up my gear and hit the beach. It was a high slack tide so it was very interesting crossing the slough. It was a slow pick on the hallibut. I got one right away that was a bout 19in on a three inch seawolf bighammer then nothing for a bit. I got another that was probabally legal but i farmed it in the surf. After catching one last short hallibut i decided to work my way back to my car. All of a sudden i got hit hard, this time on the pepper trout 3inch hammer. I thought i was stuck on the bottom for a second. Then i felt a head shake. The fish started to move slowly at first, pulling drag at a slow steady rate. I could tell it was big. Then this fish deided to take off. I couldnt even slow it down with my 6lb setup. A few weeks ago i had a simmilar experience, the fish behaved the same and durring this first run it broke me off. This fish felt a little smaller so i was hoping to at least get a look at it. After about a half hour of fighting this fish i saw it. It was (to my complete surprise) a black sea bass. MNy eyes just about fell out of my head. Ive never caught one before but this was the last place i expected too. I was able to get this fish in and measure it before i let it go, Length was 35inches and this fat fish had a 26inch girth so by the lxgxg/800 this fish weighd 29.5lbs. It felt about that if not heavier, i had such an addrenaline rush that i couldnt even fish anymore. I just let that beautiful fush go and walked back to my car. I was really glad that after that battle the fish took off like a flash, perfect end to a great day at the beach. My only dissapointment was that i didnt have a camera, oh well.
Sunday:
I got off work today at 5 and went back to the beach. Its just so easy and convinient to go down there for a few hours i couldnt resist after yestarday. I had a much better pick on the hallibut today. I got 3 shorts on the 3 inch pepper trout and then had to switch to prizm shad because i ran out of pepper trout. It didnt seem to make a difference. I hooked up shortly after the witch with a nice fish. It was a 23 inch fat hallibut. I was planning on keeping a hallibut if i caught one so this was coming home. I kept fishing, mostly because there was alot of daylight left. I worked back towarsd my car. I hooked up on another fish. This one took off, didnt feel like a hallibut. 10 minutes later i landed a 29 inch white seabass. Completely amazed and full of addrenaline i decided to end the day on a high note. I got home only to find that My digital camera is out of comission:( . I took some pictures on regular film though. Needless to say im going to head back there after work tomarow. Its been an amazing few days, maybe i can get one more.

Man, this has to be one of the best years for surf fishing goleta beach I've ever heard of. That's sick, I vote for a change of locale for pete's float tube tourney :o
-Brian

Hey, were you in your tube or from shore? you scored those buts in front of that big rock on the north side of the beach? Im there! but I doubt I'll have as much luck as that...

I was just fishing off shore both days. I was wading in about wast deep or more though.

Daniel

I would like to Brian but Goleta Beach is so unpredictable that you never know what could happen. The surf could be up to much to launch or that particular day it could be a weedfest out there. The harbor area is relatively safe.

But... we should definetely set up another mini-tournament someday out at East Goleta.

Yeah, that was 75% tongue in cheek, everybody's already informed for the harbor anyway. I just can't believe how good goleta's been this year, we'll definitely have to setup a side trip if nothing else.
-Brian

Right on Dan! That's the beach where I got a 55 lb. Black from my float tube a couple years back. It was in about 9 or 10 feet of water when it hit. From the surf, though - that's got to be a rarity.

Nice job on the flatties!

Great going on the flatties and that BSB!

i would like to do some surf fishing but i never know what to use, so i bust out the shrimp and heavy gear and the 3 ounce weights and catch blues and blue runners...this is in the atlantic...how do you guys fish lures with all the current and rip tides and waves? what size heads do you use on the 3" hammmers? i think ill order some pepper trout hammers, and maybe some 1/4 ounce heads? how do you work those lures in the ocean? the fish that i usually catch are whiting, lots of croakers, some black drums, some blues and blue runners, every now and then some mackeral..but only off the piers...this is in the carolinas by the way...we have alo of flounder, but no halibuts i dont believe, and i know the flounder come in shallow when the tide is up...can you guys give me some tips?
-patrick

________________________
Assalt Lures
http://www.assalt.com
Big Hammer
http://www.swimbait.com

Catch and Release!

Im not sure about the carolinas, it might be totally different, but out here its pretty simple. I usually bring a 7.5ft rod with 6lb on it. I recomend longer rods for casting distance, but dont go overboard. You could fish up to 10lb but i wouldnt go over that, and i would say anything under 6lb will end in alot of lost fish. I fish the three inch Bighammers, these seem to have a good action and alot of colors to chooses from. I use a 1/4 ounce darter head but any led head shape will do, pick one that you like. In terms of working the bait i usually go for a strait retrieve. I vary the speed sometimes and add pauses but nothing really fance. Hope this helps, my best advice is experiment with different things until you find a technique that catches fish, then perfect that technique.

Daniel

Out of curiosity what is the line class record for back seabass on 6lb?

ummm doubt they're listed as a sportfish since it's illegal to target them.

ah, good point

Patrick,

First off your flounder should be just like halibut. I was at the Jersey Shore a couple weeks ago and did some research. The "standard" ways that they say how to fish for flounder with bait was very similar to the "standard" ways they say how to fish for halibut with bait out here.

As far as techniques and stuff check out these two articles:
http://www.swimbait.com/halibut
http://www.swimbait.com/surfhalibut

I did fish the 3 inch Hammers briefly from the beach but it was on a wide open flat sandy spot that a zillion people occupy during the day. I caught a few small bluefish that tore up the hammers pretty good. I'm sure if I knew where to go I could've done better. I went to a couple of local shops and they had lots of cheap injection molded swimbaits (the kind that don't swim very well) so I know Hammers would work if they were in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing out there.

If you do get some three inch Hammers you should try fishing them on an un-skirted buzzbait. I had some un-believable days fishing smallmouth in Delaware using one of these. At this point I don't think I will ever use a skirted buzzbait again. Check this out: http://www.swimbait.com/techniques/buzzhammer.htm

The hitch-hiker is not completely necessary but it does help keep the bait on pretty good. A dab of crazy glue or crazy glue gel would probably work pretty good too.

Good luck!

Pete

Pete, you bring back fond memories of fishing the New Jersey salt. I am not surprised that you caught bluefish on a Big Hammer. Years ago I found an old predecessor of the modern swimbait, the French-made rubber Viv-vif lure. It was a strange no-hatch-match red and white color, but trolling it along the beach off Belmar NJ it caught bluefish.

By the way, were those "flounder" that the Jerseyites were talking about really fluke? At this time of year the prime flatfish there is fluke (aka "summer flounder").

Fluke are more comparable in size, habitat, and angling method to our halibut than flounder are, which leads me to a question for you, a question that also relates to your skirtless buzzbait-plus-swimbait technique. We used to do well drifting for fluke using small single or double in-line blades just ahead of the bait. Do you think that small in-line blades just ahead of a Big Hammer would be effective for casting for halibut (or other local species for that matter) or would they dampen the action?

Bob

Bob,

Yeah, they were Summer Flounder.

I have thrown some spinnerbaits with Hammer trailers for halibut but never put enough time into it to really see if they work.

Pete