Hello all! I am new to this BBS but have recently been fishing my kayak in the SB Goleta area. I was reading that you should use a small mesh net when netting flatties. Can anyone tell me where I can get small mesh. I can only find the nylon.
Thanx
Another Brian

Hey Another Brian, I like your handle! You could also go by Brian #3. har
As for nets, you have a good point, a net with a big mesh will rip apart the tails of the halibut. Fine mesh nets are hard to find too, so I understand your dilemma.
My strategy out there is to only net fish that I believe are really truly legal. I have been wrong a couple times and netted 21.5 inch fish. That's a bummer but it happens.
Halibut are a tricky fish to handle but I have had good luck grabbing the leadhead by the head and pinning the flatibut against the side of my tube. Then I put one hand over it to hold it still and I pop the hook out after grabbing my pliers with my other hand. A tricky move, but effective.
Along those same lines, with whiteseabass the best way to grab sub-legal fish is in front of their dorsal (top) fin but behind the gills. Don't touch the gills just grab them right behind the gills from the top. Saw some deckhands do this once and it works well.

Another Brian,

Don't know about the fine mesh nets either. I, like Rob, only net fish that I know are legal and I'm going to keep. Actually, that's not entirely true either as the last several legals I caught I didn't even use the net. Actually, come to think of it I haven't used my net since last year some time and I've landed several legal halibut and seabass. The technique Rob described for short seabass works good for halibut also - it seems to paralize them somewhat. For legal seabass that you're going to keep sticking your finger under the gill works great.

If you are going to get a net make sure it is over 18 inches in diameter. There is a DFG regulation that requires all boats to have a net this size or larger. The only time I have heard of this not being true was when several float tubes were together and at least one guy had a net. This may be the same for kayaks but if you're going to buy one anyway you might as well be legal, right?

Whose going to invent the steel thumb sheath so we can lip halibut like bass? :D

Can't imagine coming home with "halibut thumb"

***********************

You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.

Oh man, I have come home with halibut thumb on more than one occasion. Just ask Brian #1 or Jamon. I have been bit so many times by those buggers. I must just be a glutton for punishment :-) or maybe it's because I always forget my pliers...

Yeah, it's true, Rob's constantly getting bit by short halibuts. A trick for mackerel (wouldn't reccommend this with fish you want to release, alive...) is to grab em by the gill plate and squeeze. That really calms em down (you know how mackerel are). But, I'm sure it does quite a bit of damage to their gills so I wouldn't reccommend it for halibut/wsb. If done properly, gilling seabass can be unharmful, but it's easier to either grab the hook with pliers and remove it in the water without touching the fish, or grabbing it behind the head like Rob said. Occasionally I'll gill a fish (especially if I'm going to keep it) but be sure to keep your fingers out of the gills. Just slip em underneath the gill cover. For one, you'll cut up your hands really badly if you stick em in the gill rakers, and two, you'll mess up the fish's gills.

Getting back to halibut, the reasoning for the mesh net is to not damage the tail for fish that you want to release. If you're in a kayak and low to the water already, you could probably very easily remove the hook from the fish alongside the boat rather than bringing it aboard, messing up the slime coat etc. Some of the guys in private boats can't do this very easily and need to net the fish to remove the hook properly. I'd leave netting as a last resort from a kayak if you want to release the fish. Of course there'll be those fish that you have to net, like the psycho ones or bad hook location or whatever, but whenever possible, I'd suggest just leaving the fish next to you in the water and shaking the hook loose with pliers, or if you're fishing plastic just grab the leadhead and remove the hook.
-Brian

Thanx for the input guys. I pretty much have been doing what Brian suggested. I just have been grabbing the leadhead and pulling the hook that way. Anyone seen that big flattie carcas hanging on the fence in the Bacara parking lot? It is probably a good 32-33"
Another Brian

Hey Brian, us Brians have to get togeather some time and go fishing. We can tube it and you can yak it will be fun!

#2

Yet another memeber of Team Brian... This is getting out of control.
-Brian, version 1.0

Hey Brian #2 Sounds good we should hook up (pun intended) some time. Where do you like to fish? I am hot on the Goleta area at present. I hear people are getting a lot of flatties around Campus point, polls area. I like Haskells a lot too. I am pretty much out of commision this week, but I should be able to hit it next week.
Another Brian

hey, if your out of commision this week thats okay 'cause brian and i arn't out of school till thursday. Im sure were down for where ever (speaking on Brian's behalf) so if you name the date and place, us Brian's will show up!

Brian #2

Brian, why don't you talk to Brian and have Brian call Brian so that Brian can let Brian know what time Brian can meet Brian to fish. LMAO.
-BRIAN