"Moby ##### swings inshore at Goleta Beach"

Forgive me in advance for the length of this post. (I assume if you're reading this on calfishing.com, you probably get pumped up about fishing stuff sometimes too...so I don't feel too bad!)

This morning, after fishing with Brian, I went out and bought myself a new $7.25 diving plug for halibut out at Goleta Beach. I was really excited on getting a legal halibut since I haven't nailed one in quite a while. I headed back to the end of the parking lot at the beach at about 3:45, got my stuff together and walked a hundred yards down the beach, away from the pier, before kicking out in my beat-up tube. I had just spooled on some new 10lb. Triple Fish line on my new Calcutta 250 and was in the process of testing it out with my new yuppy anchovy diving plug.

I got 2 short halibut pretty much right off the bat. I decided to try out the whole coastline just to see if I could find any spots that were holding fish. It took me a couple hours, but I went all the way down to the big rocks fishing the shoreline both ways. No success, not even a distinct stike. I got back to the spot I got the two shorts at and started fanning casts over the whole area in about 5-12 feet or water.

It was about 7:15 and I was just about to turn around and kick in to shore when I got bit by the immovable. I felt 2 head shakes. My rod got fully loaded and the 10 pound line began screaming off my little reel as the fish ran parallel to the coast for about 100 feet. At this point I was was thinking to myself "Oh yeah ... this boy's coming home to the frying pan!". I have had big runs in my tube before, so I instinctively turned almost completely around and started to chase the fish as fast as I could. He stopped briefly, made a right turn, and headed straight out to sea. He ran so fast and smooth that my line was whistling and there was tiny bits of spray flying off it where it went into the water. He stopped twice, and I only gained a few feet of line.........

Now I was getting worried. He was heading straight for the kelp beds out a few hundred feet. I was kicking so hard that my whole tube was rocking violently side to side. I buttoned down my drag to a level completely unacceptable for 10 pound line...to try and avoid getting kelped and broken off by Moby ##### here.

I got lucky because he passed right between the first few rows of stringers without getting tangled. Then he wised up, went around a clump of attached kelp, and turned to the right a little, kinda towards the end of the pier. I knew I'd be fucked in a few seconds if he could pull against a snag so I hightailed it over to the kelp and quickly pulled the 2 or 3 small stringers over and around my rod while he burned more line. As I did this, I saw him boil on the surface in the distance. I couldn't tell for sure what it was, but I think it was a monster halibut. The boil was about the size of bathtub.

After he boiled, he absolutely bolted in a different direction. More whistling line and flying spray. He went straight into a big paddy and TWANG......my new line snapped, my new lure disappeared, and my monster fish got away. #####!!! Goddamn it, I guess that's the best way to lose a yuppy lure like that but trust me, it ain't easy to get over how it happened!

The whole ordeal probably only took 5-10 minutes, but it was almost painful having it happen because there was nothing else I could do to save the fish. I kinda knew he was going to break off when he got to the kelp. sigh.

Moral of the story: Sometimes using light line to get bit and have fun really, REALLY makes you pay through the nose. (Although, in this case I seriously doubt whether or not even 20 pound line would have stopped this fish. Given my tackle and the kelp factor, I didn't stand a chance.)

Two in one day Frank???? Oh man. That kinda fight leads me to believe that it might've been a seabass. Halibut will take good runs like that, but will usually slow down after 50-100 feet. A good seabass on 10 lb. however, will do that to ya. But, judging by the size of the boil, that would have to be like a 30, 40 lb. seabass and I think that's very unlikely in that shallow water with not much good sized bait or anything. It could've been a shark, maybe a thresher or something. Man, I'm sorry I didn't make it back out yesterday, after driving to camarillo and having no sleep the night before and fishing goleta that morning, I went to bed at 5. Well, if anybody catches a monster seabass or halibut or whatever with a plug in it's mouth, you'll know who's it is...
-Brian

You are one lucky man just to have connected with something like that. I know you would have loved to land it, however, then you would have missed out on the fun of telling and retelling that story.

A few years ago I took my son to San diego and we went out on the 1/2 day boat from H & M Landing. The Captain (tim Green) is a fine friendly man. We were fishing off the Point Loma kelp beds and yellowtail surfaced. within a few minutes most of us were into fish and it was bedlam. My son however hooked into the largest Barracuda I have ever seen. About 3/4 of the way in there was a tremendous swirl and his line jerked very sharply, ONCE. When he got the line in attached to his hook was just the head of a HUGE Barracrda. Just like in the cartoons on T.V. :):):):), and there wasnt a camera on board.

He talks about that trip to this day.

Enjoy your self, and be safe. I will be Fishing from Marina Del Ray in ear;y September we might get to meet.

George Humrich
Phoenix Arizona

My best guess to what this fish was is now a 25-50 pound thresher shark. I talked to a guy at the hook today who caught a 40 pounder and saw others at Goleta Beach recently. He seems to know his stuff and he was pretty convinced that it most likely was a small to medium sized thresher. Because of the speed and power of the runs, he discounted a big leopard shark, big angel shark, and monster halibut. Although I didn't see it super clearly, I do distinctly remember seeing 2 or 3 distinct bulges of water when he boiled which makes me think the fish had big fins and a big tail now that I reflect on it. I guess I just didn't process that information before.....

I went back to that spot with some squid off the shore at dusk the other day and caught a bunch of shovelnose guitarfish and leopard sharks in only and hour and a half. Since I also caught 2 angel sharks there in my tube that probably went 20-35 pounds, I guess having a thresher swim through wouldn't be all that funky. I'm headed out early tomorrow morning again to see what I can get. I'll post a report.

Frank,

I don't want to burst your bubble or anything but your description of the fight sounds exactly like my fight with this big bat ray I snagged from the tube a few weeks ago down there. I snagged it in the fin so I felt some huge "head shakes". I fought it for 45 minutes on 14 lb. test and got it into the surf (I landed my tube while fighting it). It was about a 50 incher (wingspan). The boils, runs, etc. sound exactly like what happened to me.

Of course you never know...

Pete

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

No bubble burstage. Maybe you're right but I've caught one of those rays before, although not super big. This fish was very VERY fast. I only felt 2 thumps right when I hooked him almost right under my tube...everything else was super-smooth and super-fast. His first run was over in like 5 seconds, but he went from under my tube and in front of me to behind and way down the beach. It ran similar to a football tuna on 20 pound, not like a big ray...but I guess I'll never know. All I can be sure of is seeing 3 distinct thrashing humps under the water surface when he got tangled in the kelp the first time. Bat ray, thresher, monster halibut, or big seabass, I would've liked em all. I'm just bummed out because I didn't get a better look at it before it broke off.

:-(

This is one of those stories I'll always be telling other people who fish. Its always going to be on my mind when I hook big fish in my tube. I'm just saying my best guess everything carefully considered, would be a thresher, although I can never be sure.

Frank,

Yep - the one that got away. Who knows. I think it would be a bit scary to get a big thresher from the float tube.

At first I was really bummed when I saw the ray after 30 minutes of fighting it but then I thought hey, catching a 100+ lb. fish from a float tube on 14 lb. test is pretty cool - no matter what kind of fish it is.

Pete

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

I also vote small thresher. Those things usually get tail hooked with minnow plugs and when that happens, you can't stop 'em on 50# string. I've caught white seabass up to 52# from my kayak and they don't fight much for their size so I'd be surprised if it was one of those. Then again there's always the bat ray scenario. In any case, it's a great story and sounds like great fun. Go get 'em next time.
Tight lines,
Adam

I also agree that it was probably a batray. I have caught quite a few tubin in Long Beach and the fight you described is very typical of how they act. They have very powerful and quick runs and tend to change direction often.

Sportmart 30%off all reels in stock(an ad mistake)got a 400S you should too! Spool it with PowerPro top it with 20-30#P-line Flourocarbon then you get the same bite ratio with more capacity and then you can see what you catch and get the yuppy lure back also. Carl C

I caught a 80-100 pound bat ray down in Palos Verdes this past weekend. It took about 15 minutes to get him to the surface. Very strong, but not fast at all. He sucked down a whole dead squid and pulled out 25 pound mono at a VERY heavy drag setting like he didn't care. What I hooked before was much much quicker, remember the spray flying off my line? Besides, I think most bat rays are caught on bait...not on fast moving crankbaits. Like I said, we'll never know for sure...oh well.
:'(

Frank, A friend caught a striper off a local beach recently. His description of the fight was just like yours. He doesn't have email so I'm gonna post for him soon (picture included).

Bill

Cast one more vote for a bat ray.

I fished Long Beach harbor for 6 years before moving to SB recently, and hooked at least 40-50 batrays there. I never used bait, ALL were taken on on trolled Rebel spoonbills & fasttracs. (Also caught lots of halibut that way.) Most were hooked in the wing, but many near the mouth, and a few in the mouth, so these weren't just snaggings. I've heard that a ray will try to kind of "smother" or trap the targeted food with the wings before eating it, so that makes some sense.

Anyway, most batrays I've hooked will take off for the sunset at a pace that will make you think you've hooked an albacore, then go to the bottom and sit there for a long time, then make a nother long run, and then repeat until tired. I normally used 10 lb. line on a medium action bass rod, so some of these bouts went on for an hour. Problem is unhooking them from a kayak, I usually tow them to the beach and do it there.

Anyway, that's my story, and I'm stickin to it.

Mike

Well, granted that one may not have been Moby halibut but there was a near monster halibut that got away last week.

At slightly before 8:00 AM I located a school of sardines at the end of Goleta Pier. I proceeded to catch two and put one on a halibut style rig.. 15 lb. test line. Five minutes later one huge bite which bent the 10 foot pole horizontal then slack. It was coming toward the pier! I tighteneed the line, confirmed a fish was on and set the hook. After about a four minute fight with some hairraising runs, pulling drag out I raised a monster halibut. It looked over three feet long and two feet wide.
I did not have a net with me so I tried to pull it up onto the pier (about 30-40 above the water's surface). It was very heavy and bent the pole severely. at about a foot out of the water it gave many violent shakes and shook itself off the hook. I nearly cried. Maybe it is still out there.

In that case, you walk the fish down the peir to the beach. In no circumstance do you take a halibuts head out of the water. A 30 inch fish weights about 12-14 lbs, a 36 inch fish can weight up to 22-25 lbs. Their mouths are soft and will rip before you are able to get them our of the water. Bummer dude, oh well, like they say, hindsight is 20-20.

I too have forgoten nets and gaffs at different times, and have resorted to creative ways of landing flatties. Once in a canoe, we got 2 28 inch fish, with no gaff or net. We would rock the canoe till it started taking on water, and slip the fish over the side, as water was pouring in the boat. We landed both successfuly. Another time in a bodyboat, I took a double trolling hook, and made a loop in some 30 lb test adn made a little hand gaff. when the fish came up, I waited for him to open his mouth and sank the stronger, double hook rig into his mouth.

You'll get em next time!


MoonDoggie