It is 5:00 in the afternoon, and I have been at work since 8:00 this morning. I have a Real Estate Class at 6:30 until almost 10:00 tonight, so it is a long day.

I contemplate the best case senario, 12 minutes to drive out to campus point, 8 minutes to park, get my wetsuit on, minus the same time on the way out, should leave me with about an hour before class..... If the Visibility is good.

Racing up the 101, I am still on my time schedule, but alas, not all senarios are best case, or are they?

Pulling up, I see that the slight windswell has turned the clear cove into a light shade of Latte.....

Darn! I could really use a few minutes of down time before class.

I search about my car, which if you have ever seen how many toys I can fit, is a feat.(Fishing, diving, surfing and kayaking equiptment has been known to be stored in my car at the same time, always waiting for the right conditions....

But today, no shorts.

I look down at my dress-slacks and button up shirt, and at the shin-high deck boots in my trunk...... then up at the trout rod with 6lb spectra that I landed a 40 pou8nd angle shark off my longboard last week...... I can do it, looking goofy, but still doin it.

I trade my loafers for the white boots with dried tuna blood stains on them. How funny I must look, but oh well.

I tie on an Arc minnow lure by YoZuri, the one that resembles a sardine and begin throwing it out. A half hour goes by, hooking nothing but loose weeds. Dancing about the little crashing waves, keeping the rushing whitewash from racing up the boots, and into them. WET SOCKS SUCK!!

BBBLLLLAAAAMMMMOOOOO, line sings off my reel. I wish shimano and big five could see the abuse I put these little trout reels to, and the fish I have landed with them......

After about a few strong runs, the fish tires out, and in the shallows shows to be a nice halibut.

After trying to beach him, while trying to maintain my dry pants and socks, I say forget it! The next thing I know, I have a 25 inch halibut in my hands, and sandy, wet pants up to the knees.

As I hurriedly attempted to stay on my time schedule and not show up to class late, I pulled into a AM/PM for a bag of ice to ice down my catch. Water and sand flew off my pants as I ran about the store. Back in the car, on my way to a serious class, I thought to myself, Sometimes, Wet socks suck less than others... : )

Marco Farrell
Santa Barbara, CA
http://www.whiteseabass.com

Marco, I was shorefishing near the bottom of the stairs at Campus Point on Tuesday after work. I was using a 4" sardine fishtrap to no avail. All I caught and have ever caught at that place was seaweed on every single cast. Is there a way to fish this area with artificials without getting weeded to death? Is there a special technique other than a slow, steady retrieve? You mentioned that you were using a Yo Zuri Arc minnow. I assume that it is some type of sinking swimbait with treble hooks. How do you keep it weed-free? Do halibut like to hang within areas that are plagued with seaweed or do they prefer clean sand?

You are doing the right thing. The arc minnow lure is a floating lure with a small lip, so it only dives about 2-3 feet.

I really like the trout rod, well actually more of a steelhead rod in lenght, about 7 foot, and the spectra/fireline combination. The casts are much further, and MAN, when you get hit and fight a fish, you feel every little headshake.

When the weeds are in, simple, walk. Walk up or down the beach.

One good tip for all you fishermen out there. The next time that it is clear, grab a mask and take a look around at what you are fishing. Once you see what is going on out there, it makes it much easier to fish and understand what is going on.

I have found that the further south you go, sometimes there seems to be more weeds.

Weeds will tend to bunch up, forced by the wave/tide action into floating rafts that hover just off the bottom. They sometimes will completely carpet an area, but more often than not, they are in small areas and there is clean water adjacent to them to fish.

At campus point, you definatly have an advantage if you can either get on a craft, ie. tube, kayak, surfboard... or wade out at least waist deep.

Most of the halibut I see/spear are in 3-5 feet of water, though I do see fish shallower/deeper.

Most of the halibut I see are associated with structure, ie. laying next to rock/reef shelves, kelp holdfasts, surfgrass beds, even laying there, looking at your anchor, as island hali's will sometimes do. A favorite method of mine to fish em when the wind picks up, is to drift with the motor out of the water, pitching plastics/plugs inbetween kelp/surfgrass beds and fishing small patches of sand. I have found this to be an extremely successful method of covering a lot of ground, and sometimes putting a few fish on board.

When fishing plastics, I like to hit the bottom, grind rythmicaly for 5-15 turns, then freespool back to the bottom.

What I really like about crankbaits, is that they only go deeper if you keep crankin..... I do smear baitbutter on them, and will sometimes pause and jerk the baits erratically to intice a strike.

A few weeks ago, I spooked over 40 halibut, more than half were legals, and at least three were over 30 inches. I was just up from the stairs, in 2-5 feet of water. I did not get a chance to spear any because the visibility was only about 2.5 feet, so I was on top of them before I could ID them and guage their lenght to spear them.

All for now, I will be writing more about this in the future.

Marco Farrell
http://www.whiteseabass.com
Moon Doggie




Marco, I was shorefishing near the
>bottom of the stairs at
>Campus Point on Tuesday after
>work. I was using
>a 4" sardine fishtrap to
>no avail. All I
>caught and have ever caught
>at that place was seaweed
>on every single cast.
>Is there a way to
>fish this area with artificials
>without getting weeded to death?
> Is there a special
>technique other than a slow,
>steady retrieve? You mentioned
>that you were using a
>Yo Zuri Arc minnow.
>I assume that it is
>some type of sinking swimbait
>with treble hooks. How
>do you keep it weed-free?
> Do halibut like to
>hang within areas that are
>plagued with seaweed or do
>they prefer clean sand?

Awesome, thanks for the tips! Just wondering though... what make of rod/reel are you using? I'm assuming it's a spinning combo. Also, what's the advantage of Spectra line over regular monofilament?

Sounds like you could write your own fishing guide... "Shorefishing, Moon Doggie-Style"