Although I was tired from my surf fishing outing yesterday, I had to squeeze in as much fishing as possible while I still had some free time. I met up with a friend at a pier on the peninsula to fish for some halibut. We began fishing at 730 a.m. The tide was outgoing, and the water was a bit muddy due to the series of minus tides. About half an hour into the day, my friend got a hit but was distracted at the time, and found his live shiner to have its skin peeled off on one side and teeth marks on the other. Because neither of us saw the strike, we were unsure if it was a fish or a grebe that was working the area. Still, it gave us hope.

I had my back turned to my rod, and when I turned around I found it hanging downward in the rod holder. I ran over to my rod and fed it some slack so the fish could completely inhale the bait. I could see the silhouette of the float about a foot underwater, so I quickly picked up the rod out of the holder, took up the slack in the line, set the drag, and pointed my rod downward directly towards the fish. I lifted the rod tip gently, and felt a few taps. As soon as it began to load, I set the hook. The fish went straight along the bottom, and I felt the definitive halibut headshakes. After a few good runs, it floated up slowly like a big brown turd, and we saw that it was of respectable size.

Since the fish would keep coming up vertically, I was careful not to lift the head out of the water and fed the fish line to let it sink back down and run again, so I could bring it up in an ideal orientation. After repeating this process a few times, I was able pull it along horizontally just below the surface and smoothly guide it into the net with the help of the current. As always, Mel lifted the fish out of the water precisely on time. By the time we got the fish on the deck, it was completely exhausted. It didn't even flop around in the net on the way up, or on the floor afterward. The fish was landed at 8:30 a.m. and taped out at 31.5" and weighed in at 13 lbs.

The only other bite came way late in the afternoon, and when I set the hook I thought that I had another halibut. It turned out to be a small bat ray that I snagged with the float rig. It's always disappointing to hook one like that and find that it's not what you expected it to be, since they feel like halibut when snagged on the wing. :P

Rod: G. Loomis Mag Bass MBR782C IMX 6'6 Medium
Reel: Daiwa Zillion Type-R 7.3:1
Line: Toray Hi-Class 12 lb. Fluorocarbon (main) & Blackwater 15 lb. Fluorocarbon (leader)

Rig: Slip Float
Bait: Live Shiner
Tide: Bottom of the outgoing (-0.7 Low)
Depth: 7 Feet