Ray Lopez
06-09-2008, 08:38 PM
Well Rez and I decided to hit Cabrillo beach on our tubes last Saturday on the hunt for some hail-butts. I had not been able to catch any with the few times i have surf fished out of Zuma and other spots. I had caught barred surf perch (tons of them) and a leopard shark but no halis.
So i meet up at rez's casa around 5:30am load up his xA and we are off. Stop at McDonalds and had the new "CHICKEN FOR BREAKFAST!!!!!" it was lacking something........oh yea everything because it only had a slab of dry chicken on a dry crumbled biscuit. ok ok ok enough about that.
We get to the Beach around 6:15 run half way up and park the car. Unload and i hurry because i'm excited to tube the salt for the very first time. Get in the water and i got as curly tail grub i won on my last trip on the spitfire. Also a 6" camo gulp sand worm Texas rigged. We start working our way up towards the pier we both got a few nibbles as we followed the outer ridge of the kelp beds. But nothing would connect for us. We got to the pier and then decided we were gonna kick to the other side of the bay drifting the whole way to see what we could land. We get to the center where the buoy line is and *BAM* hookup WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I ended up catch myself a shorty halibut but hey it is my first one ever and the first fish i caught tubing the salt. here is a clip of the safe release.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QecAXoyPwrk
He was in a hurry to get back in the water and was a tad camera shy lol.
So i continue on. We decide to go all the way to the rocks on the other side of this harbor. (long kick) We get to the other side and start to zig zag the buoys but it was all grass and kelp made for bad bottom fishing and i would of picked up too much kelp and grass if i worked my other lures. So i switch up my grub to a 6" bloody sand worm on texas rig and a 2" camo sand worm on the carolina rig. I start to kick back to the other side of the beach. As i come upon a small patch of kelp i decided to rub up close to it. Well it paid off SLAM i hook up again with the bloody sand worm. I get another short stuff hali but as i go to grab it Flip Flop he breaks free form my hook right at my tube . Oh well i count it anyway just was a fast easy release. Well i re rigg and toss back to the kelp pad and BAM i hook up again but this was to be lost again b-4 i could see it. I got hit about 5 times around this one single thing of kelp but was only able to get close to landing the one short hali. I give up on that area thinking maybe just some smaller versions of what i want short biting and destroying my bait.
I get back to the OG spot where we dropped in and followed the kelp bad towards the pier again. This time i get SLAMMED again. Woot another hali the hook was too deep to get out with my hands so i handed it over to rob to get the hook out. Here is the clip..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHK2-pDMiRs
Rob had hooked into a smoothhound shark about 2 feet or so but it got off the hook right at his feet. Nice double hookup action.
Then just a few mins later i get hit again. This time it felt really tiny. I got it up ended up being my first smelt. here is a clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd-2_IGQhqs
After that we fished for about an hour more and rob hooked into something he claimed was huuuuuuuuuuuuge after i got out of the water. He made me get back into my tube to help him land "this beast" Well needless to say after about 30 mins of trying he pulled up a nice mat of Grass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He did have a fish on but it got caught in the weeds and eventually got off the hook. Well we both get out and decided to try our luck surf fishing but the ocean was full of salad and made it impossible to even cast out without grabbing a massive amount of weeds. We called it a day after that.
Days catch:
Ray Lo - 3 Short Halibuts, 1 smelt (all on sandworms camo and bloody 6" 2")
Rez - 1 Smoothhound shark, 1 massive sack of grass (live bait)
I had a blast for my first tube mission in the salt. Gotta do it again really soon.
Till next time keep your rods bent and your lines tight.
So i meet up at rez's casa around 5:30am load up his xA and we are off. Stop at McDonalds and had the new "CHICKEN FOR BREAKFAST!!!!!" it was lacking something........oh yea everything because it only had a slab of dry chicken on a dry crumbled biscuit. ok ok ok enough about that.
We get to the Beach around 6:15 run half way up and park the car. Unload and i hurry because i'm excited to tube the salt for the very first time. Get in the water and i got as curly tail grub i won on my last trip on the spitfire. Also a 6" camo gulp sand worm Texas rigged. We start working our way up towards the pier we both got a few nibbles as we followed the outer ridge of the kelp beds. But nothing would connect for us. We got to the pier and then decided we were gonna kick to the other side of the bay drifting the whole way to see what we could land. We get to the center where the buoy line is and *BAM* hookup WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I ended up catch myself a shorty halibut but hey it is my first one ever and the first fish i caught tubing the salt. here is a clip of the safe release.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QecAXoyPwrk
He was in a hurry to get back in the water and was a tad camera shy lol.
So i continue on. We decide to go all the way to the rocks on the other side of this harbor. (long kick) We get to the other side and start to zig zag the buoys but it was all grass and kelp made for bad bottom fishing and i would of picked up too much kelp and grass if i worked my other lures. So i switch up my grub to a 6" bloody sand worm on texas rig and a 2" camo sand worm on the carolina rig. I start to kick back to the other side of the beach. As i come upon a small patch of kelp i decided to rub up close to it. Well it paid off SLAM i hook up again with the bloody sand worm. I get another short stuff hali but as i go to grab it Flip Flop he breaks free form my hook right at my tube . Oh well i count it anyway just was a fast easy release. Well i re rigg and toss back to the kelp pad and BAM i hook up again but this was to be lost again b-4 i could see it. I got hit about 5 times around this one single thing of kelp but was only able to get close to landing the one short hali. I give up on that area thinking maybe just some smaller versions of what i want short biting and destroying my bait.
I get back to the OG spot where we dropped in and followed the kelp bad towards the pier again. This time i get SLAMMED again. Woot another hali the hook was too deep to get out with my hands so i handed it over to rob to get the hook out. Here is the clip..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHK2-pDMiRs
Rob had hooked into a smoothhound shark about 2 feet or so but it got off the hook right at his feet. Nice double hookup action.
Then just a few mins later i get hit again. This time it felt really tiny. I got it up ended up being my first smelt. here is a clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd-2_IGQhqs
After that we fished for about an hour more and rob hooked into something he claimed was huuuuuuuuuuuuge after i got out of the water. He made me get back into my tube to help him land "this beast" Well needless to say after about 30 mins of trying he pulled up a nice mat of Grass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He did have a fish on but it got caught in the weeds and eventually got off the hook. Well we both get out and decided to try our luck surf fishing but the ocean was full of salad and made it impossible to even cast out without grabbing a massive amount of weeds. We called it a day after that.
Days catch:
Ray Lo - 3 Short Halibuts, 1 smelt (all on sandworms camo and bloody 6" 2")
Rez - 1 Smoothhound shark, 1 massive sack of grass (live bait)
I had a blast for my first tube mission in the salt. Gotta do it again really soon.
Till next time keep your rods bent and your lines tight.