BCSB White Seabass, Hali & HB Leopard

[Col. Hannibal Smith]

I havent's posted anything latelly, and since I made an unusual catch this morning at BCSB, I decided to post some of my catches over the last week. Went to BCSB last week and within the first hour I caught a 21.5 and a 23 inch halibut. Unfortunately the 23 inch one had the middle hook on the LC enbeded in his gills and no matter how much I tried I could not get it out before he started bleeding heavily. I normally release everything, but at this point I had no choice but to keep him. Since he was only 1 inch away from being legal I decided to cut my fishing trip short and leave before dehydration would put him under the legal limit (I remember somebody on this meesage board warning everybody about the possibility of that happening). Bellow is a picture of it as I prepare to fillet it. A few days later I received a new spinning rod from Lamiglas, that I plan on using on a 1.5 day trip out of San Diego, so to test it, my friend and I went night fishing in HB Harbour. Ended up catching a 13 lb Leopard Shark that made a crazy initial run, making me think at first he was much bigger than in reality (after that first run he came in without much of a fight). Finally this morning I went back to BCSB for my weekly Hali hunting. Caught 3 short ones and hooked into something that cut my line clean taking one of my LCs with it. As I was about to leave I decided to cast a few more times into the by now out going tide using an LC 112 MR in a Herring pattern. On the third cast I get hit pretty good, so I'm thinking that I got a decent Hali. As the fish got close enough for a glimpse I relaized that it was a baby White Seabass. He faught well for his size and I got a kick out of it as this is my first WSB. He was around 22 inches and for that size he faught better than a similar length hali.

[Wingnut]

Nice catches, very well done! I love the fight in those Leopards. Sometimes you don't have a choice but to keep a fish when you know it's not going to make it. At least it was a legal, if it were a short you still have to let it go to die. :Neutral:

One suggestion, get a shallower, smaller mesh net, those deep green nets damage the tails of the fish you plan to release. Especially Halibut and WSB, a split tail means infection, tail rot and leads to certain death. Thanks for the consideration. :Wink: :Cool: :Big Grin:

[Col. Hannibal Smith]

Nice catches, very well done! I love the fight in those Leopards. Sometimes you don't have a choice but to keep a fish when you know it's not going to make it. At least it was a legal, if it were a short you still have to let it go to die. :Neutral:

One suggestion, get a shallower, smaller mesh net, those deep green nets damage the tails of the fish you plan to release. Especially Halibut and WSB, a split tail means infection, tail rot and leads to certain death. Thanks for the consideration. :Wink: :Cool: :Big Grin:

Would something like this work for the net? The mesh is made from rubber:

https://www.adventureproducts.com/

The EGO large rubber landing net

[Wingnut]

Would something like this work for the net? The mesh is made from rubber:

https://www.adventureproducts.com/

The EGO large rubber landing net

Great, that net looks like it'll be more forgiving, the smaller the mesh the better and the rubber material is great. The problem is that the strands of the mesh cuts into the tail. The best ones are the shallow square or flat bottom nets.

Look at this one that Bob (TroutOnly) have on his boat. Shallow, flatter bottom, smaller rubber mesh... perfect. :Cool:
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r135/Wingnut32566/Wingnut2/Picture031-13.jpg

[fish_sauce]

nice catches! those wsb's are a blast on light tackle! thanks for sharing...:Cool:

check this article out if you have time:
http://www.getbentsportfishing.com/helpful/tips-and-tricks/california-halibut-fishing/l

wingnut is dead-on about the net/tail rot issue. The author of that Get Bent article does a great job discussing the effects and prevention of tail rot, particularly on California halibut. Enjoy!

http://www.getbentsportfishing.com/images/stories/article1pic16.jpg

[steve092]

Nice job on that leo!

Do they have teeth?

[CoffeaRobusta]

Nice catches. thanks for sharing the pics!

[Col. Hannibal Smith]

Nice job on that leo!

Do they have teeth?

Yes, but small.

[BIGRED KILLA]

Hey Wingnut that is a good post i was just going to say the same thing the are great nets not just for the fish but for your lures to less stress on getting your hooks out and safe for the fish.I have one on all are boats.Thanks for the post and pics nice variety of fish.

[one_leg]

Nice Job Hannibal.


Sometimes you don't have a choice but to keep a fish when you know it's not going to make it. At least it was a legal, if it were a short you still have to let it go to die.


In the ocean nothing goes to waste. Let it go and something will eat it.
Better to let it be eaten by microbes than to acquire the moniker of "POACHER".

[City Dad]

OH, MAN, HANNIBAL IS ON THE JAZZ!!!

Sorry.

[flyngby]

Nice job again on some larger and variety of species!!!!!!

Great pics.

Looks like I need to look into a better net also after reading this post.

Steve

[B. A. Baracus]

Sweet jacket in that one pic...you look like Fez's dad from that 70's show....yeah, yeah I know you grabbed it from my closet......

[fishmounter]

That Halibut wasn't an inch away from being legal. He was an inch OVER the legal size, which is 22"...unless they changed the size limit to 24 inches and I never heard this...which is possible

[Col. Hannibal Smith]

That Halibut wasn't an inch away from being legal. He was an inch OVER the legal size, which is 22"...unless they changed the size limit to 24 inches and I never heard this...which is possible

That is what I meant, that he was an inch over the limit. I was just worried that if I waited around, due to dehydration, he could possibly shrink to where he was under the 22 inch limit. I would not keep a fish if he was under the legal limit. I'm not sure if people got confused about my original coments, since there were some replies that mentioned not keeping an under the limit fish, even if it is going to die.