efishent
07-23-2011, 03:57 PM
After all the long travels I finally got around to get in the ocean. My out –of- town cuisine wanted to go to the beach, so after all the errands we finally made it to the 'Waikiki of Ventura County’. He opens his book and I tie on the Jackal. I’m getting used to bad water conditions and today was not an exception. Even though it was pleasant low 60s the salad was very evenly dispersed through the water column making it hard to get clean runs on hardbait, let alone a weed-free retrieve from start to finish.
No worries – it’s a mild semi-murky surf and occasional bait fish surfaced her and there.
10 min into it, as a wade in deeper, I got a pull- very gentle but firm and started to bring it up very gradually, when I landed it turned it turned out to be around 22” hali that was extremely calm and decided to swim away only while on the beach in from of the camera. I release all my halis without measuring so with today’s point of reference I realize I have put some bigger models back in the past.
Decided to move on with a usual program to the spot that is just few miles north and almost always stays clear.. but it was nearly equally murky. Casted, cleaned lure, jumped over the waves for an hour and on one of the last casts, getting a bit inpatient and reeling the last few feet fast to cast back to the deep water I saw a huge hali following it. However, I noticed it only as I was pulling the lure out of the water before the fish was able to grab it. It was the damn murky water that left me no reaction time to slow down and give it a chance. The fish was easily 40” and stopped and laid on the bottom near me )so I ahd a second look at it) but the moment I made a movement it took off and none of my follow- up casts could bring it back. That was a thrill and yet another Hali went to his/her home instead of mine. The bonus pic is the leo which was small but rather colorful.
Have fun out there; I hope to be back with more soon.
No worries – it’s a mild semi-murky surf and occasional bait fish surfaced her and there.
10 min into it, as a wade in deeper, I got a pull- very gentle but firm and started to bring it up very gradually, when I landed it turned it turned out to be around 22” hali that was extremely calm and decided to swim away only while on the beach in from of the camera. I release all my halis without measuring so with today’s point of reference I realize I have put some bigger models back in the past.
Decided to move on with a usual program to the spot that is just few miles north and almost always stays clear.. but it was nearly equally murky. Casted, cleaned lure, jumped over the waves for an hour and on one of the last casts, getting a bit inpatient and reeling the last few feet fast to cast back to the deep water I saw a huge hali following it. However, I noticed it only as I was pulling the lure out of the water before the fish was able to grab it. It was the damn murky water that left me no reaction time to slow down and give it a chance. The fish was easily 40” and stopped and laid on the bottom near me )so I ahd a second look at it) but the moment I made a movement it took off and none of my follow- up casts could bring it back. That was a thrill and yet another Hali went to his/her home instead of mine. The bonus pic is the leo which was small but rather colorful.
Have fun out there; I hope to be back with more soon.