Late Huntington Report from 9-25...should read "Amateur Hour"

[man0fsteel]

So I haven't been posting my recent outings...mostly because who cares about a bunch of :Skunk: reports, right?

Well, I can't seem to shake the skunk as I came away with nada again. But I had a question for the cognoscenti so here's the report...

Headed out to Huntington cliffs with 3 other buddies (all brothers) and our kids. I brought my new 9'-0" Shimano Clarus rod...which I mated to my o.g. Shimano Calcutta 200 (circa 1992, the first model Shimano ever made). Got there around 4:00 pm for a short session.

My buddy headed out first.

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One of the brothers was already there with his 2 ten year old twin boys soaking fresh dead squid on a circle hook rig. The boys had already managed a couple guitarfish. Sweet! :Razz:

So I tie on a new 110 LC in blue mackerel back pattern and head out. Low tide was at 2:30 pm so we were well into the incoming tide. I walked out past the waist deep trough to the sandbar and gave my new rod a whirl. Hmmm, pretty whippy but my LC went flying out there. I could get used to this!

But when I look down at my reel, to my shock, I see there is no line going thru my guides...only a short piece of line coming from my reel. WTH?!:Confused:

I figured there must have been a nick in my mono about 30 yards down and it just happened to pop as my LC sailed thru the air. Doh!! Knowing they float, I started walking in the direction of my cast. Thankfully, I found it, bobbing like cork in the surf. Now what? Mind you, my reel is still set up for live baitcasting - Spectra backing, 2 ft of dacron shock chord, then about 50 yards of 10 lb mono. As I pondered whether to cut off all the mono and re-attaching the LC vs re-tying the mono leader back to the remaining line on the reel, a wave hit me, and one of the LC hooks embedded into my shorts :Evil:

Damn, LC sure uses sharp hooks! I tried for a couple minutes to extricate the hook and barb from my nylon trunks to no avail. Finally walked back to the beach and undid the mess. Did I mention that this thread should have been titled amateur hour? :Embarrassed:

I decided to forgoe trying to splice on the 30 yards or so of mono so I just retied the LC on to the short bit of mono left and trudged back out there. Meanwhile, my buddy caught a nice BSP on ghost shrimp and I think the twins had caught a couple more guitarfish.

The next cast resulted in the LC boomeranging backwards after going out about 15 yards. Now what??? Great...now I didn't have enough mono and the dacron to mono splice was fraying and was getting caught on the guides. Oy.

I tried casting a few more times, only getting 1 out of 5 casts to fly smoothly thru the guides. This wasn't gonna work. After working my way out of 2 birdsnests (man, Spectra is a b#*&$ to undo) I give up, go back and get my spinning rig, and set up a c-rig with Gulp sandworms.

The tide was getting pretty high and I was up to my chest wading thru the trough to get to the sand bar. I got a bunch of small taps on the sandworm, but no takes.

By now, I was getting cold and I headed in, tail planted squarely between my frozen butt cheeks. Between my buddy, his older brother and I, we managed one whole BSP. Meanwhile, the twin boys had caught 5 or 6 guitarfish, and a huge BSP...maybe even a few others. We had a sheepish laugh as these 2 kids out fished 3 of us (with a combined 110+ years of fishing knowledge). Here's the proud papa with one of their guitarfish.

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So that was good, bad, and the amateur of it all.:Rolls Eyes:

Question for the Huntington regulars. Do you guys usually head out to the sandbar and cast out towards the breakers or do you stay on shore and fish the trough? The trough on this day was only about 15-20 from the beach and it just seemed too close to hold hali's. But one of the twins caught his BSP right in there, and he was chunky!

Hopefully we'll get a chance to hit it again this weekend. Over and Out!

[murrieta angler]

OUCH!
I would have tried the trench first then go outside to give it a shot.
Thanks for the report,
Robert
<><

[DockRat]

Classic line story! Been there, lol,
Great job for the boys.
DR

[DockRat]

OUCH!
I would have tried the trench first then go outside to give it a shot.
Thanks for the report,
Robert
<><
Hey Robert, no more Humbolt chunks, bait and wait ?
Are your bait days over in the surf ? LC for life ?
DR

[vanillagurilla]

Sounds like your fishing to deep, perch and halis are mostly inbetween the shore break and second break, you don't have to cast past the waves to catch fish.

[ordane]

Way to go kids!! Tough break but always next time... Cool story!

[keepemlo]

Wow that was a good report ...trust me there are a lot of us "pros"who have had similar days thank god it hooked your shorts and not your finger!!!! Keep trying bro and you will have success

[man0fsteel]

Sounds like your fishing to deep, perch and halis are mostly inbetween the shore break and second break, you don't have to cast past the waves to catch fish.

Very well could be. If I could pick your knowledge VG, here's what I saw looking straight out from the beach.

Beach
10 yds of shore break
15 yds of trough - about waist deep water
20 yds of sand bar - about knee/thigh deep water
Impact zone of outer waves
Open ocean

Are you saying I should be fishing the trough or the sand bar water? For what ever reason, in my mind, if I'm a halibut, I want to stay in slightly deeper water. The water was very clear and when there was no whitewater, you could see the sand very clearly. I might just have to take my mask/snorkel/fins out the next time and do some recon of my own!


Wow that was a good report ...trust me there are a lot of us "pros"who have had similar days thank god it hooked your shorts and not your finger!!!! Keep trying bro and you will have success

Thanks for the empathy keepemlo. Without a doubt, surf fishing is the HARDEST on equipment! I'm respooling the topshot tonight with fresh 10 lb mono and redoing the connection to the dacron so it's nice and smooth.

[Wingnut]

That's a good effort...
We all have those days in the surf, just get back out there and do it again. As long as you learn something new, it's a good session regardless of the fish count. :Wink:
Good luck on your outing. :Cool:

[bsp]

Fish the inner trough for halibut. On open sandy beaches halibut will stack up all along the length of troughs. For this reason, it's sometimes very effective to cast parallel to the beach instead of straight out to work the length of the trough. Since the trough is only waist deep, I would try to fish it on a higher tide to get a bit more water over it. Halibut will be in that shallow water if there is a lot of bait and no waves going over the top of the trough, but if it's choppy and not too much bait they're going to prefer 4 or 5 feet. Keep an eye on that trough though. It's possible that it will deepen over time, and eventually get to be 6-8ft deep mark. When that happens, get ready to pull out a lot of fish from it of all species.

That trough being close in is perfect, but calls to fish it on a little higher tide so halibut have a bit of room to ambush your bait as it comes over the lip of the trough. I've pulled lots of halibut out from troughs that were 20' wide and where the edge has been right on the sand at low tide. It doesn't matter how close to shore the trough is. As long as there is adequate water over it halibut will happily stay very close to the beach. Sometimes it's better to switch it up and dropshot the trough once you've gone over it with the LC though. You never know what could be just a bit too lazy to smack a jerkbait, but will happily slurp a Zoom Fluke rolled right in front of its face.

[man0fsteel]

Fish the inner trough for halibut. On open sandy beaches halibut will stack up all along the length of troughs. For this reason, it's sometimes very effective to cast parallel to the beach instead of straight out to work the length of the trough. Since the trough is only waist deep, I would try to fish it on a higher tide to get a bit more water over it. Halibut will be in that shallow water if there is a lot of bait and no waves going over the top of the trough, but if it's choppy and not too much bait they're going to prefer 4 or 5 feet. Keep an eye on that trough though. It's possible that it will deepen over time, and eventually get to be 6-8ft deep mark. When that happens, get ready to pull out a lot of fish from it of all species.

That trough being close in is perfect, but calls to fish it on a little higher tide so halibut have a bit of room to ambush your bait as it comes over the lip of the trough. I've pulled lots of halibut out from troughs that were 20' wide and where the edge has been right on the sand at low tide. It doesn't matter how close to shore the trough is. As long as there is adequate water over it halibut will happily stay very close to the beach. Sometimes it's better to switch it up and dropshot the trough once you've gone over it with the LC though. You never know what could be just a bit too lazy to smack a jerkbait, but will happily slurp a Zoom Fluke rolled right in front of its face.

Thanks BSP! I'll definitely try fishing the trough next time. Casting parallel to the beach in the trough sounds like a good way to catch a halibut on a fly too.

[JapanRon]

Hi manOfsteel,

Again, there's nothing like time beating the sand. Braid difficult to undo ?? Actually as long as the line was wetted before even the first cast (I use a spray bottle with fresh water to soak the spool upon setting up my outfits) and allow to soak a bit .... you'll not only get fewer birdsnests but they'll be simpler to unravel. Fished with braid 6 years now on a baitcaster and NEVER yet had to cut the line.

Good report and await a report of further success,

JapanRon

[smokehound]

It's crucial that you learn how holes and troughs influence the surface of the water.

Fish need these to seek refuge from the waves.