The SANDMAN Lands a 46.3Lb Halibut off Newport
Saturday June 23rd, me and Bob the “SANDMAN� LeBrun went out on my neighbor Mark the “BLACK POACHER� Gillespie’s new 23.10 Parker to explore for Halibut off of Balboa Beach near the Wedge.
Anticipation was high and expectations were low since it was a virgin area to us.
We were just grateful to be on the water and wanted to stay close because of the wind.
The wind blew early so we were only able to drift. We would go out to 100’ and drift in to 35’ which seemed precariously close to the beach. By 10:30 we had one parachute out to slow down our drift and we were forced to use 12 ounces of lead to stay on the bottom while drifting at 1.2MPH with live Sardines.
By noon we only had one short Halibut and numerous scratched baits to show for our efforts.
At 12:10 I noticed the SANDMAN’S rod was totally bent.
Once he was able to get the rod out of the holder, he thought he was stuck on the bottom.
I told him to treat it as if it were a fish, and then the fish moved and the fight was on.
Then the fire drill started!
We were already in 35’ of water and close to the beach.
We scrambled to reel in all the other rods on the boat and pull in the parachute so we could maneuver the boat. In the excitement my rod tangled the SANDMAN’S line but we kept our cool and got out of it.
A lifeguard boat drove by us on the inside and was going to warn us about being too close to shore but they left us alone when they saw we were hooked up and under power.
The battle lasted about ten minutes. The SANDMAN barely spoke, which is one of the only times he is his quiet, but he did a masterful job of fighting the fish.
The BLACK POACHER maneuvered the boat with great expertise.
Once the SANDMAN was able to get the fish up to the surface in the corner, I belly gaffed the fish, pulled it over the rail, leaving no doubt in landing the monster.
It was one of the finest orchestrations of team work I have ever been a party to.
We were all stunned at the size and headed straight for the Balboa Angling Club to weigh the fish.
The Halibut weighed 46lbs3oz on the certified scale and taped out at 47.5 inches.
This fish is a new club record in the BAC on #20Lb test. A record that has stood for seven years!
Congratulation to the SANDMAN for landing a fish of a life time!
Al “FIT TO BE BIT� Schneider
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