Multi Session: 5/13 - 5/15 Legal Butt & WSB
Looking back, I haven't post a single report in almost 2 years, not that I'm lazy and don't want to contribute to the forum but I haven't been catching any jack to report. It's true that I don't get to go fishing as often as I could anymore, I still try to find every single chance I could grab to hit the surf, but for the last 2 years I've packed many skunks on my back to the point that I completely lost all my confidence (and hope) in catching anything from the surf.
Anyway, the SWATs reports kept coming with awesome catches every weekend with multiple legals 30+ and WSB got me hoping maybe I'll get lucky and catch something when the fish are biting. And so, off I went.
5/13 Huntington Beach
Fished for 2 hours on the low tide casting LC without a single bite. I was desperate to catch some fish so I switched over to my light rod with camo worm. Caught a 7" perch and a super big halibut, maybe about 5" on the sandworm. Press the camera button on my old flip samsung, got a "camera error" message so no pic.
5/14 Seal Beach
Arrived the one of my old spot which I haven't fished for awhile and found a lot of people fishing around. People were standing 4-5 ft away from each other making cast. Some were fishing swimbait, some were dropshoting, a couple were using live bait. Found a spot to fish comfortable away from all others and close to an old angler. I noticed a nice trough in front of the old man fishing close to me but was courteous enough to restrain myself from casting into his "fishing area". He got impatient and desperately kept changing his lures to anything that he could find in his tackle box every ten mins. Finally he gave up and left. I felt bad for him, but kinda glad that I can work his spot and maybe catch something since it looked so fishy with baitfishes hanging around. Not anyone around is catching is anything either, not even the live bait guys with smelts. So here I go working his spot as he still hang around to watch. Around the 5th cast, I felt a snag and set the hook. Line started peeling and my drag started singing. Awww so this was how a halibut fights and runs. I haven't caught crap for the last 2 years I've completely forgot how they run, not even shortie. Even I forgot the feeling of how a legal runs but from the couple 4-5 drag-peeling runs I was pretty sure this was an legal. I can see the jealousy in the eyes of the old angler who gave up the spot, he then approached and asked what I was using. I showed him the Metallic Sardines LC and asked him what he was using, he showed me all the bass lures which he used. I took sometimes to show him all the rigs, lures and techniques I usually use to target halibut which I learned from Arthur, then got back to fishing. The fish tapped out @ 23". Pressed the camera on my old flip phone and got the "camera error" message again. I kept working the area for another 5 minutes until 2 korean gentlemen came, very politely greeted me and decided to sandwich me in between, each standing 3-4 ft on both of my side. I was like what the hell and wanted to tell them to keep some distance in between because I'm casting the LC but somehow I decided not to. I'm out here to fish, to relax and have a good time, so I don't feel like making the others feel bad when they want to have a good time and catch something too. It got worse when they each took out those telestopic 11-12ft rods and with with bobbers/floaters. The wave was pulling their line all over the places catching my lines many times. I still didn't say anything even in the same situation you know that I'm pretty pissed. Anyway, hung around for another 10 minutes or so before calling it quit. Took the legal home, took some picture but can't get it to post because the site kept saying the file is too large even though I reduced the size to pretty small. So again, no picture.
5/15 Long Beach
Arrived the spot on a outgoing tide. Water was nice and smooth. Spotted moderate seaweed and some baitfishes. Worked the entire area along the jetty hard for over 2 hours without a single bite. I was gonna give up because it's getting dark but couldn't let myself pack up and leave, and kept telling myself it's such nice conditions, stay a little bit more. And it got paid on a slow retrieve I felt a grap and immediately set the hook. This guy went nuts and kept peeling drag like crazy ... zzzzzzz ... zzzzzzz .... zzzzzz nonstop. I was loosing half of my spool. My heart got so pumped up and I kept telling myself this could be a 30+ by the way this guys is peeling my line. But then he was darting left and right, running all over the place, so my instinct told me it was not a halibut but I couldn't tell what fish was it until ten minutes later I saw silver, WSB, and I can tell right away he's far from being legal, but still, he gave me a good fun fight, and I'm pretty pumped. Got him close enough to the rock where I was standing to lip gripped him. Measured 22", about the same size as the one I caught 2 years ago in the surf. At that time, I feel pretty fcked because I know my old flip phone camera has been acting up, and 90% of the time it will give me an camera error message and freeze up for 5 minutes before going back to normal. For sure I can't take this guy home to take a picture with my DSLR and bring him back to the ocean to realease him lol. So I was praying that my phone will not give me that error msg when I press on it, cuz I would like pretty much to have some picture is this guy. Luckily enough after about 10 seconds freeze and loading, my phone camera amazingly loaded up. Thank god. Fished for another 30 minutes or so until it got completely dark and called it a day.
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Get a new camera or a new phone. 
Thanks for the read.
Originally Posted by murrieta angler
