Sorry such a late report. I was in the bay area this weekend for a wedding. Decided to hit the beach up that morning around 8:00 am. Launched at the rock closest to the UCSB campus. Was throwing a 4" inch Chovy colored hammer with a 3/8 oz head for the flatties. Didnt get bit until about 9:00 am but when I did I knew something was different about this bite. He wouldnt come up and when I did make a little ground he would just sit mid-water and accasionally run on me. After about 5 minutes of him doing this and me not making much ground on him I figured it would be a big Shovel-nose or something. It was just too heavy to be a Halibut. Finally I get a look. I literally cant believe my eyes. This is the biggest Halibut I have had the opportunity to hook up with. Just when I get a look at him he takes off again. Needless to say I loosened the drag even more now making it almost impossible to gain any line on him. My reel handle would just spin not bringing in any line. I did this for about another 5 minutes. He definelty tired out at this point and stopped running on me. I finally tightened the drag and made some good ground on him. Just when I think it is all over and he was done I reach over to gill grab him and he took off one last time. Quickly loosened the drag and let him run and after that it was over. He came in pretty easy at that point and I reached over and gill grabbed him. The thing started thrashing big time!! Glad I didnt bring my grip and weigh I just won last week cause I think he would have shook it. Tried to lift him up out of the water but this thing was thrashing way too hard. I think it took atleast 5 minutes for me to finally decide I wasnt going to attempt to remove the hook fearing he would just flop back into the water so I just glided him into my home-made live well and just bit off the line when he was safely in. When he hit the bottom of the home-made well there was about 8 inches of tail still hanging out of top of the well. At this point I am Hootin an hollering and really cant believe I landed this monster. I really tried to continue fishing and landed 2 more shorts but it was super hard at that point. I actually think I caught another legal but in comparison to the monster that was in the well he looked like a baby!! About 15 minutes later I had to get another look at this thing and lifted the well out of the water. Glad I did cause at the bottom of the well his teeth had ripped a nice size hole in the mesh bag. I immediatly packed it up and kicked back into shore holding the well in my hands. Didnt really know how big this thing was until I got him onto the sand. Damn!! Didnt have my tape on me so I packed everything into the car and headed out onto the pier. Got over to a group of guys fishing the pier for halibut and used one of there tapes. 36 and 1/4 inches. Longest Hali ever for me.(Previous being 34") but was a bit on the skinnier side. After talking with those guys for a while (Jason it was nice meeting you. Thanks for the tips and tape measure) I headed home to get some pics and weigh him. He weighed in on the Berkeley Grip and Weigh at 17 and 3/4 lbs. Beat out the 34" by only 3/4 lb. Still the biggest halibut to date for me!! I will post the pics later on tonight as I am at work right now. Sorry for such a long report people!!
