Fished West Beach with live bait from my float tube for the first time. Fished from around 6:00 - noon. All I have to say is when the fish weren't biting I was bored to tears. The fishing was pretty good but I'm not sure if it was worth the hassle, mess and boredom of bait fishing - not to mention every freakin' bird in the harbor wanted to be my best friend!!

I got 9 halibut to 23 inches (1 legal), 2 Barred Sand Bass, 1 Spotted Sand Bass (15 inches), 3 short white seabass (1 on the fastrac while I was getting bait and two on bait that were like 8 or 9 inches long), 2 big Spiny Dogfish (these things fight a lot harder than I thought they would - especially on 6 lb.).

I'll probably fish bait every once in a while just as a change of pace but give me artificials any day of the week.

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You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.