Met my buddy Brian down at East Goleta Beach for a little surf fishing. He got there a few minutes before me and had made three casts with the 3 inch "City Shrimp" colored Big Hammer and had already caught short halibut (biggest was 19 inches). I arrived just as he was releasing the second one. Needless to say my hopes were high. We fished for about an hour or so after that for nothing! It was un-believable. I have found with inshore halibut that they can turn on and off constantly (like someone flipping a switch). Perhaps we arrived just at the tail end of a good bite.

Brian took off and I continued - didn't want to go home skunked. I started getting a bunch of small perch bites and thought about hooking up the Carolina-rig perch grub just to avoid being skunked. Then I thought, why not just "drop shot" rig the grub above my swimbait. So I did just that using a size 6 mosquito hook and a "Sea Wolf" colored perch grub (only seemed logical since the swimbait I was using was also the "Sea Wolf" color). The grub was about 18 inches above the swimbait. Surprisingly I didn't get any tangles and it looked really good in the water. After about my 3rd or 4th cast I get a nice thump and hookup. After a nice fight on the light gear I pull in about an 18 inch halibut and too my surprise it had eaten the grub! I think it is the first halibut I've caught on a perch grub.

I think I may have a new technique here - especially when both the perch and halibut are in.