This was about three years ago, but I remember every econd of it. We were fishing a tin skiff, 16 foot with a 15 hp, just the other side of the Elwood Pier, or should I call it the Bacarra Pier.....

The halibut bite jsut seemed to turn on, like a light switch. Blamo, blamo, a legal here, a short or two there. The wind was blowing about 8 knots, just enoguh to move the drift at a great pace.

We were pitching dead chovies between the kelp stringers, fishing ten or so yards, winding over the next kelp stalk and dropping again. It was working pretty darn well. Along with the halibut, we also caught a fair number of legal calicos.

There was no surf, crystal clear water. We were jonesing for our dive gear and our halibut guns. We had two legal halibut on board, though both fish were of just legal size24"-25", one one gave us a pretty good fight, running into a kelp, kelping my buddy Tony so much we had to start teh motor and untangle the fish, when he promptly went into another kelp. I love it when stuff happens where the fish has such a huge chance of getting away, and you still land it, ie. rod or reel breaks and you have to handline the fish in, gaff handle slides off, gaff floats away you grab the gaff and still land the fish.....

Anyway, to the good part of the story.

We were in about a foot of water, having just finished the drift, as I remarked that the windline was rapidly charging down the channel. This was about the last drift, if we wanted to get back to Goleta beach dry. I started the motor, and with it barely in idle, the boat stared out into deeper water. We were dragging our baits over the sand, and I lifted my bait to within 6 inches of the surface to bring it over a long strip of eelgrass.

BBBLLLLAAAMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

The sand erupts, we both happen to be watching, standing on the bench-seats, watching our baits. A big halibut, with all fins flared, mouth gaping, slams my bait right on the surface. In shock I stammer something..... Tony grunts back..... I quickly lower my rod, as I feed line out, keeping it slack. the next part was the coolest. He had the chovie in his mouth sideways, and as we watched in amazement, it flipped it around and swallowed it. Mind you, we are in about 2 and a half feet of water, watching a 28 or 30 inch halibut swallow my bait.

Click, I engage the gear, carefully wind up the slack, and set the hook with a short, but powerful set.

The fish takes off like a bat out of hell, peeling 12lb line from my freshwater bass setup. After a few more runs, I laid him right into the net that Tony held just below the water, brought him aboard, and slapped a quick high-five, hollered and started putting everything away for a wet ride home.

It all seemed like it was in slow motion, so crystal clear, right there at our feet, and the fact that we both saw it happen. What a day!

MoonDoggie