First time fishing for halibut

[Wkebrd5]

Went out Sunday morning with my heart set on a halibut. I had a few raked sardines early on. And then no action for a long time. At around 3pm while I was fishing away and catching nothing, I noticed a sailboat headed straight at me. I could not see the driver so I started peddling out of their path. They eventually saw me and turned coming within 15 feet of my yak. As they were going by, they asked if I caught anything today. Well, I didn't until that moment. While I was moving out of their way, I felt the bite. At first, I thought I tangled up or caught up on something on the bottom. So I started reeling away. I definitely thought I snagged something on the bottom. And then I felt it lift and a pretty awesome head shake! Got it to side of the boat and saw it do a couple rounds of head shakes before I gaffed it. Lots of beginners luck on this one! Turned out to be 34" Sorry easyday. Not trying to rub it in.

Now if I can only do it again next time I go out!

[mtnbykr2]

Nice butt...may it be the first of many, 34" respectable dinner in my book...:reel:

[makobob]

Nice 1st Butt.

[ful-rac]

congratulations on your first butt....but you really should have secured that fish before you started taking pictures...if you brought it home...you got lucky!

Nice fish though! :luxhello:

[easyday]

Haha no hard feelings man congrats on the catch.

[Sdspeed]

Congrats on a nice catch! Might be time to invest in an Airhorn too.:D

[stephenG]

Congrats on the flattie, and welcome to the addiction.

[jorluivil]

congratulations on your first butt....but you really should have secured that fish before you started taking pictures...if you brought it home...you got lucky!

Nice fish though! :luxhello:

That's the first thing that caught my eye.

Regardless, congrats on getting your cherry popped.

[lowprofile]

pretty sure Easyday hates you... :D

Nice butt bro!

[Wkebrd5]

Thanks everyone. You can't see it in the picture but that white parachute chord is through its gill and secured to the yak. I don't think it was going anywhere once I got that through its gill. I definitely need a game clip for the next trip out though.

[Deamon]

Way to put in a full day! Congrats. Jim

[Zfish03]

WTG! Is that outside of oceanside harbor? I've done a few trips to the buoy and outside the surfzone to the pier for no luck. I nailed 1 26'' inside the harbor by the entrance last year, I remember when inside the harbor was epic back in the day but not anymore :/
Anyway, congrats on the nice butt!

[yakety-yak]

the thing about halibut is, they always bite when you least expect it. even dedicated beginners have a shot at trophy-sized fish ;)

[SorryCharlie]

Congrats! Nice first butt.

I find that sometimes the sailboats out of Dana really like to get up close and personal with the kayaks.... Havent had them help me land a butt tho!

[Yakly]

Nice!!!!!!! Can't wait to get there and give it a try myself....

[Grunt31]

good thing a hali crushed you instead of a boat... nice pull in.

[Hammerhead_77]

What, no mention of the guy who told you where to look and how to rig? How about that on-the-water cell phone coaching? ;)

At least you dropped off a filet!