Cabrillo beach
 

Launch at 6am with my buddy it was very windy and ruff waves. Picked up some live bait (sardines) then paddle to the shallow water inside the break wall. We caught 5 halibuts the first one was 20 inches almost legal size so it was released. The second and third one was probably over 40inches or more we were not able to bring it in the dam line snapped twice we used 14lb test line and no good. The 4th and 5th halibut dam seal went after it :mad: later around 10am we cough a nice 14inch rock fish. A school of jelly fish were near the pier i accidentally hooked 2 at the same time as i was reeling in my sardine. Halibuts are still near the yellow pole in the shallow area. Rock fish midway by the kelp area.

:you_rock: thanks bro!

thanks for the info man. i've never caught a halibut there yet so i hope i can get one when i go tomorrow

See if the bait barge has live squid the halibuts love those if not small anchovy don't use mackerel unless they are 4 inches. Good luck man

I'd bump up to at least 20 pound leader if specifically targeting butts. Those teeth will shred smaller line pretty quick with the head shakes. The 14 is ok for the bass in the bay though.

holy crap, tiny little dink baits?! i tried using chovies once and all i got where a ton of lizard fish. i will be trying to dropper loop for them around the yellow pole area (never been there). as well as along the deep side of those wooden pole markers (the 40-50ft spot). we'll see how i do. i'll also be lobstering at night, and then fishign for the butts in the morning. we'll see how that goes with space issues lol. thanks for the tips!

Will try my luck with the butts tomorrow as well. Thanks for the tip.

ended up with the skunk. we got our baits raked REALLY BADLY 6 times. but those cormorants wouldn't leave us alone. and the bait barge only had some massive dines/macs with a $25 minimum purchase... and 90% of the bait died right away. oh well. maybe better luck next time. thanks for the tips though!

At Cabrillo? Were you in a boat? Has been a $10 kayak scoop for years. BTW, I love those gigantic Sardines, but freshly caught ones will tend to die in the bait tank. Or slow pumps or too many. Come to think of it, Sardines are kind of finicky. I will skip the bait barge when they don't have bait that is at least 7" (I don't like to waste my time hassling over short fish). Every short fish you bring up and release is time that a bigger bait could have stayed in the zone. Bigger baits will not eliminate shorts, but they will reduce them substantially.

^^ Good advice! Always learning from you guys.

$25 for bait? You must be a really good tipper.

I spent many years buying bait from the barge and I also spent a ton of money on it. 1-2 trips a week, $9 for parking, $10-$15 for bait.......it gets expensive. Eventually, I started making my own bait, that saved me a ton of money. I was losing some fishing time in the process of making bait but I made up for it by launching earlier and getting on the bait spot at first light.

Its not uncommon to find greenbacks, Spanish macs and lizard fish in the harbor, all you need is a sabiki and a FF. It can get frustrating not being able to find bait but when you do you'll be glad you did because you just cut the cost of your fishing trip by %50 and you will have premium bait.

Really easy to troll a sabiki to find bait while also looking for it on the ff. Add a heavy swimbat or jig on the bottom, you never know