halibut rig

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by lowprofile

jim, yes its zara spooks , 20lb braid with 12 floro leader, mexican knot (usually) and any beach with a shallow grade that you can work it in 2-4ft of water throughout your cast. done it in oceanside, torrey pines, del mar and santa monica.

Fair enough.

You know I've been fishing SMB surf for a few decades and I have never seen anyone throwing a Zara Spook.

Lot's of swimbaits, grubs, Krocks, even a crystal minnow or two but no surface lures. I have seen some halibut caught and caught a few myself but never seen one come up for a Z-spook.

Working the Grunion runs? So how many stripers you caught? In SMB I'd think you are more likely to get a striper then a butt on a spook. I've actually thought often about trying them there just for stripers.

Be that as it may. If your getting butts in three feet of water they are still ambush feeding off the bottom and you are still hitting them on the head, or presenting the lure right in front of them. California halibut are more adapted to sand and ambush feeding where the larger Pacific and Atlantic halibut feed more aggressively up and down the water column. You can see it in their body shape. Our halibut are flatter on one side where the big boys are more symmetrical side to side, and have a more streamlined diamond shape then our halibut.

I'm not saying they do not hit lures cuz they do, but they just are not as aggressive as their bigger relatives.

Hey and thanks for the info. I'm not joking! I'm actually going to try it. I've fished a lot of stripers with surf gear. There is nothing I like better then chucking surface lures with long rod and spinning surf gear.

Anyone else notice that that big halibut never took the baits head in it's mouth, now that is reminiscent of our halibut