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Finally after doing some trout fishing the past couple of weeks, I was able to get out with my buddy Carmelo Chavez to do some float tubing in the harbor. We choose Newport to hit up on the same day as the SWBA Spots for Tots. So we were gonna be fishing with a lot of boaters around. No problem.
Launched in the very early AM, plan was to do it at 3am...But we pushed it up to 4. That didn't work so we got on the water finally at 5am sharp! High tide this morning was marked at 9:48am 6.6' level, think it was a King tide this morning like the previous day. Weather wasn't looking so good as the reports were stating. 48 degrees in the morning with 30% chance of rain, all day cloudy conditions. Turned out both were BS. No rain and sunny all day!
We launched from one of the islands, dark kicking into the harbor. We headed over to a spot that was very lit up. Saw lots of bait fish in the water, stayed a distance away but not that far so we can cast our lures into them. Now I was first working with a curly tail, ribbed looking swimbait. Had a 3/8 big hammer lead head on it, but nothing was biting. Carmelo was working a jerk bait with a small lead head, got bit within 5 minutes of working the dock! First one...sand bass. Tossed it back to the drink and couple of minutes later nails a spottie! Nice one,.. Now we knew the spot was gonna hold some more spotties. I switched over to a bubble gum pink curly tail grub with a bullet weight. Rubbed some Uni-Butter on, cast into a nearby dock and got slammed! Finally skunk off! Nice spottie as well. The next couple of hours before dawn the area was giving up some more spotties. The last time I went to NPH all I got was a bat ray and a dink sandie LOL Glad this time we found the right spot holding Newport spotties! Guess cause for all the Christmas lights around, the bait fish were thick and the bass were boiling around, chasing them everywhere.
Finally the crack of dawn came, grey light. the bite slowed down a little but the spotties still were around. Now that I had some light to work with we were able to get video of the feeshing. Good stuff now. We left abandoned out previous spot cause now the SWBA boaters were around and some of them came up to the spot fishing very close, didn't wanna get in their way so we started to head more into the harbor looking for open docks to fish. I was tossing out a River to Sea crank, huge one too. Only managed to hook one spottie before I threw it a little too hard towards a dock and hit it LOL That sucker broke in pieces! Opps, my calcutta TE was launching it! I couldn't help but try to throw it as far into the bay as I could. Shoot, now what to fish with...Hhhhmmmm,..
Decided to go big or go home. Put on a 5 inch Big hammer with a 3/4 lead head. Once again I put on some Uni-butter, first cast got it far into the dock as i could. Let it dead fall to hit the bottom when it bumped! Whoa, tugged on it a little and felt some tension. Then my line started to rip from my reel smoking...Pulled the rod tip up and set the hook hard! Fish on,.. Took a few runs around, in my mind I was thinking it was a toad spottie and please God don't let it be a bat ray! Turned out to be neither but a Halibut! Looked legal too
Called Carmelo over and handed him the net, didn't wanna lose it...first legal newport halibut for me in a long time! When ever Melo tried to net it, the flattie would take another run...had the swimmie buried in its mouth with a 20# fluro leader. It wasn't going anywhere. I holstered the rod away, grabbed the line and just pulled him in. First I was trying to gill him but that didn't work! LOL Then I remembered Jeff from FTFF gave me some Fish Grip pliers! Oh yea, pulled them out from the side pocket and got the Halibut out of the water! Boom! A nearby SWBA boater measured it for us...a 24 incher, nice bay halibut! High fives! Fist pumps! It was a good morning,..
Break time! Started to bust out my lunch bag, munching on some goodies. Then Carmelo looks at me saying "WTF" LOL I was eating a banana and totally forgot about the "fishing curse", just laughed it off! Told him that was just for boats...Not a single fish was caught by us after I finished the banana! Whoa.......We got some bites but no kickers. Another tubing buddy, James Collin came out to fish with us. We met him at one of the islands, he brought out some cranks and plastics for us try out...No good that did! Then the current started to rip! Forgot high tide was at 9. It was 10:30am now with a strong immense rise movement! As Jackson Metivier put it "Large tides and tubes...No Bueno." James finally hooked into a spottie! Got it video, so awesome! We called it a day at 11. The current wasn't slowing down at all. Since James parked real close to where we were at, so once we beached we threw the tubes in his truck and he dropped us off at our cars! The end of a good morning of hooking spotties and Hali's at Newport,.. \m/
After we put away our gear we drove to the Balboa Angling Club for the SWBA Spots for tots weigh in. Boaters had a lot of quantity fish but no real quality, seen some 2.5# spotties...but not much. Met up with the guys, had some laughs and talked about how the fishing was. Eric Bent always has a good event, lots of boaters and tubers...think i saw only one kayaker. After the weight in we headed to the dunes for the official standings and winners of todays event. Also Taco Surf was catering the event, I don't know if it was because I was so hungry, but those tacos were very good today! Plenty to go around, helped myself to seconds as well left a good tip for the cooks! Chatted up with some of the Bass fishing heavy weights, Seen Matt Kotch and Erik Landesfeind, cool guys...bad ass anglers! My buddy Sergio Fainsztein was there with the jokes as always...Had a good time! Congrats to all the teams that competed in the tourney! Thanks to my buddy Carmelo (BayNinja) for rolling with me to NPH and slaying some bass! Thanks to James Collin for the hook ups on cranks and plastics! Can't wait to go back soon to look and hook some toad spotties at Newps...tight linez,..
Check out the video! Hope you like it!
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Launched in the very early AM, plan was to do it at 3am...But we pushed it up to 4. That didn't work so we got on the water finally at 5am sharp! High tide this morning was marked at 9:48am 6.6' level, think it was a King tide this morning like the previous day. Weather wasn't looking so good as the reports were stating. 48 degrees in the morning with 30% chance of rain, all day cloudy conditions. Turned out both were BS. No rain and sunny all day!
We launched from one of the islands, dark kicking into the harbor. We headed over to a spot that was very lit up. Saw lots of bait fish in the water, stayed a distance away but not that far so we can cast our lures into them. Now I was first working with a curly tail, ribbed looking swimbait. Had a 3/8 big hammer lead head on it, but nothing was biting. Carmelo was working a jerk bait with a small lead head, got bit within 5 minutes of working the dock! First one...sand bass. Tossed it back to the drink and couple of minutes later nails a spottie! Nice one,.. Now we knew the spot was gonna hold some more spotties. I switched over to a bubble gum pink curly tail grub with a bullet weight. Rubbed some Uni-Butter on, cast into a nearby dock and got slammed! Finally skunk off! Nice spottie as well. The next couple of hours before dawn the area was giving up some more spotties. The last time I went to NPH all I got was a bat ray and a dink sandie LOL Glad this time we found the right spot holding Newport spotties! Guess cause for all the Christmas lights around, the bait fish were thick and the bass were boiling around, chasing them everywhere.
Finally the crack of dawn came, grey light. the bite slowed down a little but the spotties still were around. Now that I had some light to work with we were able to get video of the feeshing. Good stuff now. We left abandoned out previous spot cause now the SWBA boaters were around and some of them came up to the spot fishing very close, didn't wanna get in their way so we started to head more into the harbor looking for open docks to fish. I was tossing out a River to Sea crank, huge one too. Only managed to hook one spottie before I threw it a little too hard towards a dock and hit it LOL That sucker broke in pieces! Opps, my calcutta TE was launching it! I couldn't help but try to throw it as far into the bay as I could. Shoot, now what to fish with...Hhhhmmmm,..
Decided to go big or go home. Put on a 5 inch Big hammer with a 3/4 lead head. Once again I put on some Uni-butter, first cast got it far into the dock as i could. Let it dead fall to hit the bottom when it bumped! Whoa, tugged on it a little and felt some tension. Then my line started to rip from my reel smoking...Pulled the rod tip up and set the hook hard! Fish on,.. Took a few runs around, in my mind I was thinking it was a toad spottie and please God don't let it be a bat ray! Turned out to be neither but a Halibut! Looked legal too
Called Carmelo over and handed him the net, didn't wanna lose it...first legal newport halibut for me in a long time! When ever Melo tried to net it, the flattie would take another run...had the swimmie buried in its mouth with a 20# fluro leader. It wasn't going anywhere. I holstered the rod away, grabbed the line and just pulled him in. First I was trying to gill him but that didn't work! LOL Then I remembered Jeff from FTFF gave me some Fish Grip pliers! Oh yea, pulled them out from the side pocket and got the Halibut out of the water! Boom! A nearby SWBA boater measured it for us...a 24 incher, nice bay halibut! High fives! Fist pumps! It was a good morning,..Break time! Started to bust out my lunch bag, munching on some goodies. Then Carmelo looks at me saying "WTF" LOL I was eating a banana and totally forgot about the "fishing curse", just laughed it off! Told him that was just for boats...Not a single fish was caught by us after I finished the banana! Whoa.......We got some bites but no kickers. Another tubing buddy, James Collin came out to fish with us. We met him at one of the islands, he brought out some cranks and plastics for us try out...No good that did! Then the current started to rip! Forgot high tide was at 9. It was 10:30am now with a strong immense rise movement! As Jackson Metivier put it "Large tides and tubes...No Bueno." James finally hooked into a spottie! Got it video, so awesome! We called it a day at 11. The current wasn't slowing down at all. Since James parked real close to where we were at, so once we beached we threw the tubes in his truck and he dropped us off at our cars! The end of a good morning of hooking spotties and Hali's at Newport,.. \m/
After we put away our gear we drove to the Balboa Angling Club for the SWBA Spots for tots weigh in. Boaters had a lot of quantity fish but no real quality, seen some 2.5# spotties...but not much. Met up with the guys, had some laughs and talked about how the fishing was. Eric Bent always has a good event, lots of boaters and tubers...think i saw only one kayaker. After the weight in we headed to the dunes for the official standings and winners of todays event. Also Taco Surf was catering the event, I don't know if it was because I was so hungry, but those tacos were very good today! Plenty to go around, helped myself to seconds as well
left a good tip for the cooks! Chatted up with some of the Bass fishing heavy weights, Seen Matt Kotch and Erik Landesfeind, cool guys...bad ass anglers! My buddy Sergio Fainsztein was there with the jokes as always...Had a good time! Congrats to all the teams that competed in the tourney! Thanks to my buddy Carmelo (BayNinja) for rolling with me to NPH and slaying some bass! Thanks to James Collin for the hook ups on cranks and plastics! Can't wait to go back soon to look and hook some toad spotties at Newps...tight linez,.. Check out the video! Hope you like it!
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