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Solo mission this morning at Alamitos Bay. Kicked off at 6am, it was dark, cold, light off-shore breeze was present, excitement to be back on the water in my tube was present. Kicked along the wall, tossed my 3” Zoom Fat Albert in watermelon seed a few times as I made my way to the YC entrance. Nothing, but then after a few casts inside I was on, decent Spottie that choked it, ugh! I was able to successfully get it out and he swam off in the usual aggro way they do, assuming all was well. No other fish to report inside the YC, but things were about to get interesting.
I cruised out of the YC and hung a right into the channel. Plan was to throw a few before crossing over to Ballast Point to ride the tide. I had one pole in my 45 degree angle rod-holder, that was rigged with the 1/4oz ned and 3” Fat Albert Curly Tail grub, I tossed it and let it troll. My other rod I was throwing a Red Crab HookUp bait, sun was out by now.
My phone rings and it was my wife and daughters. They were on their way to Disneyland and wanted to say good morning. As I’m talking and jigging, I noticed the pole in my holder went bendo! Not thinking much of it, thought maybe it was snagged on a rock. I keep talking and then hastily set my pole I was jigging down to attend to my “snag”. But the snag kept moving, and felt HEAVY! No head shakes, rather power dives were being felt….it wasn’t pulling drag so I knew it wasn’t a ray, that left me with reason to believe I was on a good sized Halibut! After realizing I was “on”, while I was “on…..the phone” (with it wedged in between my cheek and shoulder I told my wife and girls I had to go! The phone stayed wedged as I continued to fight this soon to be determined Halibut! Once I saw color I nearly pooped my pants, this was my first Halibut of significant size! I was able to get my phone into the chest pocket on my waders. I tried to let the fish wear itself out as I fumbled in my left side tube pocket for my lip grippers. Got them! I was nervous and excited as I saw the large head, mouth and teeth surface right in front of my tube. I tried to move it smoothly closer to lip gripper range. With my left hand firmly gripping the grips, I squeezed them open and proceeded to grab it by the lower jaw….for about two seconds…the dude gave one solid flip-thwap-flop and before I could get him on my lap he was gone, so was my lure and so were my lip grippers. Nooooooo!!! He had to have been at least 18”-20” Im guessing!!! It was one of the most helpless feelings I’ve had in a long time. I looked around and was wondering if there was a way I could rewind time by 30 seconds or so. I was so nervous and excited and was shaking. I couldn’t contain my excitement and had to text [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] to share with him what had just happened. Luckily it was just after 8am, figured he would be awake! Lol
Minutes went by as I relived the most exciting couple of minutes of my float tubing career. My hands were extra shaky as I rigged up the wounded line with a fresh set-up. I continued to cross the channel to Ballast and landed a decent Sandy almost dead center of the channel. That was it for the day. I continued to ride the ride down to the fuel dock but the bite was dead after 8am it seemed.
Lesson learned, I should have brought my net, should have attached my grippers to a d-ring with a piece of paracord.
Thanks for reading
I cruised out of the YC and hung a right into the channel. Plan was to throw a few before crossing over to Ballast Point to ride the tide. I had one pole in my 45 degree angle rod-holder, that was rigged with the 1/4oz ned and 3” Fat Albert Curly Tail grub, I tossed it and let it troll. My other rod I was throwing a Red Crab HookUp bait, sun was out by now.
My phone rings and it was my wife and daughters. They were on their way to Disneyland and wanted to say good morning. As I’m talking and jigging, I noticed the pole in my holder went bendo! Not thinking much of it, thought maybe it was snagged on a rock. I keep talking and then hastily set my pole I was jigging down to attend to my “snag”. But the snag kept moving, and felt HEAVY! No head shakes, rather power dives were being felt….it wasn’t pulling drag so I knew it wasn’t a ray, that left me with reason to believe I was on a good sized Halibut! After realizing I was “on”, while I was “on…..the phone” (with it wedged in between my cheek and shoulder I told my wife and girls I had to go! The phone stayed wedged as I continued to fight this soon to be determined Halibut! Once I saw color I nearly pooped my pants, this was my first Halibut of significant size! I was able to get my phone into the chest pocket on my waders. I tried to let the fish wear itself out as I fumbled in my left side tube pocket for my lip grippers. Got them! I was nervous and excited as I saw the large head, mouth and teeth surface right in front of my tube. I tried to move it smoothly closer to lip gripper range. With my left hand firmly gripping the grips, I squeezed them open and proceeded to grab it by the lower jaw….for about two seconds…the dude gave one solid flip-thwap-flop and before I could get him on my lap he was gone, so was my lure and so were my lip grippers. Nooooooo!!! He had to have been at least 18”-20” Im guessing!!! It was one of the most helpless feelings I’ve had in a long time. I looked around and was wondering if there was a way I could rewind time by 30 seconds or so. I was so nervous and excited and was shaking. I couldn’t contain my excitement and had to text [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] to share with him what had just happened. Luckily it was just after 8am, figured he would be awake! Lol
Minutes went by as I relived the most exciting couple of minutes of my float tubing career. My hands were extra shaky as I rigged up the wounded line with a fresh set-up. I continued to cross the channel to Ballast and landed a decent Sandy almost dead center of the channel. That was it for the day. I continued to ride the ride down to the fuel dock but the bite was dead after 8am it seemed.
Lesson learned, I should have brought my net, should have attached my grippers to a d-ring with a piece of paracord.
Thanks for reading
Last edited by beedee on Mon Jan 23, 2023 1:42 pm; edited 6 times in total
