Labor Day Halibut Slay
My girlfriend dropped me off at the Santa Barbara Pier around 7:00 a.m. on Labor Day, and parked my truck at Butterfly Beach. My plan was to fish the 2-3 miles back to my truck and hopefully catch a nice flatty for my Labor Day BBQ. The conditions were perfect: slightly overcast, dead glass, and a high tide around 11 a.m. I stopped at the bait barge and got a little scoop into my bait bucket. I was a little bummed that all they had was big Deans (personally, I’ve found that anchovies work better in and around our pier). However, live bait is live bait so I said good-bye to the bait man and headed south.
For the first two hours I got skunked…nothing…not even a bite. I thought I was cursed with bait that was too big, as all the bait in the water was very small. Eventually, about a ½ mile south of the pier I picked up two shorts back to back. I was stoked that I got the stink off and I had more confidence in the Deans I was fishing.
Around 10:00 a.m. the wind picked up and the back wash from the high tide made for a bumpy ride. About half way from the pier to my landing point I hooked up and I could tell it was a better fish. The fight took around 10 minutes, as I was only fishing 10 lb. test and didn’t want to bust loose. Finally, I see color; it’s a good flatty. I stuck the gaff in him and hoisted him on deck. It was a terrible gaff shot (I recently had shoulder surgery and have not been on the water as much as I normally am), but hey, I got him on deck. It was a 32” 15 lb. Halibut. I reached for my fish smasher and realized I had left it in my truck…GREAT!!!!
Then the fun began, the fish is thrashing everywhere, it knocked my dry bag into the water (no worries – it’s a dry bag), almost leapt out of the kayak twice (nothing a good monkey fisting couldn’t handle), and I had drifted into the impact zone. So I paddled just outside the breakers and decided to bleed him out with my knife. I couldn’t reach my knife as I had it stored in my tackle bag behind my seat…DUH! (I swear, I’m not a rookie…but I sure felt like one that day.) So what did I have handy? My good old Needle Nose pliers. I grabbed them and proceeded to stick my Hali in the brain, I missed a couple times which, needless to say, didn’t make him very happy. People watching from the shore were treated to a Labor Day massacre. Finally, I stuck them in and opened them up, and with a little twist, that was all she wrote.
Needle nose pliers to the head.
I made the paddle back to my landing point and picked up one more short on the way. I landed around 12:00 for a total of 5 hours on the water, 3 shorts and one keeper…not my best kayak fishing trip but definitely one for the memory bank.
I WILL NEVER LEAVE SHORE WITHOUT MY FISH SMASHER ON BOARD AGAIN.
In hind-sight, I should have just reached in and pulled out his gills, but when you’re in the moment, sometimes your brain is a little cloudy (dreams of fish tacos dancing in my head). My friends and family where super stoked to be eating fresh BBQ Halibut on Labor Day, which is half the fun for me as I love to cook and spend time with loved ones!
Please, take a picture of my good side.
Hope to see you out on the water soon!
“GET SUM!!!”
-Brando
P.S. We now have a “fish smasher” available. Check it out here.