I suddenly received a message from my friend and it said, “I caught a Halibut!”
So I continued to read the message and it was a 26in big size Halibut! I want to keep the location a secret for now because I’ll be going there on my next fishing trip!
He had also mentioned that it was the biggest he’s ever caught with a hardbait lure and he used our FM110 in Aurora Calico Bass.
On this same day another friend of mine also caught a 22in Halibut and that was again caught with our FM110, but in the Sexy Smelt (new color).
Catching Halibuts with the FM means they are coming along the surface area which also equals to “increase in activity”!! The Halibut season is finally here in the West Coast region!
Here is the continuation of my last post… So were we able to catch any fish? Yes, a lot!
We were casting towards the structure near the pier with the new Opti Shad with a 1/4oz weight head and dropped the lure to the bottom. After it dropped all the way, I slowly retrieved. While retrieving, it would get caught in grass so I would make a slight twitch action and the Bass would notice it and bite! And this fishing pattern was great! The best color lure that day was the Green Pumpkin Chart Tail!! After the tide settled, we changed locations to a place called Linda Isle. Here I used the 4in Victory Tail and attached the Redemption Spinnerbait (Crack Blue 1/2oz) and slowly retrieved above the grass area. And this fishing pattern was also catching a lot of fish!! I caught a 2lbs class Spotted Bass and was able to easily pull it up with the new rod! I definitely have high expectations for this newly produced rod from now on.
Our total fish caught within a 5 hour period was… Eric: 8, Mat: 4, Neil: 1, & Sandy (myself): 2.
This fishing day inNewport Beach,CAis scheduled to be on the next EnjoyDVDso please stay tuned!!
The SWBA Newport Competition was held in February and can be checked out here:
SWBA Link: http://dell.jp.msn.com/
This week I went to Newport Beach, CA with Matt from Optimum Baits and Eric who is a SWBA staff, to test out our new Lucky Craft x Optimum Baits collaboration lure. The 2 new lures are called the “Opti Shad” and “Victory Tail”.
Here in Newport Beach, certain colors are used to catch fish which is the Chart colors. From mainly using the Chart colors, we’ve created 2 types of combination lures: one is the Redemption Spinnerbait with the Opti Shad and the other is 1/4oz head with the 4in Opti Shad.
Our main targets are the Calico Bass, Spotted Bass, and Sand Bass and fishing method was to carefully choose a spot to cast around where the boats were at anchor by the pier, under the bridge and grass. As for the tackle I used, were the 8lbs & 10lbs lines and the new Lucky Craft Trout (6’6f) & Perch (6’3f) rods. For the fishing result, I’ll be posting it up next time! So please stay tuned!
This is a video clip from the California Offshore tournament. http://www.youtube.com/
They caught some good size Calico Bass. The boat operation seems hard to do. Today I went fishing inNewport Beachand used our new Opti Shad lure. We were able to catch a lot of Spotted Bay Bass & Halibut! We will upload the video clip shortly so please stay tuned!!
Since 3 years ago, we have a series called the CIF which has colors designs based on California Inshore Fishing. It is mainly for Calico Bass, Barracuda and Halibut fishing. Here is a very nice clip on a Californiastyle CIF: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8jFYLuCAa8
This week I planned to go boat fishing to test out some of these CIF series.
This week I went fishing at a certain part of Seal Beach, CA for the first time. Since it was my first time there, I started off from the flow entrance and went along the jetty.
On this day, the waves were fairly high with very heavy water flow, so my lure kept getting shifted away. However at this same spot last week, someone caught a 27in Halibut. So I thought I had a chance also, but it was very difficult. After it became high tide, I relocated to the beach area. I used the FM110, color rotated and casted to about a 200 meter distance, but the only thing I was able to catch was trash bags… (We should all help clean the beach!)
It’s been tough catching Halibuts this year for me, but I will continue to cast until I catch one!! Next week I will be going to Newport Bay for Bay Bass fishing so please stay tuned!
I am still struggling to catch my very first Halibut of this year. So I calculated the best time to go which is right after the grunion runs on low tide early morning.
As it got closer to the correct time zone, I was on the jetty side using the FM110 aiming the surface area. Unfortunately I got no bites so I changed my strategy to aiming the bottom area with the FM120DD! I made dramatic lure actions so that the Halibuts will have more recognition of the lure! And then I finally got my first bite!! I slowly retrieved, but at that time it was extremely low tide and made it even harder for me to capture it. I continued to try pulling… but right then!! The Halibut jumped and escaped in between the rocks. I couldn’t take a picture of my first caught Halibut! I have no proof!! How disappointing…
I would like to show a picture of my first Halibut of this year next time around. I’m so sorry for disappointing all of you! But the FM120DDmight be a good lure for this year!!
This weekend is the Yokohama Fishing Show in Japan. And speaking of Yokohamais the Sea Bass fishing guide, Sea Kuro. Every year in November, I looked forward on going fishing with Sea Kuro at the TokyoBay. The Yokohama Fishing Show is right next to it too… I’m so busy this March I can’t go fishing… I see how they are fishing a lot every day as I look at their blog site: http://www.seakuro.com/. Lucky~!
I went on a local business trip for a fishing seminar held at the Big Fish shop where I met Dan Hernandez (shown in photo) and Bobby & Shawn from Big Fish. Dan is actually someone who is very well known in the Saltwater fishing industry in Southern California. If you don’t know him, you must be a fishing amateur still! (I actually didn’t know him until today’s seminar myself…) On this day, they had the maximum of 27 students who participated in this seminar. They came for Dan’s Halibut fishing lecture and Bobby’s lecture on how to read tides and much more. It’s been awhile since I last put my saltwater tournament shirt on and on this occasion, I really got to emphasize on my past fishing experiences. I thought about what the best fishing seasons were throughout the year, the places where I caught Halibuts, and the different actions between FM & PT. Dan kindly promoted our Lucky Craft FM to everyone and he even put a special sale on the FM110 and sold a bunch in just couple minutes.
I have a feeling the FM will become extremely popular from now on.
