July 28, 2002 - East Goleta Beach

[LeapinBass]

Went out for a late afternoon surf fishing seabass hunt. Started working down the beach around 5:00 pm with the 3 inch 'Chovy colored Big Hammer. Got the first strike after about 45 minutes. Good fight but I knew it wasn't a seabass - it felt too flat - turned out to be a nice 25 inch halibut. Bryan joined me just as I released it. A few minutes later I hook up again but it popped off after the initial short run - again felt like a halibut. Then Bryan gets a short halibut on the Emerald Excalibur. A few minutes later I hooked up again and brought in a barely legal halibut. For the next hour and a half or so I got nothing while Bryan continued to catch surfperch after surfperch (included a few nice ones) on the Excalibur. At around 7:45 pm I got slammed hard on the Ruby Excalibur. Thoughts of a seabass jumping in the surf went through my head for about a second - which is all the time it took to realize I had another flattie. Turned out to be another legal fish at around 23 or 24 inches (quick eyeball measurement! - bigger than the previous one, smaller than the first one). 3 legal halibut and no shorts - even though we didn't find any seabass it was a fun trip. All fish released.

[center][image]http://www.swimbait.com/bighammer/images/h41.jpg[/image][/center]
[center]Big Hammer - 'Chovy[/center]
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