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Originally Posted by fishingOC
Great info HH,
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Not sure if you’re aware of the type of bait we generally use in southern <st1:State><st1 lace>California</st1 lace></st1:State>. But from what I have gathered. For live bait, live smelt is the choice of weapon and with lures people recommend the lucky craft flash minnow 110 or 130 which can be quite expensive and can cost quite a bit after you loose a few.
Would you recommend one of those break away lines for live bait fishing. Meaning hook up a breakaway line and swing as hard as I can till my arm falls off and then work the waters with the live smelt?
The biggest halibut that have been reported on the boards have been 40 inches that have been caught from the surf but that’s not to say that maybe others have caught bigger but have not reported. Do you think halibuts in that size range are further out in the surf? I have a curiosity to see, but lack the experience to try.
My thinking is that when they aint biting near the surf then they’re probably in deeper water and if that is correct. This long distant pendulum casting/surf fishing will just be the key to catch the but bigger then 40’
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OC - I'll be the first to admit that over the years of refining this pursuit I've gained allot of usefull insight into possible methods and techniques from you good California folks who chase butts in the surf, but in the end have come to one overwhelming conclusion. These two fish (the California Halibut and Pacific), while appearing similiar and sharing a few behavioural characteristics are in fact very different from one another.
I have to fall back on my education in marine biology, a few years of observation of fish and a failing memory to pull out my facts about California Halibut but I'll do my best (and I'm sure if I'm wrong someone will put me straight.)
If I remember correctly the first immediate difference is that Californians are a Bothidae or left eye fish where as Pacifics are Pleuronectidae or right eye. Now granted thats probably not going to stop the presses but it is does class them as a diffrent family right from the get go.
Also my understanding is that the Californians primarily predate upon the anchovies and smelt like fishes whereas ours are much more varied in diet, mostly due to the size difference. Again I'm not positive, but I think the largest recorded Cali was somewhere just shy of 80# whereas the largest recorded Pacific in modern times is 533#
These differences mean that I would be making little more than an educated guess about wether or not you could increase your size of catch by casting further. My guess would be no. As I described in the articles Pacifics are very active predators, which (based on my understanding of their diet and feeding habits) makes the Cali's
hyperactive predators. By focusing thier feeding almost exclusivly on a food source known for it's active nature one can assume that in order to survive the Cali's would have to also be very active in their pursuit of prey. So put simply they are going to go where the prey is, bottom, surface, beach or open ocean regardless of the size of the fish. This could be considered even more valid for the larger fish as their body mass dictates a critical need for staying ahead of the game by taking in more caloric energy then they expend through the pursuit of a prey item. So wherever the bait is you could more than likely assume that the larger fish will be amongst them. Observation has shown that larger fish in a feeding situation tend to patrol the outer perimeter of a bait concentration waiting for more precise feeding opportunities, but I doubt this means they are in the much deeper water just for the sake of having more water above their heads.
Pacifics by nature are a deep water fish and the foraging trips they make towards shore tend to be very transitory and short lived because prey items don't usually hang around long enough in any concentrations to bring them in regularly. This means they are more or less conditioned to be uncomfortable spending any extended period of time in shallower water.
I'll digress for a smidge as you brought up live bait - It is very rare for us to fish with live bait. The main reason has to do with availability more than anything else. We do not have a steady readily available supply of smelt,minnows herring etc.. that we can count on. The only time we fish live bait is when the opportunity arises to catch some small 6-10" tomcod or we are in a location which we can cast a net for herring, and even then it is a seasonal thing good for just the day we are fortunate enough to come across an abundant source of bait. The catch ratio of live bait over dead has so far proven to be about equal.
I hope that answers your question
I tend to ramble on sometimes and for that I apologize, I would expect that if any of my facts are wrong some of the Cali Hali experts will chime in.