Sunday Sep. 7 Newport Harbor - late report

[LBKayakDude]

Hey all. Here's my first fish report on the board 👍 😁 Me and my buddy launched Newport harbor yesterday with a crazy fast incoming tide/current. Planned on buying bait but while in the Disneyland line at the bait barge we caught more than we needed on sabikis.

Decided to try outside the jetties while my buddy drifted along them. Went straight out almost to red buoy with seals all over it. Did a slow drift/ paddle south for about a mile then did the same on way back to jettis. Not much action. One sandbass and a big 12 inch mackerel.

My buddy called me and said he was by coast guard station so I fished my way over to him with still not much action. We worked our way farther up the channel from cg station towards the bridge. Sorry I don't know the names of everything, hope this makes sense.
Roughly halfway between the bridge and coast guard my buddy says he got a couple bites by this dock. So I slow paddle right past it and fish on! I had 1.5 ounce egg slider, swivel,18 inch leader and a treble hook. One hook through the nose of the smelt. Halibut!! He looked right about 22 so I didn't gaff him. Managed to get the lip grippers on him and pulled him onboard for a proper measure. 24 inches!! First hali from a kayak 😁

Was about 1 pm when I got the hali. 5 min before that I was thinking "I'm pretty much done let's pull the bait and just slowly head back." But something told me not to. Obviously why not just keep the bait out while I paddle back...

Still figuring all this out but not too bad for a day a kayak fishing. I'm so hooked on fishing. (Pun intended?) Anyways, thanks for reading my story. Any advice, tips etc and more than welcomed. - Joe

Here's a few pics...

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[FISH11]

Congratulations or your Hali from a kayak and your post. Some great pictures also. Tight Lines.

[jsunmkly]

Very nice catch! Legal halibuts are hard to find at NPH.
There is a section for reports btw

[octico]

Congrats!

[iethinker]

That's a great first report!

[iethinker]

...Also, It looks like you posted this in the general Kayak Fishing Discussion section. I'm no moderator here but I think this qualifies as a Kayak Fishing Report.

[LBKayakDude]

Thx everyone and damn sorry about that. Leave it to the newb right? 😁 I'm not sure if I can move this thread or not but I'll be sure to post in the right sections. Thx again 👍

[blitzburgh]

Attaboy!