Bounce Balling

[Latimeria]

I've learned from the best, but yet have only minimally caught.  Two short halibut, 5 sand bass, and a couple of small rockfish.  I'm better off drifting with live bait or power drifting.

[jrodda]

300+ sand bass, 2 sheephead and a thresher later, I've concluded MORF grubs are the only way to really catch them!

[Latimeria]

300+ sand bass, 2 sheephead and a thresher later, I've concluded MORF grubs are the only way to really catch them!

Squatch always went with the white grub.  hahaha

[jrodda]

300+ sand bass, 2 sheephead and a thresher later, I've concluded MORF grubs are the only way to really catch them!

Squatch always went with the white grub.  hahaha

I wanna throw white grubs a lot more this year. The little pearl perch grub caught me a lot of YFC but perch and halibut weren't touching it. MORF got me a legal, a short, and 2 other hangers-on.

Was he throwing a bigger white grub or perch size? I have some 4-5" white Kalin's I've put some time into, only to get me one PB tail hooked bean so far. No complaints but not the expectation either.

Originally bought the white kalins for bounce balling then dumped the boat, so, that experiment will wait.

[sasquatch]

3" white kalins Texas rigged was killer for spotted bass and butterfly rays.
3" white gulp is my secret sheep head bait. Often, not even the sheep head know it works.
I have many favorite color perch grubs. Depends on what's working.
I've caught surf halibut on power worms, trout spinners, 3" swimbaits, perch grubs. Pretty much everything but a lucky craft.

[Tim524]

I have never done the Bounce Balling thing, seems like lots of effort, I always had good luck with BH Swimbaits for Halibut  

[Chris]

It's a winter and spring technique for deep water. 80ft + out to the ledge in La Jolla, 120ft off HB, 80-100ft off MB.... Really heavy weights and a little faster than what feels right. I always struck out on bounce balling (caught a few keepers but nothing great) but have been 10ft from guys using heavier gear and going 1.5k knots faster (up to 5 knots) and seen them land multiple 20-40lb fish.

It also seems like the uglier the bait the better it's bit. I've spent way too much time trying to make a bait look good to have a salted anchovie outfish me

[Latimeria]

It's a winter and spring technique for deep water. 80ft + out to the ledge in La Jolla, 120ft off HB, 80-100ft off MB.... Really heavy weights and a little faster than what feels right. I always struck out on bounce balling (caught a few keepers but nothing great) but have been 10ft from guys using heavier gear and going 1.5k knots faster (up to 5 knots) and seen them land multiple 20-40lb fish.

I learned from my long-time commercial buddy Randy who pretty much only bounce balls for halibut the past 40+ years since he always gets a high price for them than any other fish to sell.  I use all his tricks and sometimes ball bounce right next to him with the same weight and same rigs, but that's how it goes.  Until I catch a few to gain some confidence, I'll always be hesitant to try again until I talk myself into giving it another shot.