Legal Halibut Early AM Session in NC 5/25/17

[HalibutJoel99]

Was on the beach this morning and fishing at 3:30 AM. There is nothing better than being the first one on the beach. No surfers, no crowds. Ahhhhhh the peace and quiet is amazing. Had an hour and fifteen minutes before I had to head out to work, so I got right to it.  Conditions were nice. Not much wind, low surf, and not many weeds in the water. Activity in the water was all around me. Armed with the Daiwa Luvias 3000H on the Daiwa Coastal 7Ft. 12# test and chucking the LC 110FM Pearl White SD.

Missed about three fish before I finally got this little Halibut to stick.





After that continued to chuck the LC. Did I mention how peaceful it was out there? 

I saw a large Leopard shark swim by in front of me. That was pretty cool to see with the headlamp on.

time was running out only about 10 minutes to go I feel a hit on the LC and set the hook. This fish fought nicely and was alot of fun.

Ended up with a nice 23 Inch Halibut to end the session. So nice to be back in the water.

Legal Halibut pics





Righty and a lefty this morning




Teeth shot.



Looking forward to fishing the long holiday weekend! Good luck to everyone out there and be safe!

Thanks for reading and until next tide.

Joel 

[SevengillTheVC]

You sure know how to rake in some primo butt! 

[LONGCAST JOE]

Hey Joel, your one of the few I know of that seems to fish the predawn darkness regularly so let me ask your opinion on this....Do you find the white/light colors always work best then? or only when there's no moonlight? If it would to be a full bright moon would you still go with the white or switch up to a dark or black to enhance the silhouette? Tell me what's up...
JOE

[HalibutJoel99]

Hey Joel, your one of the few I know of that seems to fish the predawn darkness regularly so let me ask your opinion on this....Do you find the white/light colors always work best then? or only when there's no moonlight? If it would to be a full bright moon would you still go with the white or switch up to a dark or black to enhance the silhouette? Tell me what's up...
JOE

I really don't think the colors matter Joe. Its more being in the right place. I would use the Aurora black color too. My hooks bent out on that lure and white was all i had ready. I think if there is baitfish around it really doesn't matter. The fish are on the chew.
I really think the fish concentrate on the rattle of the lure and they can sense a lure moving through the water and they strike at it. I got a Halibut this morning and it got hooked on the body. IMO I dont think color matters at night. Day time I do believe color matters and matching the hatch is important.

Oh and its been cloudy lately every morning and super dark.

[LONGCAST JOE]

Hey Joel, your one of the few I know of that seems to fish the predawn darkness regularly so let me ask your opinion on this....Do you find the white/light colors always work best then? or only when there's no moonlight? If it would to be a full bright moon would you still go with the white or switch up to a dark or black to enhance the silhouette? Tell me what's up...
JOE

I really don't think the colors matter Joe. Its more being in the right place. I would use the Aurora black color too. My hooks bent out on that lure and white was all i had ready. I think if there is baitfish around it really doesn't matter. The fish are on the chew.
I really think the fish concentrate on the rattle of the lure and they can sense a lure moving through the water and they strike at it. I got a Halibut this morning and it got hooked on the body. IMO I dont think color matters at night. Day time I do believe color matters and matching the hatch is important.

Oh and its been cloudy lately every morning and super dark.

I with ya Joel...presentation presentation presentation...
it seems to me alot of the wide variety of LC patterns are designed to catch the fishermans attention in the store more so than the fishes in the water.
Planning to put in a full weekend of halis by day, grinners at night...we'll see how things go...