u/DecentSale

Fishing in San Clemente , I was just hanging with my pops surf fishing . Catching a bunch of perch , I pulled in a baby corbina maybe 6” long . Decided to nose hook it . ( should have put a larger hook on ) . Pinned it on with a dropper loop set up . after about 5 minutes got slammed , I have caught a lot of large leopards so initially that’s what I thought i had until it stopped after a 40 year run horizontal to the beach . At this point i was pretty sure it was a halibut . There were rocks to my right so i couldn’t follow the fish . I kept

working it to about 20 feet in front of me . That’s when i saw the tail come out of the water . I fish in alaska a lot so i know a big halibut when i see it . This fucker had to be 40” plus . I finally turned him and had him about 15” in front of me when he came off .

As i think about it , I wish i would have allowed him to eat the bait a bit more . I thought it was a leopard so i reacted like a leopard shark and got ready for a fight . I know this will stay in my mind for months. I learned a couple lessons though, don’t assume you have a leopard secondly hook up my short corbina from now on . I am gutted and will thinking about this all night.