Wayne in BC
New member
The fight with the powerful fish went on and on with my buddy gaining a little line with great effort, then losing it all and more as the brute sounded. We had drifted off the bank after 1/2 an hour and were now in 440 feet of water and the critter was hugging the bottom, i was concerned because we would soon find much deeper water and the pressure against that length of line is magnified and can be nearly doubled by the current pressure over that distance. It was 100 lb test on that rod, i had given it to him to compensate for inexperience (and dave expensive tackle
) as you could straighten out even a large hook if it snagged bottom.
It was time for plan B........starting the kicker motor and instructing him to hold tight, giving only enough line to hold even, i began to ease out and away from the powerful fish, getting more angle to help get his head up as it was near impossible to lift the thing straight up as a Halibut is so wide and flat. After a few minutes the angle and heavy pressure began to tell as he gained line a little, then more. Losing 50 ft then gaining 75, it took another half hour on top of the hour or so we had already spent on the fight.
My buddy had such sore arms and shoulders that he was nearly begging me to take over but i refused, saying......if i were to help and it got away, well i would never hear the end of it.....suffer buddy, you just know i'm not THAT dumb!
Finally i saw, in the clear water, a large triangular shape, dang! TRIANGULAR! I muttered some really uncomplimentary language about the fish's ancestry and my buddy, now very puzzled said.....huh? I told him then that he did not have a giant trophy Halibut but a danged Skate! It was hooked in one "wing" and the combination of its size 80+ lbs as well as being side hooked had fooled me into thinking "Halibut"
Well we finally got him to the boat and tied him to the stern, my buddy was actually real pleased as he happened to like eating Skate and had caught the largest fish of his life. We fished for another couple hours getting three nice eating sized Halibut and a couple Nice Yellow eye Rockfish. Now we had to pull that beast, now dead, into the boat where there was barely room. We managed and headed home, tired, happy and pleased Oddly this was not the biggest fish he had ever hooked, in a fluke (pun intended) happening, the first time i took him ocean fishing in 1976 he hooked a giant Halibut in an area where it was unlikley and that is another story
Here is the critter! .[attachment 9799 scan0001.jpg]
) as you could straighten out even a large hook if it snagged bottom.It was time for plan B........starting the kicker motor and instructing him to hold tight, giving only enough line to hold even, i began to ease out and away from the powerful fish, getting more angle to help get his head up as it was near impossible to lift the thing straight up as a Halibut is so wide and flat. After a few minutes the angle and heavy pressure began to tell as he gained line a little, then more. Losing 50 ft then gaining 75, it took another half hour on top of the hour or so we had already spent on the fight.
My buddy had such sore arms and shoulders that he was nearly begging me to take over but i refused, saying......if i were to help and it got away, well i would never hear the end of it.....suffer buddy, you just know i'm not THAT dumb!
Finally i saw, in the clear water, a large triangular shape, dang! TRIANGULAR! I muttered some really uncomplimentary language about the fish's ancestry and my buddy, now very puzzled said.....huh? I told him then that he did not have a giant trophy Halibut but a danged Skate! It was hooked in one "wing" and the combination of its size 80+ lbs as well as being side hooked had fooled me into thinking "Halibut"
Well we finally got him to the boat and tied him to the stern, my buddy was actually real pleased as he happened to like eating Skate and had caught the largest fish of his life. We fished for another couple hours getting three nice eating sized Halibut and a couple Nice Yellow eye Rockfish. Now we had to pull that beast, now dead, into the boat where there was barely room. We managed and headed home, tired, happy and pleased
Oddly this was not the biggest fish he had ever hooked, in a fluke (pun intended) happening, the first time i took him ocean fishing in 1976 he hooked a giant Halibut in an area where it was unlikley and that is another storyHere is the critter! .[attachment 9799 scan0001.jpg]
