big fish summer

B~C · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:15 am Post subject: big fish summer

what a summer for monster halibut in our neck of the woods.

I was appointed to take a group of Aussie yachties out (yachties- folks that boat in and fish for a day) and get them some smaller halibut...I failed, the first fish to the boat was a 215 pounder and then one of the gals cranked up a 115 pounder and a 80 pounder on the same rig. You never know what kind of folks you'll be fishing when you have yachtie duty, some can be real, well, you know. They turned out to be a great bunch of folks, just regular folk that got together for a once in a lifetime trip& chartered some Krogens out of BC. We did end up catching a few chickens...and salmon...and black rock fish & I did end up maybe drinking to much that evening on the yacht

I thought I was doing good with that 215 pounder being the big fish of the year for the lodge, but, Capt Paul ( a hard core big halibut hunter with ten years on the force) had to go and bring in a 400 pounder a few weeks later. They got the beast to the boat and he gave it a dose of 410 sedative and then one of the guest asked if he could shoot it also & pulled out a Glock and placed about four quick rounds in it. It turned out the guest was a DEA agent from NY, I suppose he'll have to account for the rounds he fires...I can see the paperwork now, "fired four rounds just for the halibut"

As the summer went on 200-300 pound fish where coming in pretty regularly. The kid reported for duty the end of July and his first day on the job he helped boat a 230 pounder, it was a good introduction for him.....twas a crazy big halibut summer.

some folks may cringe at harvesting big halibut & some guest elected to turn them loose...I figure if the high priced fish and game biologists say it's fine to harvest them, who am I to argue

Will-C · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:37 am Post subject: big fish summer

B&C,
I don't know where you fish, but it sounds like a great place for a C-Brat fishing type gathering. I'm not sure my wife could pull a four hundred pounder into the cockpit, plus she hates guns. I'd better leave her at home. Do those big mommas taste as good as the chickens?
D.D.

B~C · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 11:49 am Post subject:

hey there, I spend the summers at a prison labor camp (Eagle Charters) in Elfin Cove AK where I'm forced to take people fishing, boat around on the bosses fuel and endure meals consisting of prime rib, crab, BBQ ribs and other prison gruel.

Many guests ask about eating the big halibut and my stock answer is to point out that while eating the sweet&sour halibut the other night, could they tell what age the fish is? The answer is always no....it's all good

Bringing those pigs up is just hard damn work but most folks can get it done. The key is to get rthym, lift the rod and reel down, no hurry, just lift and reel. The hardest fighting fish are the 90 poundish males that run around the boat and strip line. The real big fish are females and often just come up like a slab of plywood.

gotta run

Jack in Alaska · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 2:35 pm Post subject:

Send some of those big "slabs" to Alaska next season, particularly in the Cook Inlet. They seemed to have stopped short this year when coming this way.
They are great fun to catch, crank up and have a good look but we have been letting anything over 100 lbs. go back to do their thing, making babies. Laughing

breausaw · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:09 pm Post subject:

Catch 22 · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:28 pm Post subject:

i like the idea of a c-brat fishing trip somewhere....

limited two rods on coho in 2 hours today ( and that was with a few that flipped off), the way it was going i think we could have limited 4 or 5 guys, it was some of the hottest fishing in area 10 ive ever seen

B~C · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:23 am Post subject:

I think all of the big ones headed to the Elfin Cove area this summer on a sucide mission. I've been comparing notes with some other captains both to the north and the south of cross sound and they all complained of poor halibut fishing. A friend that runs a boat at sportsmans cove had the second biggest fish for the lodge with a 99 pounder. Fish and Game only gave folks one fish a day, but it was big ones for us Smile

It's good to hear the salmon fishing has been so good in the northwest. I was hoping to fire up my boat and get some done but since I got home a week ago, the spouse and I have been plum sick. I thank the coughing, snot sucking, sick swine that got on the plane in Sitka and sat next to me for that.

Brat fishing- in the spring there is a gathering in cathalmette for springers and sometimes Warrenton for sturgeon. I've fiddled with the idea of a group Elfin Cove adventure but have never made happen.