After dropping the anchor in 550 feet I cleaned the salmon to get the guts and gills for fresh halibut bait.
I grabbed as much bait on the big twelve ott circle hook as it would hold.
"Once that gets on the bottom the big flatties should come running. No good self respecting halibut could turn down a meal like that," I encouraged the client.
"Is there really a bottom here," I heard him say quite some time later, as his bait and sinker still plummeted towards the sea floor deep below.
At last his line bottomed out and went slack.
"Give it four or five cranks up off the bottom, "I instructed, watching as he cranked the slack out of the line. The bait and sinker were hanging nicely.
"Ok, sit back and watch for the tap on the tip of the rod," I said.
We sat eating cookies and visiting for a while.
First came the rock fish. We landed some nice yellow eyes and a tiger rock fish. Off to a good start.
The first halibut up was a small one. It was legal but not what I was looking for. "Are you sure?" questioned the client as I tossed the small halibut overboard.
"No guarantees, but I think we can do better than that," I replied.
The client's rod slammed in a hard bend, "Get it, crank like crazy!" I cheered him on. He was cranking like crazy.
"OK, slow down and pace yourself," I instructed, "You have a long, long way to go."
The big fish really fought, but finally we managed to bring it on board. It weighed a nice 108 pounds. Not one we could keep but a very nice fish.
"That is the largest fish I've ever caught," the client told me as we snapped several photo's. I tossed the big fish over the side and watched him blast towards the bottom as soon as he touched the water.
We baited the hook and sent it back to the bottom.
In just a short while the rod once again bowed towards the ocean surface.
"Fish on!"
After another long battle on already burning arm muscles another huge halibut head broke the surface. It was a monster!
I shark hooked it and then asked the client to grab a hook and help. Together we huffed and puffed and muscled the big fish on board.
It was larger than I had thought.
"This is definitely a keeper," I said looking at my measurements on my boat deck. We needed the big fish to be longer than 68 inches.
This one stretched to 70.5 inches! A true monster.
Looking at the tide book measurement chart, the big fish looks to be about 180 pounds.
"I can't believe it," the client kept saying over and over, while staring at the huge fish laying on deck.
We packed up the boat and headed for town. Once we hit calm water we paused for some nice pictures.
What a day, and what a great fish.
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