"Should be a nice day," I commented to the clients as I motored the boat towards the Cape.
Surprise! The wind was much more than the fifteen knot predicted. I had two women on board and I try to take it easy on them
I don't mind beating the guys up a little, but just having the ladies come out fishing is always something to treasure.
We made our first pass for salmon and boated eight nice silver salmon. I put the troll gear on deck and motored into the building waves, crashing our way back up to the starting point. Our next pass had just as many gleaming silvers in the fish hold.
The wind was blowing a good twenty knots and the waves were trying their best to jump into the boat as we trolled.
One of the ladies became very seasick. It was time to make a decision.
"Reel them in," I said, "We are making a move."
Not much whimpering from the others, as we figured we could easily finish our twenty four fish limit on a different part of the ocean.
I made a long run into the building seas to get tucked behind Biorka Island.
Ah, calm water, now to find some fish. We trolled and trolled to find just one keeper king salmon.
"If you guys want halibut, we'd best get out there right now. It looks like the wind had dropped off a bit," I commented to the group.
I asked the lady who had been sick if she was up for another go at the ocean. "You bet," she said, "Don't give up on the fish for my sake."
We bounced our way out of the channel and to the closest halibut spot I had. I dropped the hook in a nice rolling swell. The wind had dropped enough to make it a very fishable day.
We caught a couple of rock fish and a small keeper halibut. One client kept saying he wanted to see a 200 pound halibut.
I joked with him that I didn't want to hurt my back on a big fish today.
"Fish on!" shouted the client as his rod bent double with the surge of a big fish.
"Wait, you might be snagged on bottom," I said as I raced to his rod to make sure he was not snagged. His rod throbbed with the surge of a monster halibut.
"You've got a good one on, keep reeling," I coached.
It was like the big fish was glued to the bottom. Each time the client would get a few feet of line on the reel the big fish would race right back to the bottom.
"Keep working it. Eventually you will get him off the bottom," I encouraged.
After quite some time the big fish began haning on the line and not fighting to get to the bottom. Now we had a chance.
I prepared the deck for a big fish, all the time thinking it would be just over 100 pounds. We are not allowed to keep a halibut unless it is over 68 inches which books out at a whopping 160 pounds.
At about one hundred feet to go, the big fish just refused to come any higher in the water. The client would reel as the boat lowered on the swell but the line would just strip off the drag when the boat bounced back up the swell.
"Only big halibut will hold you like this at a hundred feet," I told the client. I grabbed the line with my gloved hand to assist.
As the boat surged up the swell I would pinch the line as hard as I felt I could without snapping it. The client would reel in the slack and we would gain just inches at a time. Slowly we worked the big fish past that one hundred foot mark.
"Color over here!" Shouted another client on the other side of the boat. He had been working on a smaller halibut so I had put all my attention on the big fish.
I raced to the rail on the far side of the boat to see a nice forty pound halibut hanging in the water.
I gaffed the fish on board just to hear, "Fish up! Wow, it's huge!"
"Stop reeling! Keep it under water! Don't let its nose break the surface," I franticly screamed as I tossed the smaller fish into the fish hold to get the deck clear.
I raced to the rail to see a huge halibut hanging just below the surface.
"Oh my goodness, that's a monster fish!" I shouted.
Slowly I eased the big fish to the surface and got a large shark hook into its lower jaw. The monster went crazy. I dug in for the fight and just held on until the big fish tired out.
Now it was up to us three men to get the halibut into the boat. The three of us grabbed the shark hook rope and began pulling
"Give it all you've got!" I shouted as we grunted the big fish into the boat.
The fish landed on the deck and everyone raced for cover. What a monster.
We grabbed a tape and measured the fish. It was 83 inches long and booked out at an amazing 312 pounds.
What a great fish on a storm tossed day.
On the ride home I told the lady who had been sick that she was the one who truely earned that fish. If she had not wanted to go back out into the waves for one more try, I would have just been happy to fish salmon in the calm waters the rest of the day.
What a great fish to end my season with.
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