MONSTER OF THE DEEP

Salmon fishing was over. The fish hold contained four very nice king salmon.

I had the clients baited for halibut on one of my good chicken halibut areas. Chicken halibut are the nice eating size ranging from 20 to 40 pounds.
  “Fish on!” shouted one of the guys, while reeling like crazy on the bending rod.
   “Wait, wait, stop!” I shouted back, “you are snagged on the bottom.”
Sure enough,  the poor guy was just reeling on a big rock and would have worn himself out trying to land the bottom of the ocean.
 We all had a good chuckle at his expense as I fed line to the snagged bait and sinker.
I tried my best to jerk the snagged line free, but it would not give an inch.
  “We’ll give it slack and see if the ocean current will work it free… or maybe a fish will be kind enough to free it for us. Take a break and eat lunch while you wait,” I told the client.
We waited and watched. Small halibut were biting the other lines but seemed to ignore the snagged bait.
We were nearing an hour wait time on the snagged line and I was just about ready to cleat the line to the boat and break it off.
 I glanced at the snagged line and saw the pole pounding away like a halibut was on the hook.
  “Now you have a fish on, reel, reel reel!” I shouted as one of the guys raced for the throbbing rod.
Right away we could tell this was a big fish. It over powered the drag as I tightened it more and more. It was like we couldn’t pry the fish off the bottom.
 Big Ron was on the reel, a very bit guy, standing close to 6’5” tall and broad in the shoulders. If anyone could win the battle with some monster of the deep, it should be Ron.
 I had the shark hook lashed to the boat, all the halibut hooks on standby, the gaff ready, and the guys prepped should I need help bringing the fish over the rail. I was still not sure how big the fish was as it was more of a huge hanging weight than a fighting fish. We could tell it was huge, but without the fish running to the bottom again and again it was hard to really know how big.

“Ok, you’re getting close to seeing color,” I comment as big Ron kept on cranking the reel handle. I could tell he was about tuckered out.
 “Color!” I shouted, “stop reeling. Let me get the line. Wow this is a huge fish!” I shouted.
 I eased the big fish to the surface and got the shark hook into it and the battle began. The docile fish exploded in fury!
I need to bring the fish on board alive to measure it as there is a limit on the size of big fish we can keep. To keep a large halibut they need to measure over 68 inches. That weigh’s out at about 160 pounds.
The more I looked at this monster hanging on the line the more sure I was that it was certainly a keeper.
I grabbed the gaff and rapped it on the head to stun it to bring it on board
  “Everyone help!” I ordered.
Hands came from all around me to grab the shark hook line and the halibut hooks.
   “One, two, three… heave!” I begged. The big fish was not coming over the rail at all.
A huge hand came over my shoulder and big Ron grabbed the line. The massive halibut landed on the deck with a boom.
We all stood stunned. What a fish! It was huge.
 I grabbed a tape and we stretched a good honest measurement on the fish. 93 inches!
I raced in for the tide book to get a live weight on the big fish. As close as we could figure on the book weight, the monster weighted about 450 pounds.
A true monster of the deep.