Halibut on Fly's, OH MY!!!

[ajfishfinder]

Yep caught some of these boys on flys!!! I have the video tape to prove it. If anyone would like to help I would love to show it and figure out how to post it on here. :shrug:http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/medium/4678small_halibut1.JPG

[LunkerFish]

I'm not sure how to post video on ifish, :shrug: but I would love to hear how you did it. :bowdown:

You can always email to me.

[MarlinMark]

I have got to see this video. What weight rod were you using?

Mark :wink: :cheers:

[Mojo]

Fess up some details man! We're all ears...

[SilverFly]

I heard or read somewhere that under rare circumstances halibut will come up off the bottom in schools to feed on baitfish near the surface. Did you get those 'buts during such an event?

Topwater 'buts, - sounds too good to be true!

:cheers:

-SF.

[ajfishfinder]

That is pretty much what happened but we never saw the "school of baitfish". We think it was an artifical baitfish school brought on by us reeling up 4 at a time non stop. We were in 90-110 feet of water and would hook up as soon as we hit bottom. With 4 of us reeling in fish non stop we figure they must have been thinking that there were baitfish above so all came up to check it out. We were litterly surrounded for about an hour. They were hitting the boat, up on the swim step, almost into the motor well. We could pick the one we wanted to hook unless you didn't pay attention then you would be hooked up and not want to be. We even pulled them out by the tail with bare hands as they surface near the boat. Extremely WILD!!! 2 days later in the same general vicinity it happened again. This time we had come prepared with spinning gear and fly rod. Any spinner that hit the water had an instant hook up. We tossed out a streemer on a sink tip line and just watched. We could twich it away from the small ones and drag it in front of the bigger ones to get hit. Then just hang on as the line flew off the reel. Strange thing was that the first day most were in the 20-30lb range. 2 days later most were in the 30-40lb range. We were really excited when we figured out we could see if they had a derby tag. They had tagged fish worth $10 to $10,000. We never did see a tag but were ready to put the bait in front of them if we had. Oh ya, this was about 25 miles out of Homer, the first week of June. Fishing with my uncle who has been up North for 35 years and never seen anything like this. We never did catch a monster but I think this was even better!!! Grant McCombie used some of the film on a news segment. It highlighted the strange happening. He never did anything with the tape of the fly action. If I hook up with someone who can make it viewable on here, I certainly will share it.

[ajfishfinder]

One more thing to add since I know someone will coment. The reason there are 10 butts on the deck and only 4 of us fishing is lagitimate. Alaska has a proxy permit which allows a person to catch an additional limit for a senior or hadicapped person and they don't have to be present. This worked out super because we needed the freezer space of several neighbors. When we left there was no possible way to bring that much home anyhow. Served our purpose and several "old salts" got their freezers filled also.

[lilnorthfork]

AJ - I assume you have copies of their AARP cards to back up your claim. :grin: Sounds like a blast. Wonder if it wasn't one of those once in generation or two occurances. :bowdown:

[ajfishfinder]

We talked to several of the charter guys and most said they had heard of this but never seen it. We had a fun time showing the tape around the marina and local bars. My uncle also has worked nemerous years on comercial crab and long line halibut boats and never even heard of this happening.

[tailchaser]

A funny thing is, I actually have this same occurance on video from 3 years ago fishing out of Homer. It was also approx. 25-27 Miles from the basin. I don't recall if we marked the spot but I could probably pinpoint it on a chart. Unfortunately we didn't have a fly rod on hand but were catching them with anything that hit the water. All of our fish were in the 25-40# range also. Definitely a sight to see. Ours happened in the evening on our way back and we decided to fish a pinnacle and had instant fish hooked up. Same thing happened after about 10-12 fish were landed and tossed back you could look down all around the boat and see fish waiting for a morsel to hit the water. Probably 30-40 fish in all. I dreamed of having a fly rod stating not too many people have that opportunity but I'm glad someone did. Anyhow, congrats and good to hear someone else saw the same thing.

tc

[ajfishfinder]

Yep, it was 25-27 miles out, right around Flat Island. Only a 24 foot boat so that was all the further we went. Some friends were out about 5 more miles and just cooned the big boys. Everything they kept was 75-240lbs. Can't wait to save more miles for a return trip!!!