Quote:
Originally Posted by Sea Jypzee
Welcome Gilly! It's custom for the newcomers here to tell a fish story as introduction. :lurk:
There's a great bunch of people around the Salty Dogs here. Always something new to learn, and lots of great fish to catch out on the salt.
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I'm not one to break custom, I'l see what I got.
I grew up fishing the Puget sound region, both salt and rivers, for Salmon and Steelhead. My passion became my occupation about 13 years ago. I started guiding in Alaska at the age of 18, for Mission Lodge on lake Aleknagik. I spent 10 summers guiding in the Bristol bay and Alaska peninsula/ Katmai National park areas for Alaska West, and Rapids Camp Lodge. As well as guiding in the winter on the Olympic Peninsula. 3 years ago my wife and I were able to purchase a 6 pack Salmon charter license and I started running daily Salmon charters out of Bainbridge Island and Ballard.
Here comes a fish story,
This all took place in a little harbour on Shellikoff strait, between Kodiak Island and the Alaska peninsula.
I use to run a small Charter boat out of Geographic Harbour on the Alaska Peninsula. The harbour had abundant marine life, Humpback, grey, Finn ,Beluka,, and orca whales were all present at one time or another. Geographic harbour is an Archipelago of small Islands, with little coves and passages throughout. Outside this gorgeouse wate lies the formidable Shelikoff Strait.
The Harbour was channeled by deep canyons 400ft and dropping out into the 1000 plus feet out in the Strait. For the most part we targeted the Halibut in 15-50' of water, with lite tackle and sometimes flyfishing for them. It was unbelievable fishing fo 15-80lb halibut. One day I decided to move out to a spot that looked very enticing as the bottom dropped away into a very deep canyon. We loaded up are heavy rods with 14"b2 squid and dropped them down to a 150' plateu. I remember one of my guests asking how big do these get? Just then I saw his head thrash back and forth like someone had him by the collar! He would gain a little line and then the fish would take it back and head for the Abyss. Well 45 minutes or so later we had this up to the boat, It was a heck of a fish, 74" 209lbs. We ended up killing it, I would never kill a halibut this big, but it was bleeding bad and the customer really wanted it. After recovering, he dropped his line back down and it happened again. This fish was in the 250lb range, we let it go, and judged the size by the fish we were dragging.
I have included some pics that are from the day.
These were the two largest halilbut I have ever personally scene.
Cheers,
Matt
Ahoy!
Sea Jypzee
WELCOME to ifish
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