Halibut Tales...lets hear it..

wak'm&stak'm · 06-22-2002, 04:37 PM

For those of us stuck on shore this weekend, we can do nothing more than share in your sucsess.
So let us have....we can take it

Phil Layer · 06-23-2002, 08:08 AM

Towed the boat over Friday night and launched late. My newly tuned motor ran perfectly but when I tried to kick it into reverse, I discovered my linkage was frozen. I tied up and started looking for friends.

Saturday, I loaded up in Stoyjun Princess's boat with three friends and my 10 year old son. We ran to the Rockpile where she had limited the boat on Friday. We went straight to the coordinates where she had marked the scene of the massacre. We dropped down and drifted for an hour with nothing to show but a skate. Our luck changed dramatically when we radioed Pilar. A two mile boat ride and fresh bait soon found us with a triple on. One got off and one was undersized but we went back down. The next fish bit on my son's rod and he hooped and hollered til the fish was on the top. I was amazed at the expertise the little guy demonstrated! I leaned over the boat and yelled for the harpoon. The flattie heard me and went straight back down to the bottom.

This time, AJ needed a break half way up but after I reeled for 30 seconds, he demanded I give him back the rod. "I'm rested now," I heard. Up he dragged the brute and at the top, one of the crew stabbed with the poon but hit bone. He nearly lost the harpoon and bent the tip when the fb headed back down. (Thank God I had just loosened the drag). Boy, was he mad now. AJ was a little upset knowing he had to drag the fish up again. And, the but did not want to come up this time. I guess he knew what awaited him at the top.

I got a good stab with the harpoon this time and we drug the fb into the boat. AJ was still flying high five hours later. I've got a serious fisherman on my hands now.

Thanks to some more location adjustments by Pilar, Pilar's mate and Puffin, we filled the boat with our six flatties and headed back to shore. The ocean was like a pancake and we cruised all the way in at 25 knots. On shore, we weighed AJ's fish and it tipped the scales at 70 pounds. I'm guessing it was 80 before it was bled out and shrank.

Sorry for the long winded description of our trip but it was definitely the highlight of my fishing career. Is there anything better than watching your young kids wrestle a big fish? I can't stop smiling. :smile:

A huge thanks goes out to Pilar, his mate and Puffin and his crew for putting us on them. Man, those folks know how to fish.

The boat goes in the shop next week so I can head back for nooks in a couple weeks. AJ insists on it.

An awesome day on the ocean. Pics will be posted later in the week.

tailchaser · 06-23-2002, 03:34 PM

Well down here the ocean was so-so on friday so I was contemplating the venture, so we loaded both salmon and halibut gear. We hit the ocean at 6:30 and it was flat as can be so the decision was made. We averaged 30 mph on the way there and made our spot in an hour. Dropped down and immediately picked a 40 and 50 lb fish. From there it was dry for a while, so we moved about a mile and it was on! Two halibut 65 lbs, and 53 lbs were boated, 3 lings all over 20 lbs and a monster octopus that let go at the boat.

I was a little ****** though when a troller dragging his nets came within 40 yards of my boat.

He has a big ocean to go around me but he cut it pretty close and who knows how far out those nets were.

On our way back we hit an upwelling and birds and salmon galor on the surface. Three chinook later and we decided it was getting late. Pulled our three crab pots and netted 30 crabs.

Man what a day on the ocean.
I can't even imagine if it all goes away next year. :whazzup: Cherish the moment I guess.

tc

corrirod · 06-23-2002, 08:14 PM

Had an excellent day out of Newport. Hit the rockpile around 6:30 am, landed 4 chinook by 9:30am with the biggest being 30lbs. Got the hali poles out and overheard Pilar mention their coordinates so we cruised over an introduced ourselves and managed to land 2 nice flatties with the biggest going 60+lbs. Picked up the 3 pots w/12 crabs and went and watched the whales for awhile before heading back in.

What a great way to spend the day! :grin:

swampy · 06-23-2002, 08:51 PM

Thanks for the reports ....corrirod , how did you target the chinook ?

corrirod · 06-23-2002, 09:52 PM

Swampy,

Caught the chinook using downriggers set at 40 ft. for the first 2 chinook and we moved them down to 50 ft. after a dry spell and hit 2 more chinook.

Used silver litho'd triangle flashers and herring. I could give you GPS coordinates but it seems like the fish are just about everywhere at the rockpile.

OceanBlue · 06-23-2002, 11:52 PM

Glad you had a good time, Moby, and AJ's got to understand that he is completely ruined now, when it comes to Halibut fishing... I sure hope I'm wrong!

Yesterday was my first time for Kings and I'll tell you what... I don't think there's anything better... What fun! I had the great privilege of fighting 3 of them... the first, 38 pounds, Pilar's.. He let me play with it for awhile and ended up landing it because the fish decided it would be a good idea to run under the boat, around the downrigger and back again which had me really concerned. Then I had the opportunity to land 2 others. Both times I had started to doze when I caught sight of my pole bouncing in my peripheral vision. They weren't anything like John's 40" nook, but they sure were a lot of fun. Funny thing was that the second one was even more fun than the first for some reason :grin:

Pilar · 06-24-2002, 05:48 AM

What a day. We have been busy discovering the downside of fishing success. All day Sunday to recover and get the boat swamped out. I had to peel up the vinyl deck, remove the kick panels and spend $10 at the pressure wash. Oh and then butchering, smoking, freezing and giving away 7 nice fish.

Thanks to my mate the old boat no stink, no mo.

Saturday was as nice a day as you'll ever see on big blue. Flat and no wind ... oh yeah and fish dying to get in the boat. We enjoyed several firsts. My daughter bagged the big fish, her first. 43" and 40+ pounds of Halibut. Her big grin said it all. She swaggered around the docks as we cleaned the fish bragging and telling the story to any who would listen.

( I wonder where she learned to do that)

The other first was Jennifer and her first encounter with the King of Salmon. She was not overly impressed with her 1st king but the second one put on a show and smoked her reel several times. "Whooo Hoooo!" I heard over and over again.

My favorite part was the Burger King fish. Whopper, no onion and a barley pop to go! I was trying to bag the last flattie and let down a trolling sinker and a particularly ugly bait. No scales and hot from sitting on the engine cover in the sun. No spin and hooked funny. I might have even stepped on it, can't remember. Anyway I let it down about 20 feet and was seeing a flash and thinking, oh the damn thing is going to spin and WHAM! Huge purple flash and we are off to the rodeo.

I handed off to Jennifer and she decided after 30 seconds or so to give it back. We watched amazed as the chromer burned across the topwater for 100 yards like a purple torpedo making a wake and foaming the water. We played for a while and the 4/0 got a workout.

Finally the brute presented itself at the boat and got the net. I guess I did not realize how big a brute until it hit the deck. Wow! 38 pounds and a foot deep through the shoulders.

The bag for the day was 3 flat; 43", 35" & 33" , 3 shiny; 38lbs - 40 ", 20lbs & 16lbs and one toothy ling at about 15 lbs.

We really had fun getting some of the Ifishers into the fish. I tried 3 different favorite spots and settled on the one I have named "Jon's King" after my good friend 'Puffin'.

A puzzle however. What is the difference in fishing method between flat and shiny fish?

None on Saturday. 'Puffin' had a fisher on his boat, Phil, who bagged a monster Halibut at 78lbs while downrigging for Kings. They were fishing in 225 feet at 115 on the downrigger with a green spot flasher and a whole spun herring. ????????????????????

We had several Halibut take our downrigged and flashed baits at anywhere from 30 feet to 100 feet off the bottom. And had Salmon pick up bait right on the bottom.

If you want Ocean Kings go to the north end of the rockpile. They are there in large numbers and nice fish too.

[ 06-24-2002, 06:50 AM: Message edited by: Pilar ]

seasquid · 06-24-2002, 07:36 AM

We decided tp stay a extra night in Newport and fish Sunday for chinook at the pile... you all thought Saturday was calm, you should have seen it yesterday afternoon -- bright blue sun, warm, etc....I'm talking zero wind -- the kind of days you live for on the ocean.

The pile was good to us as well for the halibut -- except for the one rod that went C-R-A-C-K when Mr. big decided he wanted to go back down -- second biggest one I have ever caught, although for a while I was thinking he caught me. Time for a new rod, I'm just lucky I still managed to land him.

As hot as the chinook fishing was Saturday, they were nowhere to be found Sunday. I got in line with the commercial guys and trolled, and trolled, and trolled some more. Finally the commercial guys started yacking on the VHF how slow it was -- they eventually dispersed in different directions. We did hook some coho, most were clipped. I was marking fish right on the bottom, so we decided what the heck, send the downriggers to the bottom -- I tell you what folks there are halibut everywhere on the Pile -- what a kick -- we hooked and released halibut (some over 40") on salmon rods and salmon gear. You know how the rod tip bounces up when a salmon is hooked on a downrigger, well that doesn't happen when a halibut comes along -- thankfully we were running our drags loose. I don't know how many times we said, "dang I'm snagged on a rock, whoa .... no I'm not..."

Crabbing wasn't that great, we got nine each day north of the jetty.

Well, good luck everybody --

ss

Threemuch · 06-24-2002, 07:54 AM

Kevin Beckman and I limited threemuch on the FBs out of Garibaldi, average fish, 39" each. No salmon, but we managed 18 crab and about 20-30 small lings.

AngleThis · 06-24-2002, 01:29 PM

Way to go HogJaw! Hey I lost your email address and number...so please email them to me.

I had a killer day out of Newport too.

DC

HawgJaw · 06-24-2002, 11:03 PM

Four of us fished out of Garibaldi Friday and Saturday. 7 hali's (257 lbs), 4 lings (84 lbs) and 33 keeper crabs

. About 20 man hours of processing. Great weekend but I am beat

. HJ

OceanBlue · 06-25-2002, 08:20 PM

"Pilar's" take 6/22

John's proud catch - 38# king

Xanah's 43" halibut... her FIRST! (John's daughter)

My first kings

But caught on the Puffin that day... Tom is one fishy guy!!!

[ 06-26-2002, 03:03 PM: Message edited by: Pilar's Mate ]

BUGLEMAN · 06-25-2002, 08:36 PM

Hey John! Have you capacity tested your boat yet? Looks like you did. Nice haul!!!! :smile:

Stoyjun Princess · 06-26-2002, 04:38 PM

Went out for halibut last Friday and Saturday, thanks to Pilar and his mate we got in to some great halibut fishing, Thanks again.....Woooweee fun!!! :grin: :grin:

We limited the boat of six, got back to the docks at 3:00 in time for my husband and a friend to go out for there halibut. They gave up there seat's for Moby his friend and his 10 year old son to go out for there halibut after Moby's boat broke down. :depressed:
My husband and a friend left the docks for the plie at 3:00 and were back by 6:00 with there halibut. My husband got his 1st halibut a 60 pound 54 inch. Leroy's was a 48 pounder. What a great day of fishing that was. :tongue:

Now we are ready for the big king salmon after seeing Pilar's on Saturday, what a great fish that was.

We have only fished for Coho's not kings, Can't wait to hook into one of those big bad boy's. [img]graemlins/program.gif[/img] Pilar that picture of you with your king is great.

Stoyjun Princess · 06-26-2002, 04:46 PM

A big thanks to you Puffin, and it was nice meeting you. Hope to see you again out on the big blue. :grin:

puffins crew · 06-27-2002, 04:56 PM

http://www.ifish.net/uploads/134017177.jpg
http://www.ifish.net/uploads/014617177.jpg
My first try at pics. We had a blast on big Blue on Friday the 21st.

puffins crew · 06-27-2002, 05:01 PM

[IMG] http://www.ifish.net/uploads/134017177.jpg
[/IMG]

My first try at pics. We had a blast on big Blue on Friday the 21st.

may be this time!! LOL!!

Stoyjun Princess · 06-27-2002, 05:05 PM

Very cool pictures. :grin: