3 Halibut off Tillamook on Friday_Louie-Louie

[craigc]

We brought in 3 halibut on Friday morning; A 56#, a 34, and a 17#. The weather turned out to be pretty good, and Jake showed us how to tie down the herring to the rig, so the halibut wouldn't suck the bait off our hooks.

I must say, there is nothing more adreline pumping than to have a pull on your line 800 feet down, to free spool your line for a couple seconds and then to set the hook... That pull back of the halibut is tremendous, as though your rig is stuck on the bottom, but shakes periodically...... we had a great day..

This is the 56# halibut caught by Jake,


Lou caught a 34# halibut,


and I don't know why one of us didn't think of throwing back this barely legal one, and have me just try for another fish,


I guess it was because it was our first fish caught for the day and my first halibut ever... It seemed the more fish we caught, the size of the fish kept growing larger.... Cheers to all, safety is first, and I'll have the story posting over the next couple of days at

http://www.geocities.com/crcfishing10/index.html

Craig

[Pilar]

You're the man!

Great post Craig. You kept that fish because the rule is to retain the first over 32" Halibut and you follow the rules.

Is that Garibaldi reef as small a spot as I have heard? I would like to try it someday but not this year, I am tagged out on Halibut.

[RKB]

Nice fish guys.

John are you going to be at Bouy 10 this year hope to see you there.We will be there on the 7th to the 13th hope the fishing picks up.

Good luck and good fishing.Ron

[Salmonator]

800' :shocked: Will 3 oz. keep you on the bottom there because that is all I think I'd want to reel up from that deep! :grin:

[craigc]

Thanks Ron & John... John, you're absolutely right about keeping the fish... it's too early in the morning for me to think properly yet... I know it was Jake that was the one that insisted that we were to keep the fish, while I was noting how we may be poaching the young... [ The halibut doesn't appear to have a swim bladder that could hurt the fish after an accent, so I'm curious about the intention on the law that fish over 32" have to be kept. Can someone educate me on this issue ?? ]

As to how large the fishing area is, it's hard for me to say... after you get to the site by the time we were there, there's already a crowd of people there to sort of define the area.... we had the herd mentality in mind on where we decided to fish... we first fished the south east side of the group.. then after we talked to Kurt Bergner [ threemuch ], we then moved to the south side of the group. My guest-a-mite would be to say the area is about a square nautical mile in size. People fish until they seem to drift down wind and out of the pack of boats, then head back into the pack again. The Louie-Louie doesn't have the power to burn down 800 feet to reach the bottom, so we're blind on the actual terrain beneath us, and the actual depth. So, I'm guessing on the 800 feet.

John, I hope you fish the area the next time you have the opportunity... It's a shorter drive for you and it seems to produce some good sized fish. I'd guess we had 1/3 the number of boats out this on Friday, as compared to the first day of the season... let's say about 30 to 50 boats, it didn't seem like a lot out there.. so I guess there's a lot of room to fish in.. so, congrats of filling out your tag, and wish you the best of luck on next year's halibut fishing..

[craigc]

Salmonator... you're close to right.... actually, I found pulling up a 2 weight is a moderate pain at 800 feet. Pulling up 4 pounds of dead weight is a real pain, and hard work.... When I initially started pulling on the 56# halibut, the dead weight felt like a 4 pound ball, with a lot of enertia... meaning, it took some effort to get the fish off the ground, but it got easier during the accent.. as Lou put it Friday.. the fun part of catching a halibut is at the beginning and the end of the experience.... the middle part is all work.... I hope you have the opportunity to fish for halibut safely. Cheers, Craig

[Hummingbird]

Good going Craig,
I was on the Sundance out of Garibaldi on Friday. There were six of us in all . We all got our Hali's 471/2", 43", 40", 39", 36" and a 33". We also got 3 lings. Most were 40 or over with one a little under 40". Long day and it took a while to get into them. But well worth the Trip.
Saturday,we fished outside twin rocks for bottom fish for about a half hour with out a single bite. We were using Shrimp flies. We then went for Chinook further out and a bit South. We also were fishing down about 25 and 30 pulls. I got one Coho and released it unharmed. We couldn't buy a bite for about an Hour more. I decided to try 60 pulls and still nothing. I reeled in about 8 to 10 feet and BANG!!! Fish on and deep. I let him thump the rod a bit wich was nearly hitting the water and started bringing him in . I got him just about in and my line went loose. Reeled in and the leader had broken about a foot below the flasher. !@^&*#*. 20 lb. leader. . I asked my friend if we could start going to 30# now that coho is over for now.
We are going to be trying that next week-end. We did get 14 crabs on the way back in and another 10 Sunday morning. mmmmm GOOD!!!
Tight Lines , Tom

[craigc]

Hi Tom, Congrats on your catch... It's always nice to bring something home for such an adventure so far into the briny blue..

Q: How deep is it out at the Halibut grounds ? Our depth finder can't go that deep, and I was guessing at ~800 feet.

Q: Do you have an opinion on where to fish for halibut, relative to the group of boats that gather out there ? or is it a crap shot on fishing sandy bottom vs. rocky ??

We didn't do any better trying to catch salmon... after catching our limit on Halibut, we were jazzed and excited to limit out on any other kind of fish in the ocean... unfortunately, time moves so quickly when you're having fun and we had to head back to Nehalem by mid-afternoon.

Cheers, Craig