Halibut Harpooning Questions...

[blubeast]

After loosing a big one last weekend due to lack of proper equipment (ie...NO HARPOON)... with Threemuch's help that problem is now fixed. (Thanks again Kurt!)

So where do you insert the harpoon? behind the gills into the body or someplace else?

I've also read some tie the rope off to a cleat, others toss floats attached to the point. With the floats, if the fish goes to the bottom, and floats go down too... how long do you have to wait?

Once the floats come back up... if the fish is still alive... what next?

As always, thanks in advance for your replies.

[Mello-Yello]

My preference for poon location is high in the stomach, directly behind the gills. The ribs are thick here and the poon tip shouldn't pull through. Also, this tends to force the fish into a circular motion if it tries to swim away, thus relieving a lot of pull on your rope.

To answer your question on how long you would have to wait if a butt takes your float (you shoulda known this was coming). Until it comes back up.... :grin: I prefer the inflatable floats, about 18" in diameter. It would take a big butt to pull this down, and even then, he's fighting against the buoyancy. He'll tire quickly.

On all but the biggest butts, a rope tied to a sturdy cleat should suffice. Some folks attach a heavy snubber to the rope to absorb the shock should the rope go tight.

When you go to harpoon Mr. Big, hold the poon tip mere inches from where you want it to go, then drive it home w/everything you've got. Then just as quickly, pull the handle back out. This isn't spear chucking, and you want your aim to be dead-on.

A couple times and you'll have it down.

M-Y

[Threemuch]

After seeing Popeye's son's 90 pounder break the cable on the point, for a fish over 50 pounds, I am going to let him run with some floats attached. Two crab floats is 16 pounds of floatation (at the surface, the foam will compress some at depth), which doesn't sound like much, but it alot of pressure on the fish. 16 pounds of drag on a rod and reel is alot. So he is still hooked, and has the harpoon through him, so he should be getting tired quickly.

As to where to stick, I will defer to those more experienced than I. I have heard gut sack, I have heard shoulder. Gill plate is too hard. I think I will try gutsack, saves the meat and you will probably hit something vital.. Last time I tried to harpoon on ray's boat, I went for the spine and busted his harpoon.

Dale, let me know if you are having trouble mounting the shaft in a handle, I have some good ideas on how to do that, cheap.

Kurt

[blubeast]

Kurt, thanks for the offer... already got it mounted in a 5' oak handle.... will send you a pic.... now anxious to give it a try... thanks again for your help.

[Thumper]

Question here from a total dummy. I have only halibut fished in Alaska. On the little ones they gaff 'em and bring them into the boat. The big ones they shoot and gaff.

Why is that technique not popular here?

[stick flicker]

I aim for just above the gut in the center of the fish. I tie the rope off to the cleat on the back with 10 ft. of extra rope.
As far as doing it "Ahab" stlye, you just have to be patient and wait for the right shot to present itself and then stick.
I had to release I estimated an 60" Halibut after it bit a lingcod jig on the rockpile. The fish was brought to the surface 3 diffent times, each time I saw it all I could do is look in awe. Hope I get to visit that spot again soon. Good luck and happy harpooning.

[ 08-17-2003, 08:19 PM: Message edited by: stick flicker ]

[TideRipper]

I have been wondering the same thing as Thumper. Why bother messing with a harpoon, rope, and floats, when you could just shoot it in the head?
Seems like more gear to get tangled with your line. Besides, with all the sharks I've had hanging around my boat lately, I would rather dispatch the fish as quickly as possible and then gaff it up over the side.

Note: Shoot the fish BEFORE you bring it in the boat! :grin:

[Popeye]

Actually Kurt, that was a freak thing with the cable on the point breaking. Evidently there had been chafing goin' on that I hadn't noticed. The fact of the matter is that I've never lost a "well stuck" halibut. I've lost them by accidently hitting the backbone and bouncing off, but with the new poon, it has enough weight behind it to penetrate. Also, I've never used floats, never even heard of doing that until I read it here. My procedure is to stick 'em, hand the poon stick off (holding the rope in my left hand) and immediately yard 'em up over the swim step, and through the gate. The tag end is always attached to a cleat. I use to shoot them, many years ago (got lotsa stories too!) Also, I believe it's illegal to shoot anything other than shotshells over the water (or should be if it's not) still, there's just soooo many bad things that can happen with a firearm and a boat

[Phil Layer]

Leave the guns at home. This is fishin', not huntin'.

My understanding is Alaskan's gaff anything under 50; harpoon anything over 50 and shoot anything over 100. In the last three years, I've heard of three Oregon halibut bigger than 100 and two of those were successfully harpooned without shooting. Your odds of losing a fish because you didn't shoot it are very slim in Oregon, if you harpoon them correctly.

For me, the ticket is an anchor pulling buoy 25 feet behind the poon tip. Then 75 feet behind that, I tie off to the cleat. The buoy will slow him down so that he can't pull the tip through him. Also, loosen the drag on your reel just before you stick him but be prepared for a real mess with the line/harpoon rope when you bring him to the boat.

[ 08-18-2003, 08:08 AM: Message edited by: Phil Layer ]

[Thumper]

Seems like a lot of trouble. Pow. Done deal.

[Mr. Fisherman]

I agree with Popeye, leave the guns at home. It is often hard enough to just stand up in a pitching sea without Waldo with his finger on the trigger trying to help out. I have heard of at least one boat per year going down due to a gunshot hole to the hull :shocked: , whether intentional or not. I don't like to hear shots go off when I am out there. The odds are not very good. .22 or hand gun bullets can and will ricochet (sp) and the benefit of killing the fish just isn't worth even a remote chance of accidentally sinking a boat or wounding/killing a person.
Just tuff up and get the fish in the boat.
There was a device posted that allowed you to push a rope through the gills and out the mouth of a large Halibut so you can "hog tie" them tail to mouth to keep them from flopping around causing damage to gear and people. Combine that with a Harpoon and a couple of gaffs and there should be little trouble with the majority of fish we will encounter here in Oregon, IMHO

I like to take my shot above the belly and near or in the lateral line (spine) I really drive the point in and pull out the poon as quick as it bottoms out. I use a float and about 20 feet of rope. Make sure the line is clear and everything is out of the way of the float when it takes off. I use a bucket for this. I have the angler leave the drag alone. Once a drag is set I let the reel do the work, increasing the drag has led to too many lost fish. I like letting the equipment work the fish.

I by no means have the most experience on this forum but I have had a pretty successful season. I'm gonna keep on keeping on. Now if only I had one of those super harpoons that Threemuch is peddling instead of my innovatively engineered somewhat proven model....

[Hellibut]

I had hoped my first post I could offer something helpful so will try to do so. I’ve had considerable experience both in gaffing and in spearing Halibut in Alaska. The reason I have the experience in spearing, is gaffing a 214 lb halibut and bringing it over the side of the boat will always be a memorable experience but with the bruised, bleeding knuckles, arm disjointed, not to mention the fish nearly coming down on top of me, was not one I wanted to have again, thus came the spear. Several very good points have already been made; be patient and drive the spear in right at the base of the head dead center in the fish. Last time out of Newport we nearly lost a 45 lb’er when the spear went in a couple inches behind the head and off center (my fault for forgetting patience). Amazingly it ripped nearly completely through the meat and out the side before we could get a gaff in. I have always tied the line off to a cleat on the boat. As far as shooting them, it won’t happen in my boat for all the reasons already mentioned. Each to their own but it’s just not necessary. Also it’s not a bad idea to warn folks that haven’t experienced a halibut in the boat about the acrobatics they can perform on your body if you happen to get in the way.

Put the steel into the head, preferably just below and behind the eyes. If your harpoon is light use plenty of muscle. If your harpoon is well built like Popeye's just let it go over the fish :grin: and the harpoon will do the work of punching through bone!

Body shots will rip out and you can loose the fish :depressed:

Bring the butt to just below the surface and hit it hard with the harpoon, dont let it's head come out of the water. Have the harpoon attached to a float if you have a big butt. Come to think about, it even if you're slim and have a larger halibut, the float is a good idea anyway.

In Alaska we always shot the bigger ones we were going to keep, 60lb or smaller. We weren't dealing with crouded conditions or rough water.
We also harpooned them before we shot them. I had one shot badly that tailwalked accross the water for 30' and then went to the bottom to die.

[ 08-18-2003, 11:39 AM: Message edited by: Keta ]

[Mr. Fisherman]

Keta, you "Crack" me up [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

Hellibut, Tradition requires a story... How about the one where you got sore armed... It might even be on topic... Welcome to the board.

Critr,
22LR is more than enough and the muzzle blast bouncing off the water at close range is bad enough with the 22. I wouldn't recomend shooting halibut off of the Oregon coast.

[Hellibut]

Not to be one to break tradition let me expound on my gaffing experience. Every couple years I make a trip to Kodiak to visit with family and do a little fishing, fishing, fishing. On previous trips we caught plenty of Halibut in the 30# to 100# range, all of which we gaffed, but nothing really big. This year we broke out the charts and looked for some places that we thought may be good spots. The two spots we chose were both rock piles that we named Ginger and Mary Ann, (one was bigger than the other). We fished Ginger (10 fathoms) for a couple hours with nothing so went to Mary Ann. The first thing we noticed was there were hundreds of black bass. The top of the rock pile was about 6 fathoms. We fished this for about an hour with nothing. My 14 year old nephew got impatient and broke out his salmon rod and started catching black bass. After about 15 minutes of this he suddenly yelled, LOOK, LOOK! As we looked over, the black bass he has on comes out of the water with a HUGE halibut right behind it. Within minutes I had fish on and after many, many, minutes had him up where we could see how big he was. We had no choice as to what to pull him in the boat with, as all we had was gaffs. The big question was, do we really want him in the boat, and if so, do we want to be in here with him. The fish came out of the water perfectly and my brother and nephew were both able to sink a gaff in and get him part way out of the water, but only part way. I threw down my pole grabbed another gaff and sank it in. I’m not sure at that point who had who as that fish turned all of us every way but loose. For what seemed like minutes that fish thrashed the water into foam finally coming over the side knocking my nephew and I both down and nearly landing on top of us. It was the experience of a lifetime but it was then I decided a harpoon was going to the top of my shopping list. It's not quite the fun but a bit safer on the big ones.
As a side note, and I don’t know if there’s anything to it, but I have since fished Mary Ann 8 times catching several in the 150 lb range. Only 1 out of 8 times did we catch a single Halibut until we dropped a salmon rod and started catching black bass. I don’t know if this got the Halibut stirred up or what but it sure seemed to do the trick.
Thank you for allowing me to be part of your forum.

[Phil Layer]

Great story, Hellibut. Thanks. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

Now, can you share the coordinates for those two rockpiles?

[corrirod]

NO GUNS!

I don't feel like getting shot while I'm trying to enjoy my fishing.

This is not a lake, this is the Pacific Ocean where 6-10 ft. seas are the norm. People have accidents on LAND, putting them on a rocking boat isn't going to help.

Harpoon and/or gaff is all you need. I prefer to harpoon them simply becuase it starts the bleeding process and it kills them faster. Last thing I want is a 70 lb. hali flopping around breaking everything in the boat, including human appendages. I made my newest harpoon for around $15 so they aren't cost prohibitive.

I stab them right behind the eyes as Keta does. Once their poked you can tie them to the cleat with their head right at the surface and they won't be able to go anywhere. They will however put on quite a splash show after they realize what just happened. :shocked:

I am a gun owner and believe in everyone's right to carry a gun however the Pacific Ocean is not the right place. I've considered carrying a gun just to scare away the sea lions that follow my dory but the risks are just too high. If I do decide to carry a gun onboard it will be loaded with blanks.

[ 08-18-2003, 04:12 PM: Message edited by: corrirod ]

[Critr Gitr]

big fish - bigger gun ... boom!!! case closed.....