A Halibut Adventure

8/7/2010

Well, I finally got a few "official" days off. August 6-8! I slept in, read, worked on a crew & personal digital scrapbook of this year at Yes Bay, got some fishing time in and went to Bailey Bay hiking. It was wonderful to not have anything to worry about. (Then again, the lodge was empty of guests for three days, so everyone was kind of bumming).

On my second day off, I got to go Halibut fishing with a couple of guides: Kicker and Batman. (those are their call names. The guide with me is Kicker.) We went out around 9:30 (we had to sleep in, of course!). We went to Belle Island, to a spot they've dubbed "the corral." It was pretty windy and thus wavy, so I was glad when we finally found calm water. (I was putting the Bownine and Wrist bands to the test with me and my motion sickness!)

After a couple of hours jigging for Halibut I got a bite..... Then, I (expertly) set the hook, and reeled....and reeled....and reeled.....I was hooting and hollering a lot too (I'm sure the other lodge boats around the area could hear me loud and clear without the radio)...and then reeled some more. Finally, we could see my catch - a halibut!! (After all, you just never know what you are going to pull up out of the deep - especially at 308 feet of water!) After that Kicker harpooned it, and it took off again trying to swim away. Eventually, Kicker used a gaf-hook to get it half in the boat. Then I got to beat the sh&*t out of it with Kicker's little bat/fish beater. (I almost popped out one of the eyeballs!). However, Kicker decided I wasn't hitting it hard enough and took over for me. Guess my arms were just too tired. Then we finally got it in the boat and into the box. Phew!

After that it started to rain, and since I felt bad keeping the guides out in bad weather on their day off, we decided to call it a day and come back to the lodge.

When we got it back, we had it weighed before processing it & also took the picture that is attached. I couldn't believe that it was 51.5 lbs! That is, hands-down, the biggest fish I've ever caught!

Hope you enjoy the photos...more to come!

Love - Sharon