Back to Back Buts at Newport

[Bosowejb]

Went out last Saturday (4/4) and picked up my first ever halibut on a rockfish rig while dropping on what I thought was a rock pile. I was apparently reading my FF wrong because this guy came up. Red and white bucktail with a whole dead squid did the trick. Came in at 30" and weighed in at 11.5 lb. on my old, rusty spring scale.






Came back Yesterday and made an upgrade from my first halibut. Same story...I was dropping on a rockfish spot I had with a couple of bucktail jigs on dropper loops and he slammed it 5 seconds after hitting bottom. Chose the green and yellow this time. I only had a small strip of squid but apparently it was enough to entice him to come on over. Taped up at a tad over 40" and weighed what I'll conservatively call 26 lbs. I started lifting him on my old, rusty scale and before I got his tail up off the table my scale broke at 26 lbs. The hook that you put under the gill plate got yanked out! So he probably weighed more like 27 or 28.





I have been fishing for 10 years and within 6 days of one another I catch my first 2 halibut, quality fish at that. Completely coincidental on both instances. Funny how that works.

I could get used to getting these halibut! They taste real good.

(Blackened with avocado and Parmesan to top it off. Highly recommend!)

Also that day, my cousin caught a short ling which was kind of cool to see out there.


Other than that, we picked at the usual rockfish and sculpin. Never got limits but enough for some tacos.