How to land a halibut

[ship 4 brains]

This may be a stupid question, but how and where do you clip the gills to bleed them out?

[Gino]

reach behind there gill plate, and grab one of the red frilly things, grab and pull hard. they will blee dout all over, but thier blood congeals so not to bad to deal with.

Is this belly shot OK?

[Siebler]

Great job on that Write up Adi.

One thing I want to point out guys that I was reminded of by Adi's post about that fish on his boat....

Halibut when they hit the deck can go NUTS. I have seen them clear the rail of sportfishing boats when my coworkers set them on the deck to get hooks out (Big no no).

Let them hang and bleed out a little bit before you pull them on deck for your own safety. These fish are all muscle and will beat you up good if given the chance.

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by yani

Is this belly shot OK?

Looks perfect!! I bet you did not even have to bleed that one as it looks like you got him right in the heart

[steveooo]

Screw Technique. All you need is luck

[erinoo]

Hell with the gaff, just harpoon the beetch..

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by erinoo

Hell with the gaff, just harpoon the beetch..

I think one of these is my next butt oriented gear purchase.


Works to subdue unruly butts of all sizes, even those that come from the web

Jim

[bassmanben]

have any of you guys ever tried to hog tie a halibut? some of the guys up here (norcal) say that's the best way to keep them from flappin around after they are landed. I havent tried it yet but will likely do it this year after a rogue hali tried to chomp my jewels off last year on the paddle in.

game clip/rope to the jaw, rope to the tail, keep them in a U shape and wrap the tail several times. then secondary clip their jaw to your boat to prevent it from jumping off.

[Stoneale]

I put my gaff through my hand a couple of weeks ago.. was not fun at all. It was really hard to paddle back in with blood everywhere. My hand still hurts too..

[Billy V]

I just whistle for them and they jump into the hatch. lol

This fish broke the Promar gaff in my right hand - then my friend Jason quickly tossed me his gaff and I stuck in again in the belly from the left side.

The game clip is On in the pic. but it wasn't easy. lol 28.5 lbs.

[Sherm]

I just gaff em....pull em into my lap.....and let them beat the crap out of me. It's fun. Nice post by the way.

[gabe]

Originally Posted by Billy V

I just whistle for them and they jump into the hatch. lol

This fish broke the Promar gaff in my right hand - then my friend Jason quickly tossed me his gaff and I stuck in again in the belly from the left side.

The game clip is On in the pic. but it wasn't easy. lol 28.5 lbs.

Billy, this pic is too funny meng

[driftwood]

Billy, that picture made me laugh belly up. One look at that picture and the blue shirts are going to scream bloody murder! That halibut picked the wrong guy to get caught.

[Billy V]

I thought it was kind of funny too.
The whole catch was completely unexpected. I was trolling a mac with 4 oz. of lead on a carolina rig.

I headed over to my friend in the middle of 8 - 10 kayaks to say Hello.
The current had died, and the mac settled on the bottom for 2 seconds.

The reel chirped, and stopped - a few seconds later it chirped again and stopped. I picked up the rod and felt a little shake like there was a sand bass nipping at the mac.

I put the rod back in the holder and continued my conversation.
Just then.... the kayak listed a little to the left and shook.

I picked up the rod again, and swung hard. Hook Up!
-It felt like there was a sheet of plywood on the other end.

When I looked over the side as I was reeling up I saw the big brown - then white flash of a Halibut and knew the fun would start soon.
----------------------------------------

The fish was hooked really good on a circle hook. It was probably my disinterest - and the fact that I allowed it all the time in the world to eat the mac and hook itself.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.

Here I am casually carrying on a conversation with the Halibut hanging over the side.

[steveooo]

Too much crotch going on in this photo Billy

Originally Posted by Billy V

Nice Fish though!

[Billy V]

Those legs could use a waxing.

[-scallywag-]

Originally Posted by Iceman

You can slip them right on the game clip or......

paddle in to the nearest beach .......or yell "GAFF!!!"

I have tried unsuccessfully to grab em by the tail

Adi, Nice new avatar...... that looks big brown and fresh!

Good thread! There's tons of big butts around ready to wreak havoc on poor unsuspecting/unprepaired yakkers like me...read this thread carefully, it may save your fish!! and when you get that big brown yak side just yell GAFF!!!!

Thanks again Driftwood for letting me borrow your gaff....I tried to collar it, i tried to pass the clip, both attempts just pissed it off and produced crazy mouth opened headshakes with slacked line ....caught on a dropperlooped greenie in 110ft....

[Iceman]

Nice Beavah!!!

warming your feet up ?!

[Whizz Bang]

Okay, I love threads like this. When I first got started with this little addiction of ours, I stumbled across a BIG fish and unknowingly pissed off more than a few guys with that new guy luck. My first post on BWE was of a 41lb butt. The first fish I had ever had to gaff myself and the second fish I had ever caught on my kayak.

Here is an excerpt from that post(I was fishing a sardine on a c rig)..."In 55ft of water my clicker made a little noise, and again I thought that the kelp fairy had visited me and my little buddy. The clicker made some more noise, this time in a decidedly unkelpish manner. I stared at my rod dumbfounded. What do I do? What is happening? What is down there, and why is it messing with me? With growing fear I pulled my rod from its holder and as the line again loaded with the weight of some surely hideous leviathon, I swung and the rod bent. Idiot! Now what?

I vaguely remembered something about reeling, maybe keep some pressure on it. The fight was all vertical with a little back and forth, when I saw color, I realized this was gonna be a bit of baptism by fire. Every article about catching halibut from a kayak that I have read, stresses the difficulty and danger. Gents, this was only my second fish on this boat, the other being a foolish 14 inch calico. I prepped my gaff, and game clip and cleared my deck, all the while praying to an assorted pantheon of lower gods, and trying to keep pressure on the butt while he was doing his head shake thing. He freaked out on me three times and on the third time up, I sunk the gaff.

Somewhere between seeing color and sinking the gaff, my forebrain shut down. This was evident after I wasted an inordinate amount of time trying to get the game clip through gills and out mouth instead of in mouth and out through gills. Twice he almost pulled me in, and I must have hit him with the billy club about a hundred times in between using my gaff to rip at his gills and soft vitals. At one point I made the very dumb move of trying to stab him in the head, and as the knife slid across his armored skull, he grinned and laughed. It was a dark laugh, an evil laugh, a graveyard laugh. My bladder loosened, and the world swam before my eyes. This was it, he was gonna win. He was gonna take me down there with him to stay, forever and ever with all the little fishees.

My thoughts turned to my wife and family. What were they going to do without me? I had to live! With new found resolve, I rallied, and the rest became a blur. From the little I remember, there was a lot of screaming and flailing about. There was certainly alot of splashing. At one point I believe there may have even been a small fire. Some kindly passerby must have motored over and put it out."

Anyways, that is the way I remember it.