Everyone knows that fish stories sometimes blossom over time. We have endeavored to bring you the freshest, most amazing stories possible. A few of these stories may not involve fishing with a fly, so do not be offended. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent!
A True Halibut Story
My parents, family, and I were fishing for salmon and dolly varden in a protected cove to the east of Columbia Glacier in Prince William Sound. This cove is somewhat famous for its run of red salmon that spawn in its creeks. We had had a successful day, especially catching dollies. (Dolly varden are a lot of fun to catch on flies, and they can get over 5 pounds in weight.) We saved eight dolly heads and tails for future bait.
That evening we cruised out to the entrance area of the cove to anchor for the night. We ate a delicious dinner of salmon and dolly varden, and then decided to set out a line to catch a halibut. The boat was a comfortable 32 foot, double-cabin cruiser. We rigged up a set line with a large circle hook, plenty of weight, and several dolly heads as bait. We were in 10 fathoms of water; 60 feet. We went to sleep at about 11:30 pm after playing cards for several hours. At 1:00 am it happened.
My dad was yelling for me to get up.......he said I had a fish on the set line. You never know what you're going to get when you drop your hook into Alaska's waters. Cod, sharks, wolf eels, ling cod, rockfish, salmon, halibut, skates, and starfish are some of the creatures that cruise around looking for an easy meal. Despite fishing in the Valdez area for more that 20 years, I had never caught a halibut of more than 50 pounds. An overnight set is usually not successful: you're more likely to catch a starfish than a halibut. I hopped out of bed and manned the rod. As soon as I settled in for the fight I knew I had a sizeable fish, hopefully a tasty halibut.
The fight dragged on past 15 minutes. I was having trouble reeling in this strong fish. I looked down at my reel; I was losing the battle. We estimated the fish had taken out 150 yards of 100 pound test dacron line. The fish was now almost 500 feet from the boat! We cranked down the drag, hoping the line wouldn't snap under the pressure. My arms began to knot up from the fight. The gnats were munching on my unprotected face and arms. At the 30 minute mark we had the fish under the boat again, it was time to see what we had. I regained my strength and began to crank the fish straight up from the bottom.
My dad readied the gaff, gun, and deck of the boat in case the fish was big. Five minutes later we saw what we had, a very large halibut. My dad speared and shot the fish when I reeled it up to the side of the boat. The fish thrashed violently for a minute while we held on. We pulled the fish head out of the water and tied the tail to the boat's davit. (The fish proceeded to bang into the side of the boat all night!) We congratulated each other for our success and speculated on the size of the fish. It was hard to tell exactly how large it was because of the refraction of light in the water. We decided to bring the fish aboard later that morning, after it had expired. Flush with success, I put down another set with dolly varden heads as bait, and went back to bed.
A couple of hours later we heard the characteristic clicking sound of a drag being pulled out. I hopped out of bed and we proceeded to fight another fish. This fish didn't feel as big, and it proved to be another halibut of medium size. It took us about 10 minutes to get this flatfish to the gaff. We were exhausted. We had been up all night fighting big fish. I couldn't wait to measure them in the morning. We decided not to put down another line, we was greatly concerned we might catch another halibut and not have any room on the boat. We went back to bed knowing we wouldn't be rudely awakened by a giant flatfish.
After breakfast we hooked the tail of the bigger fish to the davit and pulled it aboard. It slapped down on the deck and we awestuck. It extended across the deck, and in its mouth was a circle hook with 10 inches of snapped-off 80 pound test dacron line. Someone else had hooked this fish and could not get it to the boat! We proceed to measure this monster; it was 76 inches long and 36 inches wide, the size of a door! Halibut aren't usually weighed, unless you're entering them in a contest. Valdez does have an annual halibut derby each year, with the winning fish in the 230-280 pound range most years. We pulled out the inch-weight chart and found the fish weighed 238 pounds! We took pictures and filleted the fish into four dozen packages. We then pulled the other fish aboard and measured it at exactly 60 inches. It weighed 110 pounds according to halibut chart. It resulted in another two dozen packages. We iced down the fillets and sat back to reflect on what had just happened.
We had caught 350 pounds of fish in several hours. The two fish would provide enough meals for two familes for a year. (After giving away many packages to friends and family.) I could now claim to have caught two large halibut, after fishing for years and catching only smaller fish. The fish were caught in only 10 fathoms of water, not in the 25-50 you would expect to find large fish. The fish had broken off someone else and the evidence (a slightly rusted circle hook) was still in his lip. Dolly varden heads were the bait that drew these two giants; it was the first time we had ever used dollies as bait. All in all it was an amazing night! We found out later that the larger fish would have won that year's Valdez Halibut Derby, and a prize of $10,000.00. Of course, we didn't have a ticket! Story submitted by Bill Ernst
This Page was last modified on November 22, 2004
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