First PC Halibut

 I took some time off work to fish PC for the first time August 8th-10th. Friday I fished with Lauren (Captain Redbeard) and his wife Christine, they showed me some good spots. Sat I didn't catch any crab or fish. Sunday was a little rough but it was my last day to fish so I was going to make the best of it. and I am glad I did. I was fishing off the bottom for lingcod and cabezon when I finally hooked something big. When I got it up to the kayak the first time, I was so excited to see it was a halibut. After several times running back to the bottom and finally landing him, I was beat. Getting a kayak opened up so many fishing opportunities!

I forgot to say how big he was. 42" and around 35lbs.

Wow, well done, sweet fish!

Nice!!

Awesome fish.

Hell yeah!!!

*high five*

Super nice!! How far out did you have to go?

That's awesome - nice catch!

I ran into Don there at PC on Sunday. He was going bottom fishing while I was trolling for coho, so I didn't see him until he was packing up on shore. I was going to walk on down and see how he had done, but we got caught up talking to the fish checker and he drove on up and casually inquired how we had done. Don made the usual polite responses to our show of 1 coho and 3 blacks (caught while trolling), and so I asked him how he had done and reaches into the back of his truck and with a bit of struggle lifts up this freaking halibut!

Talking to Don that morning, I learned that he was new to ocean fishing, and that he was not planning on catching a halibut, although he had checked the regs and knew it was legal. I bow down to him for figuring out how to kill and boat it given his experience level and lack of gaff or harpoon. He did a great job. I was glad I was there to (sort of) witness it. He also did a really nice job of cutting it up - I saw several nice fillets, and really clean carcass...

Thank you all for the compliments. Next time I will be better equipped for a fish like this. It has been quite a year so far for fishing, and I learned most of it on this forum. It is great for a beginner kayak fisherman to have all the advice from every one this group.

*high five*

Super nice!! How far out did you have to go?

I was just North of Haystack rock.

Very nice,  congrats.

 Nice job! Halibut are not uncommon on the reef but they have been the past few years. we have hit two in the dory one for sixty pounds. Just cannot imagine that in my kayak.

 

Nice!
I was fishing PC on Friday and the ODFW fish checker asked if anyone ever catches Halibut from a kayak.

willbd

Nice job! Halibut are not uncommon on the reef but they have been the past few years. we have hit two in the dory one for sixty pounds. Just cannot imagine that in my kayak.

Hey look who it is!