Halibut Happy Dance

I did some trolling for an early chinook but took a break to bump the bottom with a jig in about 50' of water where I thought there might be a lingcod or two, I was using my Rock/Lingcod medium spinning rig with 30# braid and then 20# leader.  I got the GoPro running not long after hooking it and long before I figured out what the heck was on the line.

it ended up being a California Halibut: 43", 36# (at home after bleeding)

after first netting attempt (3m40s) I realized it was too big for my 'chinook' net so I deployed my harpoon (graphite/steel golf shaft with speargun tip connected to a crab float, 5m20s hit!), it looks like I am going overboard but it wasn't even close because the i11s is so wide, I did learn at 8m15s that bonking 'Mongo' just made him mad and then I did almost fall in while standing up and trying to lift him and then rock the boat back and forth at 8m30s but that was in 4' of water by my launch point.

kudos to the Cabela's IM7 rod that I pushed to the limit.   cheers, roger

That's awesome! Way better than my day! Thanks for sharing this great video! I've gotta say I've never really seen anyone crawl around on their yak like that while fighting a fish. That sucker looks stable!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's one very nice catch!

Yes!!! See they do exist... Way to go Roger.

Holy Schmoly! Halibut in that spot? Really? Congrats Roger!

Holy Schmoly! Halibut in that spot? Really? Congrats Roger!

hey wait, I was really careful to not mention where I was fishing....

I can't help but smile when watching your videos Roger. Nice work!

YEESSS!!! Nice work, Roger!
It makes sense that you caught that thing at this time of year. The calibuts follow bait fish into the bays in August. Awesome fish!! I love the look on your face once you got that fish secured in the net and smiled at the camera. That's the look of conquering an amazing fish!

YEESSS!!! Nice work, Roger!
It makes sense that you caught that thing at this time of year. The calibuts follow bait fish into the bays in August. Awesome fish!! I love the look on your face once you got that fish secured in the net and smiled at the camera. That's the look of conquering an amazing fish!

thanks man, lots of bait fish in that area right now....

as I was pedaling back, a mile or so to my launch point, with the fish still in the net laying on the deck next to the drive (no where else to put 'Mongo'), against a strong incoming tide and freshening wind, I had time to think back to late 2012 when I jumped into kayak fishing.  You and Ron helped advise me on the advantages of the Mirage drive boats and it struck me that I am back to using the V2 drive that came with the PA12 I bought from him...I never got to fish with Ron but I read his posts, got advice from him through NWKA, and watched some amazing videos of him fishing...thank you Ron for helping me when I was getting started.  roger

This is awesome!!! Way to go Roger!  Best part of this video is the look on your face when the battle is done and you're bleeding it out.  Almost like "Is this really happening?"

Congrats!!!

Epic! That is amazing. Really good job letting the rod and reel do their job and having the equipment on board to get what you caught to shore unassisted. Didn't you say you just caught your first kayak lingcod recently? Man, what are you going to do next? 

You should seriously post that to the Hobie Fishing group on Facebook - that's got to be the first halibut landed on an i11s.

That was great!  Got to be super fun on light tackle.  Extra points for deploying sharp objects out of an inflatable!!!

Epic! That is amazing. Really good job letting the rod and reel do their job and having the equipment on board to get what you caught to shore unassisted. Didn't you say you just caught your first kayak lingcod recently? Man, what are you going to do next? 

You should seriously post that to the Hobie Fishing group on Facebook - that's got to be the first halibut landed on an i11s.

Exactly! The fact that he had a 'poon onboard to begin with... and on an 11s where space is a precious commodity! Not something I normally carry, and especially not in a bay like that!  The odds of all this coming together are quite impressive!

Great catch! That was a fun video to watch...

Congratulations! I did not realize how big those things got.