Halibut - landing

There are two fish I would dearly love to catch from a kayak, sturgeon and halibut.  For those who have boated ("yakked"?) halibut on a kayak how did you do it?  There are nets, gaffs, clubs, guns, and harpoons.  Obviously one can always cut line if one hooks too much fish, so I am inclined to consider fish up to 50 lbs.  I am thinking anything less than 25# I can probably handle with a knife and/or bonker,  but over that I am not sure.  A net seems risky for a frisky hali.  A harpoon and float seems the safest - crab float?  I want a plan before I hook into one.  Playing it until it is exhausted risks losing the fish.  I am a safety first guy and my initial thoughts were to let it run as many times as necessary until I could lean over, slit its gills/tail, and bleed it before securing.  My second thought was a harpoon and float.

I did do a search and found nothing on the ways NWKA'ers have landed halibut on their yaks.  I know Polepole has caught halibut as his avatar proves.

Check out the report by Yaknitup, posted August 31, 2009, page 6 of Oregon Kayak Fishing (PC 8-27 report).  The story and video are pretty cool.

Alan

I have a goal to bag a halibut this year as well.  If no other salty fish, that is the one fish I'd like to bag.

I'd rate halibut as the most dangerous fish in the PNW to land on a kayak. The amount of thrashing they do is incredible. They do at the most inopportune times and a lot of times after they're dead. With the sheer size of their big flat bodies halis as small as 15#s will give you a run for your money.

To answer you question, if it's small enough, use a net. Harpoons should be reserved for much larger specimens.

SoCal kayak anglers get into a lot of halibut and have landing them down to an artform. Check out some of their forums to get a better idea.

Z   

Demonick,

I know that Howard McKim has landed halibuts as large as 180+# from his kayak.  As he told it to me, he works with them until they are near the boat enough to cut first one gill, then they go for another good run as you might imagine, then the other gill when they are worn out again.  He says that he didn't use anything else to get them dead.  The total fight took about 3 hours plus more time to drag it back to shore.

He also told me the story of the time that he had a 100+ halibut up to the boat for that second gill slash but it thrashed at just the wrong time and knocked his knife into the line.  Yep, he lost a huge halibut with one gill cut (basically a dead halibut) in one unfortunate misstep.

I've noticed that when you're trying to subdue either a halibut or a nice ling cod, they seem to know instantly if any part of their body touches air.  Especially their face.  When that happens the first time, they'll explode guaranteed.  So what ever you try to do, you need to try to do it without letting them touch air.  I was with Pisco Sicko at the Dungeoness Spit when he had a 20-30# dive right through his nylon net and broke a 40# line in one huge thrust... right when it's nose touched the air.

Just one more bit of advice would be to ALWAYS keep its head toward the bow of your kayak.  They don't have teeth like a ling cod, but they are still razor sharp and plenty nasty.  And then think about it.  If he's in your cockpit with you, but his head faces the stern... well, let's just say that you're in a mighty vulnerable position at that time.

Fishin-T

I am also wanting to try for halibut this year. I live in sequim and in looking at areas one of the biggest challenges is getting to the halibut zone. After talking to a lot of local people it looks like i will head out of freshwater bay and go deep. Of all the options in my neck of the woods that seems to hold the shortest paddle. The halibut are in the area. I was at john wayne marina yesterday  and a tribal boat brought in about 20. they were longlineing whatever that means.      After reading all the stories of how dangerous they are to land i bought a harpoon that I can attach a pretty short handle to and will probably harpoon ANYTHING of any considerable size, just to be safe,  should i get lucky. I talked to a guy named john beath who does seminars in the area and he suggested the equipment i needed and i am going with a trevala jigging pole, torium 20 reel, 30# braided line and point wilson darts. One thing i wondered was , and i am not putting the cart before the horse. but should i get one, how do you go about documenting the weight. Do you take it by a sporting goods store, do you clean it first? Good luck to everyone who tries this year. We don't have a lot longer to wait. Here were a couple of links that you all probably know about but they were helpful to me.  doug

http://www.salmonuniversity.com/ol_Halibut_Coast_Wiest.html
http://www.halibut.net/
http://www.salmonuniversity.com/sjf_port_angeles.html
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/letstalkoutdoors/2007/07/06/halibut-fishing-in-alaska

http://cgi.ebay.com/Harpoon-Shark-Tuna-Halibut-Gaff-Gator_W0QQitemZ330414496937QQcategoryZ23822QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DDLSL%252BSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%252BDDSIC%26otn%3D20%26po%3D%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8658998901065737951

It's been quite a while since I got my last butt off the yak.  We used to get them down around Capitola and off Del Monte Ave. in Monterey.  California butts they were but just as wild.  I actually had one that was supposed to be dead trash the trunk of my Plymouth Valiant.  Set him out there while bringing the yak up to the car and 40 minutes after I'd dispatched him he came alive.

I understand they come into the Coos Bay by the railroad bridge.  I've had friends hook into them while mooching for salmon.

I'm game.

Got one last summer that we tried to control with a berkely lip gripper.  Not a good idea.  I'd go harpoon.  But what kind of float?

I have personally had bad experiences with crab pot floats.  Played hell trying to catch up.  A sizable butt can take and hold it down - and if there's structure!  Course you could put 4-8 together inline.  That might keep em off the bottom.  I've seen some self inflating bags but they compress as they go down.

I'd go with a tether/handline.  Just break the backbone and scramble the brain when you get em back to the yak (easily done with a dive knife).

This guy seems to have the answer but his catch is a bit on the smaller side than what I'm thinkin.
http://www.kayaksportfishing.com/images_3/catalina/images/catalina_may06_jas-halibut_photoby-rhino800.jpg

Full story http://www.kayaksportfishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3024

This is a topic I have thought about more than I would like to admit and something I have literally lost sleep over.

I was lucky enough to land one towards the end of August of last year.  It was in the 30 to 35 lb range.  It most certainly had a commanding presence on my line in that it took the third time of reeling it back in after it bolted back down close to the bottom for me to actually see it.  This one had to be released since it was just past the close of the season.  I wore it down pretty well and always kept the drag loose, especially when I had it near the surface.  I got it to the point where I could bring its head out of the water and it wouldn’t freak.  At this point, I hooked it in the bottom lip with my gaff and used that to bring it aboard.  I was very lucky that it didn’t give me a lap dance because in hindsight I realize I was pretty unprepared for that.  It would’ve for sure destroyed the base of my sounder with one smack of the tail.  So I had some pics taken of it and then went to release it.  I was very nervous I had wore it out too much, but as its head touched the water, it slapped the side of my kayak so hard I was worried it had cracked my paddle that was lashed to the side with a bungee strap.  And with that, he disappeared very quickly so it seemed like it was going to make it.

My plan for actually harvesting a halibut is obviously different.  It involves much of what was mentioned above.  Tiring it out, cutting a gill or two and making it run.  One of the most important things I think here is to keep your drag loose!  Whatever reel you are using, make sure the drag washers are well maintained.  If the fish appears to be less than 50 lbs, gaff it in the meaty part right behind the eyes belly once it’s good & tired (edit after reading Lamb's info posted by Zee  ).  Pull it aboard and maybe give it a good wood-shampoo, then it might help to tie the tail to the head in an attempt to immobilize it.  I think the idea of hawg tying the fish came up in an similar previous discussion and seems like a really good idea to me so I’m going to go with it.  If bigger than that, I’m thinking a harpoon will probably be needed.  Again, this is only a plan.  I haven’t really had a lot of practice with this, but I’m hoping to change that this summer.  

Check out the report by Yaknitup, posted August 31, 2009, page 6 of Oregon Kayak Fishing (PC 8-27 report).  The story and video are pretty cool.

Nice reports Yaknitup.  Lots of good information.  Thanks.  

At the risk of exposing my geekiness, from the published length/weight data one can do a data regression to derive a formula.  Here they are:

For lengths 21-100"  y = 0.000188414x^3.24033   It's a very good fit being off by about 4oz at 100"

www.halibut.net uses 75% of the live weight as the dressed weight.  Chart is from "How to Catch Trophy Halibut", C. Batin & T. Rudnick.

PM if you want the spreadsheet and chart.  Let me know if you want an .xls or a .xlsx file.

thanks demonick for the weight info. that makes it pretty simple.  Say yaknitup, explain your video taking technique. I checked out a couple of your youtube videos and they are great. What kind of camera, mount etc do you use? thanks, doug

I don't remember algebra.  What are we reading?  something about y= #s of halibut and ^ is the inches of halibut?

Hmmm?  Yaknitup...ya got my wheels spinning on some kind of latching gaff/flying gaff/hog tying unit all in one.  Dang it, I wish I had my TIG welder already, I'd be out in the geerage tweaking something together.   

INSAYN, you're insane. Let me know what you come up with and if you need any help along the way! 

Demonic, Thanks a ton for the equation, now you're speaking my language brother! 

My old camera mount system(the one that has shot all of my youtube vids so far) has been replaced, but it served me very well. It was simply a small tripod zip tied to a Scotty safety light. The camera is my trusty Olympus Stylus 720SW. I think it is a generation or two old as far as the Stylus line goes, but it works great. The only gripe I have is that the sound it captures sucks. I have a new system that uses the same camera and just past the testing phase, but it is still classified.    I'll do a write up in the Drillin' & Cuttin' forum when I get enough good pics.