Halibut harpoon technique

Small zip-tie.  Also, here's a DIY Halibut Harpoon.  http://www.demonick.com/kayak/Halibut.Harpoon.DIY/Halibut.Harpoon.DIY.html

I just built a new copper point. 

Question to harpooners:  where do you harpoon the fish?

Wherever I can! I've had this debate with friends. I've always harpooned the head. My friends say it ruins the cheek meat and they've lost fish when the hit the gills and the point didn't hold. After some thought, I'm inclined to hit them in the meaty spot just behind the gills but try to miss the spine. Yeah, there is meat damage but that's true of a head shot.  I will say I or my friends have lost a fish or two when indecisiveness or not being ready to hit the fish when we coukd, the fish surges...and it's gone. Don't spend too much time lining up the perfect shot.

I've only had to harpoon a half dozen fish in all my years as I'd say 98% of the fish we have ever caught we can bring on board with a simple long handle gaff or a net....from a power boat  It's going to be über cool to poon one off a kayak though!!! Can't wait!!!


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My weapon of choice for anything 15-40 lbs is a gaff.
Anything larger and I use the harpoon. I shoot for the shoulder just behind the gill cover on the Halibut's back, not the belly. There's a lot more meat on the back side to hold the tip and toggle.

The real question here is ... Who's got a good halibut and broccoli recipe?

I thought you are supposed to lasso a rope around their tail as shown in this video, or what the Czechs like to call the "Rope-a-Dope"   



I think towards the end, one said to the other "How about grabbing him with your rope assistance tool, then we  can get the loop around him once inside the boat"   

I'm getting around to setting up a harpoon for butts. I found a wooden one about 5ft long for 25$. Rigging seems pretty straight forward. Attach a line to the tip, that attaches to a buoy. Do you guys have so e sort of barb or flopped on the tip to hold the fish on? The poon I'm looking at is a simple spear tip. I'd hate to lose a fish from the tip pulling out.

The spear tip should have the line attached in the center of the tip, that way, once through, the tip forms a T with the line.  Is you're different? 

The spear tip should have the line attached in the center of the tip, that way, once through, the tip forms a T with the line.  Is you're different? 

No I haven't bought one yet. My spearguns have flippers on the tip to hold the fish on. I'm guessing the "slip tip" style of the poon tips is what holds the fish on.

I have hit them pretty much everywhere and it all seems to hold.  For big fish though, I am hitting them in the shoulder, non belly side for maximum holding power.

I will add that often times we get caught up in the "bigger is better".  I don't think that's true with the buoys. 

last year, I used a A0 and A1 buoy.  In Kodiak, I think Mark and Chris had A2 buoys.  A1 has 29 pounds of flotation.  A2 double that.    The A1 buoy pretty easily lifted a 105 pound halibut.  But what surprised me a little bit was how much damage Spot's halibut had from towing an A2 buoy around.  The gash must have been at least several inches long from the steel cable ripping through flesh (but not the bone).   

If I ever need to step up from an A1 buoy, I am going to want a longer harpoon tip or I'll just add another A0 or A1 buoy.  I have some concerns an A2 buoy might allow for the harpoon head to pull free.

Just a thought.

I took a bunch of pics for Kayak Fishing Mag article. 


Photos can be found at;
https://picasaweb.google.com/110896815686143282688/Harpoon?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIfBireMhe6jWQ&feat=directlink

I used an A2 on my Halibut, and it also left a big hole.  I may be switching up to the A1 this year.

I've only had to harpoon a half dozen fish in all my years as I'd say 98% of the fish we have ever caught we can bring on board with a simple long handle gaff or a net....from a power boat  It's going to be über cool to poon one off a kayak though!!! Can't wait!!!

The quote shown above is what you said in March of 2012.  Now it seems like in your videos, you always harpoon your halibut.  But that may be because you only publish videos showing big halibut.  What sizes of halibut do you harpoon, and what sizes of halibut do you gaff or net?

Can you give us a link to the article?

It looks like the line attached is roughly 10 feet long? Is that pretty standard? Would it help to have some thick/strung bungee chord attached to the buoy then to the line? This may absorb a bit but may be overthinking this. I was thinking of making a combo harpoon and gaff. I found some wooden harpoons for 25$ and I could attach a gaff hook to the back. I would keep a rubber plug over the gaff while it's not being used.

I am going to step down to an A0 bouy this year on my shark hook set up.
If you are going to use a harpoon make use you rubber band the line to the shaft just below the tip. I have seen the tip slide off as a guy turns the harpoon over to take a shot.

Personally I prefer the shark hook technique as most of the halibut I have caught have come up vertically.
People way over think the landing of a halibut. Anything under 40 pounds can be easily pulled into your lap. By holding the wrist and the head you can easily control small fish.
I have never deployed a bouy on a halibut up to 80 pounds.

I am going to step down to an A0 bouy this year on my shark hook set up.
If you are going to use a harpoon make use you rubber band the line to the shaft just below the tip. I have seen the tip slide off as a guy turns the harpoon over to take a shot.

Personally I prefer the shark hook technique as most of the halibut I have caught have come up vertically.
People way over think the landing of a halibut. Anything under 40 pounds can be easily pulled into your lap. By holding the wrist and the head you can easily control small fish.
I have never deployed a bouy on a halibut up to 80 pounds.

I'm not as bad a$$ as Bill so I harpoon anything over 30 to 40 pounds.  I only get to keep two per day and breaking my wrist or getting accidentally manhandled by a halibut scares the crap out of me.  Besides maybe I am a little psycho but there is something cool about 'pooning one and watching the buoy take off.  Kinda takes you back to your days as a kid watching a bobber but the fish is a wee bit bigger!!!!

Too many times I have seen a 15 pound halibut with a 12/0 hook flopping awful close to my most vital organ after the brain....  Can I handle something up to 80 pounds?  Dunno.  I agree with Bill though that 99% of the halibut are easy to handle.  You can sort of just get them to lay there especially if you can get them turned upside down a little (white side up).  I harpoon them.  Then bleed them.  Then only after that do I dare try to boca grip them.  It's that one medium halibut I am going to boca grip and being stupid I put my hands through the loop, pull it up, continues off the kayak head first down the other side and now I am a dead man.  Once you have the halibut close to the kayak and once you let the head break the water, you better make sure it NEVER gets pointed down again.  Our PFD's only have the same flotation as a A1 buoy so hope you can hold your breath for 30 seconds or more if you are someehow attached to the fish.  lol. 

I have absolute horror stories of a 50lbs fish destroying a boat and its contents including people.  I think that's partly because we bring the fish in before we bleed it.  Never do that from a kayak though.  They are pretty docile by the time I lift them in.

I no longer net a halibut.  The weights and spreader bars get tangled into the net too bad.  If halibut were more scarce, I would net something up to 40 pounds I think.  The boca grips require your hook be pretty solidly in place so that you can manhandle the fish into the proper position. 

The rope is probably 8ft long.  It's too long. Too many times I have come close to wrapping it around my arm, around the rod holder, having the halibut smack it back towards me.   But you can't have it so short, that there isn't slack line as you go to harpoon it.  I bet 4 ft is enough. 

I have never done it, But I think a gaff is a bad idea on a kayak.  Sticking a halibut, having a solid lever attached to a mass of muscle and sharp point protruding out of a fish while it possible does the death spins sounds like a recipe to get knocked silly or embed a gaff point into your kayak.  Can't say I have done it though so maybe I am over thinking it.   

Not sure if there is a link to that article.  I'll look.  Editing was weird, the title and subtital even weirder.  But I also realized later the person helping me was having a much higher priority issue going on.  Not to create competition, but that article and photo netted a touch more than $500 bucks.  High quality photo was worth more than the article.  Just FYI for those with aspirations.     

DO NOT TRY TO GAFF A HALIBUT! I have seen it attempted once from a kayak and the result was the fisherman dodging a gaff handle as the halibut shook it back and forth.