Target Halibut: April 27-28

There's a good tide at the end of this week, so if conditions hold I'm going to launch the Revo from Deep Creek in search of halibut. I'm tagging along with some pals who will be rowing a dory and providing some support in the unlikely event I actually catch a fish. Current plan is to depart Anchorage Thursday pm, fish Friday and Saturday and return late Saturday or Sunday am.

Anybody else planning to target halibut this week?

going to go out of homer that weekend if the weather holds up

Regardless of the results, I wanna hear the story when you get back!

-Spot-

Unlikely to make those dates. Darn. The dory folks are going to look at you in envy I think!  Unless you plan on just fishing a few hours, anchoring vs not anchoring may make support for either parties.

Let us know how it goes! 


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"rowing a dory"?  Those guys are studs. Good luck to all. Load 'em up.

I can't make it this weekend either~ . Keep whiskey gulch in mind as a launch.

The studly rowers are very skeptical about the whole kayak thing. Kind of like I was a skeptic about the whole "rowing for halibut" thing before I saw it done. Frankly, I'm more nervous about driving the Volvo down the beach.

The studly rowers are very skeptical about the whole kayak thing. Kind of like I was a skeptic about the whole "rowing for halibut" thing before I saw it done. Frankly, I'm more nervous about driving the Volvo down the beach.

Having just recently driven the beach I would be nervous driving the Volvo on it too. That's what would be nice about whiskey is you don't have to drive the beach.

Care for a kayaking companion?  I'm free....well pretty much all summer.  And I've got beach worthy wheels.

PM coming your way, Kenai_Guy.  If you're available Friday, we could target Kings (as the rowers seem to have these things called jobs that seem to keep them unavailable for most of the conventional work week...) I'm wary of pursuing halibut solo.

PM coming your way, Kenai_Guy.  If you're available Friday, we could target Kings (as the rowers seem to have these things called jobs that seem to keep them unavailable for most of the conventional work week...) I'm wary of pursuing halibut solo.

Well you should be prepared. The halibut will strike trolled bait. The good news...I guess, is that 9 out 10 halibut you are likely to catch  will be under 30 pounds. So your king landing equipment will suffice. It'd be tough to toss one back at 20 bucks a pound for fresh halibut. A 30 pounder at should yield 12lbs or so of fillets. 240 bucks!  Lol.

Strictly speaking, what qualifies as a "sleigh ride" in this new addiction of kayak fishing?

Oh, the story that is soon to show up......

Did you get out today? Forecast was looking nasty.

We didn't go out today, too tired out by yesterday's exploits.  Kenai_guy and I had quite the adventure out of Deep Creek, though.  When we launched around 4:30, the skies were clear, the seas were gentle with a 2 ft. swell, the wind was less than 10 kts.  We pointed the bows toward Illiamna looming from the opposite side of the Inlet and peddled out toward adventure. We found it.

Kenai_guy has some video that he'll try to post, to offer veracity to this tale. Let me say up front -- the fishing wasn't red hot. I only had one bite. But oh, baby, what a bite. I'd been trolling cut plug herring behind a green and silver flasher, with an 8 oz banana weight. Hoping for a King.  I hadn't had any action for about 3 hours. I reeled up on last time to check my bait, make sure it was rolling.  Everything looked fine, so I sent it back down through four color changes on my line.  Didn't have it down five minutes when the familiar pulls of a halibut bite were telegraphed back up the line.  I waited, then set the hook hard --- and line started just screaming off my reel. 

Here's where I made a critical error -- maybe the first of many I suppose. I'll leave that to the experts to point out.  But my mistake was that I set the drag pretty fast to slow that fish.  I didn't know how big the fish was, but I wanted to start to get a handle on it.  What I failed to realize was that the fish had turned and was swimming fast against the current and directly behind me in the opposite direction than I was pointed.  Line was still screaming off the reel, and it was everything I could do to hold onto the rod.  I was twisted at the waist pointing the rod in the direction of the fish, occasionally getting the kayak turned perpendicular to the fish.  But mostly, it just towed me backwards showing me who was boss.

The first five minutes or so of this was exhilarating.  Then I noticed that Kenai_Guy was getting smaller and peddling like mad to keep within range, and I began to understand just how fast I was going. And while that fish was heading in the direction we'd eventually want to go, I figured it was about time for us to part company.  So I pretty much pointed my rod tip straight at the fish, and thought he'd break it off.  He just picked up more speed. I hung on for the ride. 

Against the current. Going backward.  Throwing off a considerable wake from the crazy speed of it.

Luckily, after about five more minutes of this my new hero, Kenai_Guy who had been peddling like Lance Armstrong caught up.  I asked him to grab onto my boat.  I needed to cut the line to end the ride.  He grabbed the boat, and the additional drag was just the thing.  A few moments later, the monster broke off.  I think it was about twenty minutes later when my heart rate returned to normal.

So that counts as my first encounter with a big fish from the kayak.  And I thought those rockfish last season were a thrill?  Oh my.  For the record, all of my knots held -- the line broke and the point of the leading hook on the 40# mono leader I'd bought because it was already rigged up for two hooks to troll herring.  All that was missing were the hooks and the herring.

So that's the part of the adventure we could call Close Encounters of the Fish Kind.  We still had about 2.5 hours peddling to get back to beach, and then there were the 2.5 hours to get to the truck, and then the 2 hours to get the truck loaded and off the beach, and ... well, you get the idea. 

I'll add more in a bit, if only to extoll the virtues Kenai_guy who has a knack for making smart choices and putting his formidable shoulder to the wheel as many times as necessary.  I knew you'd want the fish report above all else.