Beginner's Luck

Finally bloodied and slimed the Revo -- took a limit of halibut today off Deep Creek.

Congrats, I wish we had fishing like that down here.

WOW....really nice!! OK...starting to get some serious AK envy now....great job!!!

Cool! How were they landed?

You know how to break in a new kayak!

Awesome way to bloody up the yak....congrats

Geez crimeny! When you said the biggest was 45 lbs I didn't think the other was gonna be 44 lbs! Thats awesome. Been waiting for this post all night!

Details, Like where exactly did you get them! Also how did you land them? Net or harpoon?

I imagine you guys drove south down the beach? How far out did you have to go off shore? What depth? I might have to give you a call about all this!

Im seriously regretting my decision to stay at whiskey gulch now!

Awesome Awesome.

Bam!!!  Well done.  I need to fish!

OK Matt, just for you before I collapse tonight.

I launched from about 2 mi. south of the parking lot at 8:30 am, after my three friends launched their drift boat.  (South of the tower, not quite to the waterfalls.) We were out a mile, and there within five minutes of getting rigged one of the guys had a fish on.  Seemed like we’d found the spot, so we stayed there for the duration. They anchored, and I stayed within 100 ft more or less while they shouted encouragement in my direction. At least, I think that’s what they were shouting.

I had a 10 oz banana weight attached to a 10/0 circle hook on 200# mono, baited with some blue label herring I’d brined up two weeks ago. Nothing special.  I jigged that bait in 40 ft. of water for about 30 minutes before I got a bite from the bigger of the two fish on the day.
 
This time, I was patient and remembered all the suggestions I received here after my ill-fated reverse sleigh ride of two weeks prior.  After setting the hook, I took the time to hold tension on the line while pulling up the rudder and keeping the rod forward to follow the fish.  SO much better than being pulled backward!  The fish pulled out quite a bit of line, dragging me along while I slowly set the drag. I could tell it was a fish I could land, so my mission was to tire the thing out.  I was able to bring him up to the surface beside the boat 3 times. Each time but the last, he hovered and then dove straight down before turning south and pulling me along. After the third time, the fish was tired and so I put down the rudder and started to pedal my way back to the other boat.
I had the fish about 10 ft. below the surface when I pulled alongside the friends.  All three guys were eager to help: gaff, gun, harpoon at the ready.  The fish wasn’t moving so I reminded them that this was the first fish I’d caught on this new kayak and I really wanted to boat it myself.  They guys said I’d never get it in the net. One of them leaned over and handed me a T-handled fish picker, and I gaffed the fish with that and hauled it onto my lap.  Just barely.  Another of the guys leaned over with his big gaff, and swung that fish off my boat and into the bottom of the drift boat.  That was it.  Later we put a tape on that fish, and it measured 45” so probably was 40 lbs.
 
Since that rig worked so well, I just rebaited the same hook and sent it back down again.  Missed one. It was about an hour before the next fish bit – still in the same general area.  The second fish was the smaller of the two, later taped at 43”, so estimated at 37 lbs.  It only ran on me twice, and didn’t take me as far from the drift boat that was still at anchor. I was whooping and hollering from the sheer thrill of the ride.  After I got that fish up to the surface the second time, it didn’t sound again and so I dropped the rudder and peddled over to my friends.  That took less than 10 minutes. On the second fish, I didn’t have any qualms about just letting the other guy gaff the fish and put it in the tub.
 
Great fun!  Plus, I managed to avoid impaling myself on the fish picker. On reflection, that was probably a bad decision on my part – but all’s well that ends well. I think I need a harpoon though.  Open to suggestions, that’s for sure.

 

Fantastic!

   Great job akfishergal.Glad you got a forward ride this time.And nice write up of the adventure.That'll be some fine eating there.
    I can't help with any suggestons on gaff,harpoon,but will say a gun is probably not a great idea on a yak.It sounds like just wearing the fish out (while enjoying the ride ) is the way to go.
    Thanks for sharing with us all.
     Hope you can kick butt at the Anchor River Calcutta......

Great job! I love that you boated it yourself! Badass!

What they said!!!  +1


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Whoa! Great job!!!


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