EastCoaster
05-16-2009, 08:09 PM
Yesterday was Capt. Jeff's bday and he had to get the bertram cleaned up to take the wife, daughter and mother inlaw out for a sunset cruise this evening. I headed down with my fiance to give Jeff a hand, since we made a mess of "Priceless" thresher fishing this past week. After a quick scrub down, I told Jeff that a buddy Dallas had got two hali's one 39lb+ and another 40lb over the past week near the bridge in this little hali hole. Jeff had three hours to kill so we picked up a half scoop and headed directly to the hole.
First drift we went thru a cloud of Corvina, in the 24-25" size range and got a triple hook up with two landed. Jeff tried to bounce his and it never made it out of the water. Next drift, one smaller 3lb size fang and two spotties. Then we moved a little closer to the bridge and my fiance, say's I think I have something, no I'm stuck on the bottom and then yanks her rod and it breaks free and brings up a mauled bait and no stinger hook. This was 25lb seaguar flouro, so I was surprised and knew it was a solid fish. We reset, and Jeff leave his rod unattend. I grab my rod just before it heads over the rail, it felt rocked up, then freed and like it hit a rock again. I bring it up only to see another mauled bait. This time I bring us right back over the spot, drop in the best bait I can find and I'm hit by something big and I'm bendo on my 8'6 tiburon I have a 40lb flouro leader on this rod and I'm fairly confident that I will land this fish. It's fighting hard, I know i'm on right kind, this is a big head shaking fish, staying on the bottom and I'm losing line. I start gaining on the fish, Jeff has started the boat and positioned me into a better position and I get it up, it's a 35-40lb class halibut and back down it goes. I take my time and get it back up and then it pulls back down. This time I get it up close enough for Jeff to take a shot at it with the gaff and he misses the fish goes crazy and I get a straightened trebble. We had exceeded our time quota during the maylay and Jeff insist on leaving to head back to dock. We left in the middle of a great bite and I have to say I was a little disappointed.
There are some big fish in that area right now, and I can't wait to get my shot at another one. This was by far my largest hali and I was very upset to lose it. All fish on dines today. Get some!
First drift we went thru a cloud of Corvina, in the 24-25" size range and got a triple hook up with two landed. Jeff tried to bounce his and it never made it out of the water. Next drift, one smaller 3lb size fang and two spotties. Then we moved a little closer to the bridge and my fiance, say's I think I have something, no I'm stuck on the bottom and then yanks her rod and it breaks free and brings up a mauled bait and no stinger hook. This was 25lb seaguar flouro, so I was surprised and knew it was a solid fish. We reset, and Jeff leave his rod unattend. I grab my rod just before it heads over the rail, it felt rocked up, then freed and like it hit a rock again. I bring it up only to see another mauled bait. This time I bring us right back over the spot, drop in the best bait I can find and I'm hit by something big and I'm bendo on my 8'6 tiburon I have a 40lb flouro leader on this rod and I'm fairly confident that I will land this fish. It's fighting hard, I know i'm on right kind, this is a big head shaking fish, staying on the bottom and I'm losing line. I start gaining on the fish, Jeff has started the boat and positioned me into a better position and I get it up, it's a 35-40lb class halibut and back down it goes. I take my time and get it back up and then it pulls back down. This time I get it up close enough for Jeff to take a shot at it with the gaff and he misses the fish goes crazy and I get a straightened trebble. We had exceeded our time quota during the maylay and Jeff insist on leaving to head back to dock. We left in the middle of a great bite and I have to say I was a little disappointed.
There are some big fish in that area right now, and I can't wait to get my shot at another one. This was by far my largest hali and I was very upset to lose it. All fish on dines today. Get some!