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August 2003 Valdez Trip Really !!big halibut catch!!

We arrived in Valdez on a Wednesday evening and found the town and harbor was bustling with tourist and fishermen. The silver salmon run had started and there few boat slips available in the harbor. The next morning we headed out for Ellamar to meet up with our friends and do a little fishing. We were fishing for halibut and the silvers kept getting our bait . It was too early in the trip to keep salmon for 6 days on ice so we gave up and headed into anchor for the night.

The next morning we were up at 8 am and got a call on the radio to see if we wanted to go on a halibut charter since the boat had folks that did not show. Delsbrat Halibut charters with Bob Jaynes at the wheel We jumped at the chance to go, soon we were on 3 Delsbrat a 36 ft charter boat headed out to the Hitchenbrook entrance to Prince William Sound.

I caught a few small halibut in the 25 lb range and 1 105 lb halibut was caught by a young man named Dave.. See Daves Fish here A happy fisherman Orcas all around us

Two days latter Cathy and I were fishing in the Titteltlik narrows. We tried at the mouth of the narrows

with no luck, we then moved to fish some drop offs and still no luck. We had put in about 5 hours fishing and only had 1 salmon and a number of rock fish that we released. We did keep the salmon, I used the belly part for bait on a jigging lure. I checked the chart of the area to see where the deepest water was. It was located right in front of boulder mountain. The chart showed 240 ft deep, the rest of the area was much shallower. I figured if there was any big halibut in this area at all it would be there. So we headed to the location and watched the depth and fish finder for the structure that I thought would hold the fish. The fish finder showed a drop of 200 feet then quickly rose to 115. I dropped anchor at 160 ft and the boat drifted to a edge of about 115 ft. Not what I wanted but since raising a anchor 160 ft is not a easy job I just decided to give it a try. I loaded the hooks with herring and one hook I put on the salmon head. Now this is a fairly good size bite of food for any fish. I told Cathy if you see this rod bend it will be a shark or one big halibut. About 15 minutes latter a rod on the side bounced in the holder then bent over. I grabbed the rod , I could tell it was very large fish , it was not moving to the surface no matter how hard I pulled. The reel had 80 lb test spider wire on it. Cathy was getting the harpoon and the gaff and then suddenly the line let loose, I had just lost the biggest fish I have ever caught in my life. Then suddenly the rod in the back rod holder bent over double in the holder, Cathy shouted you have another fish!!!. I grabbed that rod and the fish had the same power I had just experienced not seconds before. This rod and reel was loaded with 80 lb. tuff line and was brand new on a pen line counter reel. The fish just stayed on the bottom with little movement. I started the pumping motion of raising the rod and winding, I did this for 15 minutes, the fish would take line back and I would have to start all over again. My arms ached and lower back was feeling the stress of keeping the tension on the line and adjusting the drag so the line would not snap. I got my first sight of the fish at about 20 ft down, the mouth was wide open, the hooks and weights of all three lines I had down were in the fishes mouth, the fish jerked and up from it's stomach came a salmon of about 5 lbs.. After seeing the size of the fish I yelled to Cathy to get the gun,( a 357 mag loaded with 38 special bullets). The fish was now close to the surface and was as tired as I was, I loosen the drag some so when I shot it, the fish had it slack to run and not break the line. I fired once between the eyes and it went into a thrashing frenzy, I raised the pole again to get his head out and fired twice more, the fish went nuts, I fired two more rounds, this time blood was pouring from the gills. The fish was still not dead but it was on it's way. I grabbed a gaff hook and hooked to fish through the lower jaw and it went to thrashing about once more. I just continued to hold it's head up waiting for it to expire. I was able to get a rope through is jaw and secured it. The fish was finally dead. Now the problem was he was hanging dead weight of 172 lbs. I could not pull the fish in through the transom. The boat only has about 12 inches of space there. I could not lift over the side of the boat because the sides are 4 ft off the water. I pulled the rope through the fishes jaw to the sail winch, wrapped it around the winch and cranked it till the head was out of the water. I then took the gaff and hooked it's tail, tied a slip knot around it and pulled it up to the rear cleat. The fish secured. Traveling to clean it. Size of fish 69 inches

Cleaning Halibut line mess This picture shows what was in the fishes mouth.

I think this could well be the largest fish ever landed on a Mac Gregor 26x if there is anyone that knows Of a bigger fish let me know.

The trip was 4 days of hot sunshine and it even hit 80 degrees, Columbia Glacier was dropping ice so fast it was blocking the oil tanker lanes 4 miles away. I have never seen so much ice in Prince William Sound. The hot weather was melting the ice quickly .