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We have just returned from a 6 day trip to Valdez and Prince William Sound. We finally got some weather that did not require wearing gloves and rain gear all the time. In fact it hit 80 degrees in Valdez. We did get some sailing in with a friend and got some pictures taken of Wind Musher under sail as well as their boat the Pioneer. This was trip that I got to record my biggest halibut to date. Now 85 lbs is not really all that big for a halibut considering they go to 385 lb and more. For you Mac owners that know that there is only about 15 inches at the transom to pull a fish in the boat that the challenge was there. I was using a custom rod built by Joe a custom rod builder in Fairbanks. It was built to be a jigging rod and the fish put the rod and the Penn 320 gti reel to the test. After fighting this thing for 15 min it tiered and was laying on top of the water, I grabbed the gaff and jabbed it through it's lower jaw. All hell broke loose, I thought the fish would knock the Honda 50 motor off the back of the boat. After a few minutes it stopped and my wife asked now what are you going to do with that? I had both hands holding onto the gaff and the fishes head raised out of the water as well as gills. I said I guess I will hold its head out of the water till it dies. Well after a minute or two the fish clamed down more and I was able to pull the head of it through the small opening by the motor. I ran a ski rope through the hole the gaff created while the fish was flopping around.

The fish was then tied over the side and secured. After all this Cathy asked what are you going to do if you ever get a 250 halibut? We do carry a harpoon and a 38 to kill a big halibut so there is no need to bring it to the boat. I know that day will come that I will get to test my plan in landing and securing such a big fish.