Halibut

we were on my friends Osprey, And yes they are scary :smileo better yet my friend Ron hooked the mouth with a gaff and it about beat him to death and swam off with the gaff. reeled it back up to the boat and cut the line within 6" of the hook. the gaff was donated to mother ocean :shock:

Butt what fun
 
Well I heard someone caught a 160 pound halibut in Keystone 2 weekends ago. My brothers and I went out in his boat and and had the pleasure of seeing another boat hooking up and pulling up a nice halibut. We're thinking about heading to canadian waters this weekend. I remember hearing that you need to actually drive to Canada to buy a license, is that true or can it be purchased online.

Thanks
 
The short answer is yes, you need to drive to canada to get the good license. The one you can buy online is only for outside of a certan line, and I beleive it's quite a bit offshore. Why go to Canada when there are halibut to be had here? Personally, I would wait to go to canada until it closes here. The coast opens up in about two weeks, and the straight has been kicking out fish. My boat limited out there this weekend, we got a 30 lber and a 15. And lots of guys in my club( PSA) have been catching some nice butts. PM me if you want some details.

Sark
 
Sark,

Where abouts were you fishing?

We went out of PA opening weekend and got blown off Coyote. Didn't even wet a line out there, just too windy to try to hold a spot.

Came back outside Ediz and drifted the humps, with nothing to show for it. Using herring and squid.

I wanted to head back out, but am just getting too busy.

Shrimping is coming up, and if all goes well, I'll shrimp the canal all 4 days, the last being the 16th. After we load the boat up, we're gonna head to LaPush or Neah and try for some flatties on the Thursday (the second day of the opener). If we get lucky maybe some ling and sea bass will make it in the cooler too!!
 
Ken-

I'm with you!

We all love Dusty, but ya gotta draw the line somewhere!
************

Jon and Cynthia- Did you know about this guy and his "attri-butt(es)" before you built your home there?

Bill and Dana- Same question!
************
Dusty- So how did they come up with "Freshwater Bay" for a moniker?
************

Joe.
 
Chewy,

We fished opening weekend too, no fish, and it was a very rough ride out to eastern bank. Last sunday was butter out there, and the fishing was much easier in those conditions. Hey there is a good chance I will be out at La push during the first weekend too. My club is going out there for it's annual Hali trip. But it's all weather pending for me. You want to talk about good hali fishing, although it's along way out! About 30 miles to the hot spot. Maybe well hook up then, I found an extra key for your boat by the way. I might do the canal on the opener but most likely I will be up in the islands then. Lings open along with shrimp up there.

Sark
 
:lol: :lol:

Old Dusty has a habit of word mismanagement! Mom always told me to write, leave it in the basket for 24 hours, and then tear it up.

Freshwater Bay is a river delta, and the fresh water on top of the salty stuff seems to bring lots of fish. Many huge slabs are pulled in that area. GPS numbers are classified, of course.

I like Coyote too, but it's a long run from here, and I prefer the Canadian side of Coyote for halibut.

I worked on a farm as a kid in the Freshwater Bay area just a short time ago -- 1932 I think. Went school in Joyce - and Jon surely knows where that is. :lol:

Dusty
 
you can get the online licenses and use it every where in canada EXCEPT swiftsure bank. If you are fishing just over the line in the straits or the islands then you are good to go. if you get north of swift sure then you are good. Shrimp is open 11 moths of the year and the limit is 400 per day.
 
Here is a Freshwater Bay story for you Dusty.

This is the only fish story that I recall my father ever telling. He fished for over 60 years, so one fish story may have been the real deal? I guess I will never know for sure. Back about 1956 or 57 my father hooked into a monster halibut very near Freshwater Bay. We camped there for two weeks every August and he would fish for salmon to take to the cannery in Port Angeles. He was rowing a 9 foot boat, and was fishing with a metal rod, wire line, and a huge snubber. He was fishing for salmon. As he told the story later (and we all know how fish stories go) he hooked into a halibut and fought it for a very long time before he managed to get it up off of the bottom and near enough to the boat so that he could get a good look at it. He said that it was nearly as long as the boat. Well, that does seem a bit huge, but subtracting for exaggeration, it still must have been a big fish. The day before he had lost his gaff hook, and had made a new one out of my brothers baseball bat and the largest treble hook that he had. OK, so what the heck was he thinking? There is no way in the world that he can land a huge halibut in a 9 foot rowboat and live to tell about it. A 50 pounder could tear up the boat. Maybe he wanted to tow it to shore, not sure. Anyway, he gaffed the fish and the two hooks that went into the fish immediately straighten out. Then, the large snubber broke and the fish was gone. I remember seeing the gaff hook and the broken snubber. It must have been a big one! Robbi
 
Fished Thursday out of Newport. Little rougher than the forecast predicted . Five foot swell with two foot wind waves two and half hours out and two forty five back 82 miles total. Conditions were average at best. Four of us on the boat fully loaded gas, water, and all the other stuff. Used 45 gallons of gas for a shade under 2 mpg.

Started fishing at 10:00 in 580 feet of water with 32oz lead,and whole 12 inch mackerel for bait. Had to use the kicker to back down and slow the drift a bit. Caught the first one at 10:30 and had our for fish by 1:15. Finished with a double on the last drift.

One 50 pounder
two 25 pounders
one 22 pounder

Lot of life on the ocean on the way out. Saw two gray whales, a pod of four Orca's and had a what must have been around 40 or more Dahl's join us for 10 minutes or so.

Great day on the ocean

modules.php
[/img]

stevej
 
Here I sit at my desk looking out the door at the rain waitting on a client that is late , again. reading your post is my only joy but its killing me not getting out there with you guys. My PSA chapter spent the week at lapush. They all limited on halibut , rock fish and lings everyday but saturday. visit their web site for great pics
 
WOO HOO!!! We got 1 halibut last Sunday. Fished 8 miles out near Lighthouse in Newport. Sure wish we had caught 4 of them...had fun!

Planned to go today but weather looked a little rough. Here is a pic:

alibut_Trip_Can_you_tell_who_caught_the_only_Feesh.jpg

John
 
Good job on the halibut guys. My brother and I fished out of Garibaldi last thursday. Got him into a nice 48" halibut. We also picked up a 32" to finish the day. 24 miles out and 750 feet down. :shock: Lot's of fun.

My Bro
Halibut_fishing_6_8_2007_006.jpg
 
Flapbreaker...very nice fish!!! Congrats to you and bro.

Looks like a great day. Hope to run in to you some day since your a "local". Have fun.

John
 
John, the forecast was WRONG! We went over to Newport boatless and it was not windy and there were a couple boats fishing off the lighthouse in our favorite sea bass hole -- dagnabit! We drove on up the coast, stopped off just before Beverly Beach, then on to the casino for lunch and a slot or two -- then back home through Salem...very nice day -- few sprinkles, but it was downright WARM walking on the beach. Makes you wonder what Newport they're talkin about when NOAA does their forecast! :crook

I guess the only way to really do it is tow the boats over and put an eyeball on what it is and go from there.

Caty
 
Caty,

I like to use the wetsands website in conjunction with the NOAA forecast. NOAA's forecast is for such a vast portion of ocean and they have to give the worst conditions for that large section. Sometimes the whole area is a mess but other times it's north, south ect. With the Wetsands page you can see a gradient map of wave height, wind speed, direction ect and you can get a good idea of where NOAA is forecasting for. THe weekend we got that halibut the Newport conditions were sloppier than those off Garibaldi and the wetsands site had that pegged. Here's a link.

http://www.wetsand.com/swellwatch/swell ... LTabID=436
 
Back
Top