F'n weekday guys make the rest of us feel bad for working. Great fish. Great action shot.

This one started out with the usual trip to the pier for greenies, big and small. A few cold ones to the face woke me up good, but it wasn't too chilly.

At first light I was at the point in about 110-120 feet and was metering fish everywhere. Sent a smallish greenie down with a 2/0 hook - I was NOT looking for Butts so no trap hook. Andy stopped by for a chat and paddled off for whiter waters. No more than 2 minutes after he left my bait goes wild. I let it run a few seconds before setting the hook. It swung me around and made a couple really nice quick runs, then that was it.

It didn't fight like anything I'd hooked in the past. My first thought was a baby BSB 'cuz it wasn't putting up much of a fight, but I was getting line back too quickly for that. Then I thought ... halibut?

Water was clear - probably 20 foot viz where I was - so I just kept grinding away and looking over the side. Pretty soon I saw a doormat coming up. But the normal flat float to the top was not happening. This one was straight up and down. How am I going to gaff it? I loosened the drag WAY DOWN (thanks again Fish Destroyer) and brought it just to the surface and stuck her with an awkward gaff.

The fish went ballistic, giving me a shower with Andy taking pics and laughing his a@# off. The gaff shot was only a nuisance to this fish. The gaff ripped out and all the way back down to the bottom she went. So I started the grind again with a veeeery loose drag and finally got her floating back up, but once again straight up and down. This time I stuck her in the noggin and stared down her huge mouth. I quickly threw my handy dandy stringer through her mouth and watched her go crazy once again - and hung on.

This baby was thick. She got my yak rockin' and rollin' when I pulled her on board, so I bled her quickly and waited for the thrashing. I started looking for the hook and found it stuck in her side, just below the gills ... FOUL. I barely had to pull to get it out - that's why she came up the way she did. After I got situated I turned around to see Andy on his nice white one. Thanks for the pics Andy.

45# 9 oz.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...libut1copy.jpg

F'nArne

Congrats guys. I may need to go hit it tommorow.

You guys!
 

Congrats Iceman, on finishing a fine slam for this month. Congrats to you too, Arne, that is a barndoor for sure. Wish our day was more fruitful. Julie did catch a fish that was bigger (80lbs or so) than those 2 put together, but since it was a protected species we had to let it go. Her first BSB and biggest fish ever, gave her quite a tow, and some more experience at working a big fish on the yak.
We made beautiful greenies at the pier, our first attempt at making bait there. Started somewhere near Dec's "spot". Eventually drifted south in front of the big condo around 8:30AM, where we saw many yakkers, probably you two were among them. We worked the irons and baits all day with a sand bass and released BSB for our efforts.
We noticed a lot of bait and large greenbacks feeding on them. In fact, the mackeral seemed spread out to the bottom. As you two so far had the only fish, we are curious whether you actually could tell there was something large below on your meters. Arne it seems hard to envision metering a halibut, unless he was suspended, which they have been known to do. Could you have been metering all that mackeral that was around? And Andy, was that WSB a blind strike? Could you see something suspended just above the bottom (3 cranks)?
We know there are many benefits to getting a fish finder, which will be our next fishing toy, but are looking for feedback as to what they did or didn't tell you for today's catch.

OH YEAH! Good job, guys!
-D

nice feesh both u F'n guys!! :x :lol:

Epic! Nice to see the weather is reasonable some where in the frickin state...its like Alaska up here right now!

shit that flatty is hhuuuuuuuge congrats

Arne, that's one muy grande flatty!

Andy good job keeping Brad honest!

Great job with the camera!

Ken

Julie, congratulations on the BSB! Aaron I was fishing blind as my meter was not working.......until I was in 10 feet of water stowing gear to land :lol: Arne was saying he was seeing alot of good marks. There was bait everywhere, so you would be looking for tight balled up stuff. When I saw you and Julie you were in a little deeper water than we were.

Next time you are in alaska fishing for butts, have andy photoshop a pic of the hotel in the background so it looks more believeable :D :D :D

Nice fish fockers! Arne Focker looked like Scott Peterson on his last fishing trip!

You guys got some amazing fish and stories...f'n great!! :P

Here are a couple of the shots I took, we started to turn into the sun so the shots of you guys together were very dark. We picked away at Sand bass but that was it for us. Funny some of the posts saying it went WFO, I wish, it was actually very slow out there. The squid from Andy's WSB is a good sign though.
http://forum.kayak4fish.com/modules/...size.sized.jpg
http://forum.kayak4fish.com/modules/...size.sized.jpg
http://forum.kayak4fish.com/modules/...size.sized.jpg

Iceman
 

Thanks, Andy, for the information and kudos :) .

Iceman,

WOW, BOY have I been waiting for another BIGWATERSEDGE POST! You guys are like super hero's to us fisherman! NICE FREAKIN CATCH! I sure I get the chance to meet up with any of you fellas one of these days!

Keep up the good fishing!

JAY

Those stogies must be a fish attractant. Which means i must smoking the wrong kind. Although i was the recent recipient of three A. Fuente Opus X 05's. Will that bring on a bite?

Word on the water is that Holy Mackerel has some special gorilla fingers that might turn on the................bite! :roll:

Ken

Yo Icy,
That Scrambled Egg must be a great swimmer. Did you pick that up NEW or has it been in your line up for a while?

inspirrrrrrrrred

Afran, I think any color Salas 6XJR will work, they just have great vertical action. I had lost so many irons to lobster lines, that one is the last 6xjr I have :D. I need to get to Squidco. For backup I have some Ironman #3s and #5s and UFOs.