Alone in paradise
 

Had one day off for the 3 day weekend last week and decided to stay local. The bait barge was supposed to be out of everything but chovies so I took my Sabiki. Only caught 1 greenback and a few chovies before I got to the barge to see if they maybe had some squirts. It just so happened that Mike had scraped the bottoms of all the "empty" tanks the night before,and had found about 50 well cured Sardines. He graciously split them with me, cause all he can get on Squid and Chovies there are Tomcod (it pays to tip well). Then he tells me to go out and catch a 44" Butt and bring it back to show him, cause he has not seen one in a while. My response was that I had never seen one that size come out of the harbor. I had heard of them, but never witnessed one myself. So I fished from 7am till 12:30 for not a single Halibut. Caught just about every other suspect out there including Leopard Shark, Brown Rockfish, Sand Bass, Sculpin and Lizzardfish, but not one of the flat kind. Just then I get the right kind of bite and bring up my first one which is legal, but less than 24" so I return it to get bigger. About 30 minutes later this happens.

http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/V1TOypkQO7M/default.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1TOypkQO7M

monster!
 

:you_rock:Nice monster Greg!!!! I always new they were there!:luxhello::luxhello::luxhello: :notworthy:

Wow, what a monster! Congrats.

:you_rock::luxhello:

Wow very nice. I can't believe how calm you were. I would have been hootin and hollerin. Nice fish Greg

Enjoyed... thank you Mr Smooth :cheers1:

:doh:Wow 34+ lb . Very nice :luxhello:

:notworthy:

Wow that one grew fast! From 24 to 44 in no time flat. No pun intended.

Only you, nice MONSTER.
Thanks for that beautiful post:)

Nice.... fish....

Congratulations on that monster fish!

Beautiful fish Greg. Just two things: How the
hell to you find calm, tame, cooperative halibuts???

Also, I still a little sea sick from that boat wake...
Where's the dramamine?

I stuff my bait with Prozac to calm the fish down. Before the gaff, I am not horsing the fish up, so they are pretty spent by the time they hit the surface. Since I was taught how to gaff a Halibut in Dec. almost 2 years ago, I have not had an active one on my gaff.

There were no other kayakers and only a couple of boats OTW that day for some reason. By 1 pm the average wind there is in the teens at least. Just happened to be at the right place...

Great stuff. Thanks for the report.

Awesome catch! Wish I had the same skills:(

WOW, she's a beaut!

I don't why, but the link won't work for me.
All other YouTube ones usually do.
Congrats on the barndoor, which I can't see :(

awesome.
 

thanks for sharing.

when I grow up I wanna be just like Greg, but I would need to get a bigger freezer....nice feesh Greg as usual:reel:

great video! what kind of rod???

great fish and great video!

Simply amazing Greg, everyone else gives up til spring and you are still gaining WCW points with mutant flatties!
Did you learn the stoic waterman thing from stevooo or did he learn it from you? I dont think your heart rate raised more than 2 beats per minute the whole time!
Grats!! :luxhello:

NICE ONE GREG!!!!! :cheers1:

You're getting a pretty sweeeeet collection of those videos!
I'm buying the DVD when it comes out! :D

I need a better monitor, I couldn't see the GPS ponts on your FF.

AWESOME fish!

I will send you one of the blooper reels Adi (not Halibut fishing).

Believe me, I was never this calm when seeing color on a big Flatty until Buttchaser schooled me, step by step, as I fought my then PB 25#er. He gave me the tools to take home more of the fish I hooked. But, he also gave me a thought process to go through while fighting the fish which did not allow my mind to worry and stress out. Confidence was gained because there have been zero problems since then when I keep to what he taught me.

The rod is a G Loomis GL2 BBR964C 12-25#. Caught just about everything there is on them including 51# WSB, 38# Butt, 75# BSB, My PB Leopard at almost 6 feet. Great braid rod for fish that like to headshake or the like.

Awesome, simple awesome

X2!

I guess when you've slayed your fair share of barn doors, one becomes calm under pressure. :cool:

Congrats, that's a beaut! :cheers1:

Great job and very smoothly executed. I liked your comentary about it being a shark and then a ray. I've been fooled like that so now I treat every slow heavy bottom hooked fish like a halibut until I have visual confirmation. Mike