How to land a halibut

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by lamb

I posted this some years ago. When it took me 3 days to find it searching the forums, I figured it may not be bad idea to re-post it. I had people thank me in the past as they felt this stuff helped them land their first big halibut. With the brown moving in and all the new blood on BWE, I hope it may help prevent a major heartbreak for someone. Your margin of error on the kayak is very small.

Great stuff.

One thing I'll add that I've found effective is that I use a small flygaff I've made for just gaffing halibut. That way I can gaff them let them hang in the water on the rope after I gaff them until I get a dive clip through there gills bleed and them.

Here's my mini flying gaff in action, as you can see it was not the best gaff shot right through the bone in the gill plate, but there she is hanging anyway.
I think that fish was like 28 pounds, and I'd already ripped her gills so in that pic so she's bleeding out.

Eventually I clipped it then actually ran a rope through the gills and tied it off, and by the time I pulled it on deck it was pretty dead.



One thing I should probably say is that my initial version of the gaff had a fairly small two inch gap mustad hook, which was great for gaffing halibut as it was very sharp but I upgraded that to stronger three and a half inch hays hook for for fishing yellows and seabass at la Jolla.

I also have spliced in a small stainless clip like one of these:



To a poly rope. The purpose of it is I just drop the clip into the halibut's mouth and then it falls out one of the gills. It then grab it and clip it back to the rope and it's roped good. Dive clips can pop open when a big fish twists around on deck but that rope system stays put.

I've used my little flygaff for Butts to thirty, and yellows to over forty, And I always let them hang on the rope until I get a clip in them, unless there are seals around.

The last thing I want is a big fish thrashing on my deck, so I leave them in the water till their bled if I can.

As to where to gaff them, like most I prefer to hit them where the gaff goes in easy and get's a good grab

I know some prefer the gut but if you don't get it deep enough a gaff there it can rip out. I've seen that happen first hand and it's a drag because not only do you loose the fish but you've killed it as well.

When I do hit them in the gut I prefer to do it forward right behind the gills in the toughest part.

My take is you take them where ever you can. It all depends how they come up and how they are hooked.

That said even a fancy gaff won't save you from acting stupid




I'm no guru but that's my two cents.

Jim