The weather was good and the sun really was warm today, air temps of over 20°C had pushed down swarms of horse flies from the hills. Initially I found it funny watching Ronnie running round making noises like a girl until I took two bites from the bastards myself.....they were relentless,we were grateful to leave them behind as we left the dock in the boats.
I was skipper today with Butt virgin's Ronnie and Brian in tow - Dale, Dave and Mike made up the buddy boat trio. First stop today was 'the Butt Hole' and we set up for a long first drift to search out the fish. After a technique debrief, the three of us went down with a Coalfish deadbait on one rod and worked a Savage Gear Eel on the other. Wolfies were first on the baits as usual until our drift took us into some shallower water...it was here that we had our first fish of the day:
Almost immediately after I dropped another, as did Brian and Ronnie! I marked the sweet spot on the GPS and set up the next drift to take us right over it again. As we neared the numbers the fish hit us again and all three of us had a fish on. Ronnie and Brian's shook the hooks and it was just mine that made it to the boat...
We'd certainly found a patch of fish and just as we were about to go back up for another drift Ronnie's dead Coalfish got grabbed by something that certainly wanted it! This was obviously a Halibut and by the way Ronnie's rod was bent....it was a big fish! We pulled all the other lines in and I stood by with the gaff trying to calm Ron down. Take it easy, if it wants to run let it - there's no rush, just take your time.
I knew it was a better fish but I wasn't quite expecting the size of the beast that suddenly came into view at the back of the boat!
Ronnie - " Shit, we'll never get that in the boat"
Me - " Yes we will, don't worry"
Me (in my head) "Oh Shit that is big, I better not fuck this up"
I took my time with the gaff - We had our quota of Halibut fillets so I didn't want to damage the fish and at the same time needed to get it in the boat for photos. I took my chance, gaffed it in the chin and heaved it up over transom and on to the deck. That's when it went mad, smashing buckets and throwing rods and boxes all over the place....we had to dive on the thing to gain some control! A sense of relief for me and exhilaration from Ronnie.....We were both shaking with excitement and worked quickly to weigh the fish and take some photos before releasing it. On the scales Ronnie's first Halibut went 52lb!!!.....what a way to loose your virginity.......awesome!
Weighing, photo's and Halibut cuddles done, we slipped the fish back over the side where it powered back down to the bottom none the worse for wear. After inspecting the damage we got away lightly with just a smashed bucket and an eye missing from my rod....lesson learnt though - clear the whole deck when a fish like that is on the line!
By the time we were done we were well away from the numbers so I motored back up for another drift to cover the same ground. Low and behold, we had a similar drift....this time all three of us connected and got fish to the boat! My third Butt of the day preferred a lure over a dead Coalfish and was the first fish up on this drift:
Ronnie, now in the groove found another nice fish of 18lb!
And Brian......finally nailed his first tea bag - I mean Halibut around 2 and a half pound!....hold it out Bri ;-)
Excellent, no one was going home a Halibut virgin and there were plenty of smiles on the boat!
The next drift through produced just the one fish to me...which felt bigger than any of the others I had caught since being here. It didn't feel like a monster but it felt better and it certainly didn't want to come to the boat. The first time I saw it, it looked like a better fish too but I didn't get to look for long as it shot back down to the bottom taking 20 metres of line with it! Lines came in and after the last episode we cleared the deck too. I got it up for a second time and off it shot again but not as deep on the second run....as it neared the surface for the third time Ronnie stood by with the gaff...I didn't want him to feel the pressure that I did gaffing someone else's fish so I took the gaff myself as it surfaced (that way if it came off it was my own fault). With the trace in one hand and gaff in the other I steered her into position, slipped the gaff in the jaw and lifted her in. On deck it looked smaller than it did in the water but at 21lb it was my best fish so far and a PB to boot :-)
The next few drifts failed to produce, we'd either caught them all or they'd gone off the feed so we shot out and had a bit of fun with the Cod and Coalfish but they seemed a lot harder to find - maybe it was the weather, I don't know but the big fish certainly weren't there. It was nice to break the day up a bit though with the added bonus of catching my first ever Haddock!
Time just passes you by in the blink of an eye out here and before we knew it there wasn't much of the day left so we decided to go and find the others for the last hour or two.
They were on their last drift in an area where they had found a Halibut or two so we joined them before making the long run back to base. It was very quiet here until near the end of the drift when I hooked another Halibut on a lure...sadly though it came off after a lively 10 second fight but in all honesty it didn't bother me....we'd had such a great day already.
Mike, Dave and Dale hadn't done bad either, between them they'd found 4 Halibut including one of 20lb to Dale and another good fish of 21lb 8oz to Dave:
They had also made a return trip to Dab Bay where they had some lovely fish to 1lb 12oz and a bonus 4lb plaice for Mike!
Not forgetting the odd Cod and Wolfie!
Well, what a day and a trip so far....still one more day to go!
No comments:
Post a Comment