Re: NANFA-- Fwd: Anchorage Daily News 420-pounder

Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus_at_hotmail.com)
Mon, 08 Dec 2003 20:37:55 -0500

Bruce, did you ever use a .22 pistol as a halibut-controller? I knew some
guys who were halibut fishers in the early 80s in Alaska and they all swore
by a single shot to the head with larger halibut, then just tow them back to
port. I know that it's easy to underestimate halibut if you've never seen a
live one right in front of you.

--Bruce Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL, US of A

>From: BR0630_at_aol.com
>Reply-To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>Subject: Re: NANFA-- Fwd: Anchorage Daily News 420-pounder Date: Mon, 8 Dec
>2003 20:32:00 EST
>
>In a message dated 12/8/03 4:00:33 PM Mountain Standard Time,
>jtiemann_at_inhs.uiuc.edu writes:
>
> > Here is my fish and the
> > >story in The Anchorage Daily News.
>
>Great story, Jeremy.
>
>I have two events that happened when I was crab fishing that kind of relate
>to that story. The first is about a 45-50lb halibut I caught in our 12'
>aluminum skiff when I crab fished out of Kodiak in the 70's. I was hand
>lining with
>a big halibut hook baited with 1/2 a herring [we chopped up herring to put
>in
>our bait jars to help attract king crabs]. I used the treated line that we
>used for web-mending on our crab pots for my fishing line. Anyhow, I had
>fished for an hour or so in a couple of different spots when I finally got
>a bite.
>It was a halibut. It took me a while, but I finally got the fish up and
>even
>got him flopped into the boat. That's when all h--l broke loose. He
>started
>flopping and banging about in the bottom of that thin-bottomed boat - and
>feeling thinner with each flop, I might add. I tried to beat him with one
>of the
>oars, but that only seemed to make matters worse. Fortunately, before he
>beat
>a hole in the skiff or knocked me overboard, my skipper saw what was going
>on
>and yelled for me to throw him back overboard. I'm pretty sure he was more
>concerned about his skiff than about my safety. Anyway, with the help of
>the
>oar, I got him back overboard; the hook was still attached and so after a
>little manuevering, I got the skiff back alongside our crab boat and then
>hand
>lined him back up to the surface where my skipper shot him once with a 357
>mag and
>put hime to rest. In my estimation, halibut is God's gift to the fish
>eating
>world..........mmmmmmmmgoooooodhalibut steaks!
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