Two Days Off

April 14 - 28, 2020 Part Four

About every three days over these last two weeks we went out to check our prawn traps, and on average we got about twenty prawns each time.  They were large prawns, so they made a very delicious addition to our dinners.  We also caught a very cranky looking, but very cool, Grooved Tanner Crab. 

The two days that we had off of work were on the Monday and Tuesday (20th and 21st) midway through our shift.  It was nice to have these two days off to rest part way through the shift, and it was nice to get to spend Jason’s birthday, the Tuesday, doing something fun rather than working.  

On the Monday that we had off, the weather was calm and partly sunny.  We headed out to Wallace Bay for an afternoon of fishing.  It was a beautiful day to spend the afternoon on the water, it was calm, our drift speed was perfect, and it was very peaceful.  I caught a decent-sized Pacific Cod, and then in the mid afternoon Jason got a massive bite.  Right away it started to pull out his line, when it stopped pulling so hard Jason started to reel in, only to have it pull out again.  At first it seemed like a losing battle, but gradually the fish got tired and then Jason was able to reel it in.  Because it was so big, Jason was not able to simply reel it in, and instead he had to slowly pull up on his rod, and then reel in as he lowered the rod while maintaining tension, then back up again.  It was a very long reel up since we had been fishing in about 175 feet of water.  As he got the fish closer to the surface it once again had a burst of energy and took out some line, but soon it tired again and Jason was able to reel it up.  

As I stood ready with our net, I looked down into the water and started to see the fish’s massive shape looming up out of the depths.  It was a large Halibut, the largest that we had ever seen.  As it came up we could tell that it was probably too big for our net.  

I would guess that it was about four feet long, which would have made it just under the maximum allowable size to keep for a Halibut.  Because the fish was tired, it floated at the surface and we had a short amount of time to consider our options.  Because we fish out of Kiki, which is an inflatable boat, we do not carry our gaff with us for fear of damaging her.  We have one on board the sailboat, but we did not have it with us. If we had thought to make a noose to put around the tail, that might have been effective, but we did not consider that at the time.  We thought about the idea of trying to tow it into shore, but thought it would probably put too much pressure on our line, so we decided to attempt to net it.  I took over holding Jason’s rod and he took the net. Unfortunately it really was too big and too wide to fit into our net, and in the process of trying to net it we changed the angle of the hook in the fish’s mouth by putting pressure on the line against the side of the net, and it popped out.  Of all of the Halibut that we have caught, this one was hooked the least securely.  It only had one of the two hooks in its mouth, and instead of swallowing them it had simply gotten hooked in the mouth, and so it was relatively easily freed.  It splashed back into the water and immediately swam downward.  

Although we were frustrated that it had gotten away, it was also amazing to have seen it.  Since it did get away, we are very happy that we still have both of the hooks, and that it doesn’t have any hooks stuck in it.  As far as the overall size of Halibut goes, this one was still very small, but to us, it was massive.  It was definitely our biggest fish, it’s just too bad that it got away.