Pacific Halibut

Pacific Halibut are suppose to range from Alaska to Baja, but how many of you have ever caught any off the California Coast?    I have never seen one but then I never go far from shore!  Do they stay out in deep water?

My friends in Euraka catch them, along with the California Halibut.  I've heard of them being caught in Santa Cruz North coast, but have not gotten one myself....V rare.

did you see the report about the commercial guy at Oyster Point this week that caught a halibut that was dark on both sides??  No white side.

Strange....I'd eat it, though.

Allen

did you see the report about the commercial guy at Oyster Point this week that caught a halibut that was dark on both sides??  No white side.

strange indeed....might have caught right next to the poop chute 

Allen,

Where was this report of the double dark-sided halibut?  Greenland halibut are rare around here but not unheard of and are uniformly dark like you describe.

Brian

Very cool.  A greenland halibut, eh?

I got the report on the radio show last night from Marvin Shanks who works at Boat and Motor Mart at Oyster Point.  A commercial guy was trolling frozen chovies out to candlestick and back, or Hunter's Point.....

The report was mentioned in Hoffman's column as well. 

BTW I'll remind people and plug the show  The Let's Go Fishing Radio Show 1080AM every Thursday 7-8pm... live streamed from our website http://www.theletsgofishingradioshow.com and archived weekly on Ship to Shore Radio.com as well as SportfishingReport.com

So how would a greenland halibut breed here?  Is the gene dominant or recessive?  Would one greenland halibut mating with a california halibut result in a certain percentage of double-darksides?  or does it take two greenland halibut to breed true to color?

Or, is it possibly a "sport" anomoly?

Thanks againb for your scientific input on this board.....so much to learn.....

Allen

It could be a greenland halibut, a picture would help.

Anyway, Greenland Halibut are a bit of an oddity in the world of marine biogeography (the study of marine species distributions).. they're classified as having an amphiboreal distribution.   Basically, that means that they are found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific but not the Arctic Ocean.  They were first described in the Atlantic, thus the "Greenland" name.

As for breeding, they're not even in the same family, let alone genus as California halibut.  California halibut are in the family bothidae along with the sanddabs while greenland halibut (and Pacific halibut) are in the family pleuronectidae along with the rest of the soles, turbots and flounders.

My original question about Pacific Halibut got highjacked so I'll try repeating it again!
Have any of you caught Pacific Halibut off the California coast?

Windriver,
No, I haven't caught one.

In CA, there's a charter on the N. Coast (Bragg?) which heads out to Punta Gorda for Pacific Butts. 
Although these fish get much bigger than CA butts, they don't get nearly as big as the ones in AK.  I believe 75lbs is a BIG fish for a Pacific Halibut in CA.

Stuart

I've never caught one in California.  They are starting to catch some  out of Eureka as of last week, according to Khevin Mellegers at Mad River Outfitters.

Allen

one day in monterey i got skunked and wanted to see some fish. i went to the fish market next to del monte and they had one the size of a full size truck hood that they caught in monterey bay. they were cutting pieces off of it and selling it by the pound. i wonder how many pounds it was. what a catch! whew!

john