40 Inch Club: NorCal Lings, Butts, Salmon, Stripers

Got a good one today on the lost coast! 31.5lbs 41.5”

STOKED

Good stuff!

Got a good one today on the lost coast! 31.5lbs 41.5”

STOKED

Wow!

Got a good one today on the lost coast! 31.5lbs 41.5”

STOKED

  Grats!

       "I remember that beast i caught back in 2021 . It was a misty morning at the Cove............. "


        Definitely Memorable.


       

 

Beautiful fish! Congrats!!

Finally caught this 41 inches Halibut at the 2022 MBK Derby last week.   The previous Halibut that I caught last month was almost make it at 39.25".

Finally caught this 41 inches Halibut at the 2022 MBK Derby last week.   The previous Halibut that I caught last month was almost make it at 39.25".

Great job. 
That is a doormat/ barn door size halibut.

Paul

41 and 39! I'm following you around next time

Wow!! Congrats!

Thanks guys.

Wow talk about some quality fish!!!  WTG 

Wow! Some of those fish need a kayak of their own to carry them to the shore in.

This is from late July last year at Shelter Cove.

We had gone out the day before with Eric Stockwell, and loaded up on rockfish. So today we would slow troll swim baits for halibut on the way to the reef. No bites by the time we arrived.

Once at the reef we started drifting large swim baits on the hopes of catching some lings. After about 15min we were drifting more toward shore so we went back out a couple hundred yards.

I dropped down and got hammered hard by something big. Felt like a monster ling, and I couldn’t get it up more than 10’ and it would dive back down. I worried  that it might snag in the rocks so I added a little more drag. Now I could got it up to 30’ before it would dive down over and over.

I had the rod braced under my arm, and resting on my knee. I was getting beat pretty bad, and decided it was time to have confidence in my leader, and knot tying. I tightened the drag to max which I think is about 22lbs on the Takota 500A.

Now I was starting to make some headway but it would still pull line like there was no drag. Finally it starts to tire out just before I do. I see my leader come into view. I peek over the side and Holy Shit it’s a Pacific Halibut.

Now what? Gaff, or net? Eric always warns people to have a big net when fishing at Shelter Cove, and my son had given me one for birthday. It is embarrassingly big at 36”x36” semi square, and 36” deep with a flat bottom.

I decided to go for it with the net, and from experience with CA halibut I knew it had to go in head first or it would escape for sure. I placed the net in the water, and it took off on another run. Trying to hold the net under my arm while I reeled it in. As it came up I put the net in position and glided it in head first.

Total mayhem as it takes a run while in the net, and I try to hold on, and lift as much as I can. After a while it calmed down. I had it securely wedged in the net so it couldn’t escape. Out of safety concerns I had my son hold the other side of the net while I bleed it, stabbed it in the brain about twenty times, and put it on the clip.

Quite an experience I will remember forever. 44” 38lbs