36-inch Halibut Monterey 07/20

Launched from Monterey Bay Kayaks beach at 0730 on Monday 07/20 with glassy surface, little wind, surprisingly fast drift for such a calm day, overcast skies, good visibility. Just wanted a shakedown cruise to try out my new Shimano Baitrunner spinning reel. Reports of slow to no bite at all left me with low expectations. Past the yellow buoy drifting toward the red buoy at 90 feet, I dropped a frozen squid on a circle hook with a circle stinger using a reverse dropper loop. Landed a very nice brown RF at about 0800. Quite pleased, thinking ‘Great. Takes care of Mr. Skunk and wife and I can enjoy a nice fish dinner. And BTW, love this reel; that bait runner function seems to work well.’  Drifted for about 15 minutes and had a really hard takedown but did not stick. Guessed it was a Halibut by the way it hit. Paddled back to my first drop; in about another 15 minutes felt another strong takedown followed by a hard nibble all while using the baitrunner feature. Then, fish ran, and I knew I had something. Cranked gently until the rod bent nearly double and the fight was on. Strong runner, towed my yak a ways, really hard headshakes and she pulled a lot of line while she ran. After about 10 minutes, I started gaining line slowly and steadily. Got her to the surface, let her cruise in a circle a couple of times, then gaffed her, got the game clip into her gills, through the mouth, and locked down. So happy. Did my best to dispatch her with a knife point where I thought the brain would be; she quivered a bit and had only reflex twitching, thereafter, so I think I did it right. Cut the gills and let her bleed out. Decided that was it; not a greedy kinda guy. 36-inch Halibut will feed us for several meals. Went home a happy fella.

Excellent! Thanks for the pics and report...

Big 'butt!

NicksYak, my old friend. I'm so happy that you're back!

I hope I don't spill the beans here when I mention that you had a bit of a kayak fishing incident just a few days ago. A more faint hearted person would have never kayak fished again, but you got yourself a new reel and went right back at it. Of course you'd score a bit halibut, bruised ribs be damned. Very well deserved... 

Hi Nick, what a great catch and an even better story! I bet it was an epic fight. Great to see you again, at least in a picture.
Koji (we spent time at Shelter Cove w Marc and families).

Inspiring! Thnx

 Congrats on the nice Butt  . Thanks for the report and pictures Nick.

That giant halibut looks like it could eat your rockfish and still be hungry!

That's a fish to be proud of for sure!!
Great story and sounds like a fun fight, my recent pb fought like a rock 

Cheeee!

Nice fish!! Congrats on a successful day.

Fatty flatty!  Congrats!!!

that halibut could eat that rockfish, and that rockfish ain't bad at all!

Thank you for sharing.  Two nice fish.  Not a bad day when your expectation was a skunk   

Right on, great to see a report from you! Nice halibut!