Halibut Rider

We head out of Ucluelet for an easy jaunt over to the Broken Group. Not much wind or swell and since we are also outta fish, its definitely a good fishing day! Josh, my 15 year old son, and I check out charts using Navionics to determine best fishing hole between Ucluelet and Turtle Island and decide that its definitely the southeast side of Sargison Bank. This is called ‘womanly-fish-witching/tuition’ – no knowledge or experience required! We have pretty funky fishing gear, not much experience, little patience and mostly we are good at finding baby cod in little nursery holes. So totally unprepared, a 40 pound halibut latches onto one of our measley rods…. Josh on the other end with excited expletives abounding! Josh reels his prize within 15’ of the boat. We look the fish, our net, one-another… now what? There is just no way the cod-baby-net is going to snag this monster…

Fish Storiies

This is a picture of the 4 foot long Halibut from the boat.

At this point Josh is demanding, “Ted, call someone!” I’m encourage, “We can do this, guys! We can get this fish!” It quickly becomes evident that we do not have the equipment to haul this fish aboard, but we are sure that we can claim our fame and land this prize!

The Plan: drag it ashore using the dingy (despite that only a rocky outcrop on puntsy islet is available nearby), bonk it with a hammer, flop it into the dingy, and get properly anchored on Adesso so we can do the cleaning and processing. Sounds good, right? It takes an hour to get to the islet

So I lady-the-helm on Adesso, equip the dingy with meagre tools-of-halibut-steak production, and Josh and Ted head off in the dingy. The dingy lands, or bounces around on sketchy rocks and Josh quickly leaps out and starts dragging his prize on a barncle ridden rocky outcrop. Ted stays in the dingy to navigate the rocks and bouncing dingy. When I look over my shoulder towards shore i see a mammoth fish up on the rocks with Josh trying to drag it higher. Next look… Josh is getting yanked into the ocean, but somehow manages to sit and straddle the fish.

Halibut riding

Josh’s legs took a beating, this is the goods one!

Ted is out of my line of sight. Then i see this wildly flapping fish tail with Josh riding it hard rodeo style. Afterwards Josh it was like being violently jiggled ontop a slimy mount while his legs and knees took a bloody bashing. The next thing that happens is most unfortunate. A large swell rolls ashore  swamps both Josh and fish into the ocean.

The fish dove as soon as the water hit it and  Josh stood, threw up his arms, and let out a new batch of expletives.

A very large and wiser halibut still lurkes along Sargison Bank and we hunkered into Joe’s Cove to lick our wounds and drown our disappointment.

Entry by Sue

1 thought on “Halibut Rider

  1. Chance Crew

    Hey you guys, great to catch up with your voyage – such hard work and hard days !! love the beach furniture, Sandra likes ALL the pictures – Great stuff Josh – I can hear your joy at the catch………scars to prove it. Mal

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