Westport halibut

Wow! Tough time fishing.

Very nice! Grats on a great day (3hrs) out! Not to mention some incredible meals!
 
Bottomfish...school me chukar
Commonly called rockfish (Sebastes). There are several different species. These were mostly blacks with some canaries and quillbacks. Awesome fish & chip fodder. Also caught some nice ling cod, the long,slender fish in the box with the halibut. They will latch onto a hooked rockfish and hold on all the way to the surface. If you can net or gaff it before it's head breaks the surface you get it. They call them hitchhikers.
 
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Commonly called rockfish (Sebastes). There are several different species. These were mostly blacks with some canaries and quillbacks. Awesome fish & chip fodder. Also caught some nice ling cod, the long,slender fish in the box with the halibut. They will latch onto a hooked rockfish and hold on all the way to the surface. If you can net or gaff it before it's head breaks the surface you get it. They call them hitchhikers.

Thnx, looks like tons of fun & good eats.
 
Very nice! Great looking fish, well worth the 3 hour boat ride.

First year in the last 5-6 years I wont be going on a halibut/salmon/rockfish trip...and those pictures really pour salt in the wound.

Damn sheep permit has to take priority this year.

Going next year, no matter what.
 
Looks like an awesome day on the high seas. How deep were you fishing? Those halibut are the perfect size for fillets for the BBQ. Much bigger and the fillets get too thick. Looks like the start to a well stocked freezer.
 
Looks great! We are doing a bottom fish trip out of Westport in the end of July with a couple friends flying in from the midwest. Looking forward to some fish in the freezer.
 
Very nice! Great looking fish, well worth the 3 hour boat ride.

First year in the last 5-6 years I wont be going on a halibut/salmon/rockfish trip...and those pictures really pour salt in the wound.

Damn sheep permit has to take priority this year.

Going next year, no matter what.
Surprisingly Washington just added 2 more days for halibut, June 28&29. Not the same as your Alaska trip but if maybe doable?
 
Looks like an awesome day on the high seas. How deep were you fishing? Those halibut are the perfect size for fillets for the BBQ. Much bigger and the fillets get too thick. Looks like the start to a well stocked freezer.
700' - 900' for the halibut. 250+ for the rockfish.
 
700' - 900' for the halibut. 250+ for the rockfish.

Wow! That's crazy deep for halibut and the rockfish.

Where we fish, 200' is deep for halibut...we watch the rockfish hit the jigs. I've had rockfish jump out of the water, from a pack of 8-10, and grab a jig a foot above the surface. Seen silvers grab cut herring less than foot below the surface as well.
 
Wow! That's crazy deep for halibut and the rockfish.

Where we fish, 200' is deep for halibut...we watch the rockfish hit the jigs. I've had rockfish jump out of the water, from a pack of 8-10, and grab a jig a foot above the surface. Seen silvers grab cut herring less than foot below the surface as well.
That's what happens when you've already exterminated them in shallower water, pretty soon we'll be catching them in 1,500' of water here in WA. The idea that we still allow for halibut take at all slays me. 30 years ago you could catch them in 60' of water in the sound, now you have to go 37 miles off the coast to find them... it's like the 1800's and buffalo, we won't stop until we catch them all.
 

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