We had a quiet morning our last day of the week fishing. We were really focused on catching halibut. After fighting currents, we surrendered and went to fish salmon. We go into pinks and within 1.5 hours had our limit. So it is back to the halibut fishing.

About three in the afternoon we found a good spot on Mary’s Flat and the tide was also cooperating. It was perfect! We were getting little bites, but nothing big. I was ready to go when suddenly I had a hard bite and it stayed on. So the battle began.

My friend, Cindy, would pull the pole up and I would reel in. We did this for 30 minutes, trading off on occasion. Finally, when we got the halibut to the surface, we could see it was large (98 lbs). The next problem was how to get the guy in the boat.

We tried to lift it in and couldn’t budge it over the edge of the boat. Cindy tried to put her hand through the gill trying to get a grip and the halibut would close its gills and squeeze her fingers in the process. That was not going to work. Cindy came up with the idea to use the oar. We put the handle down through the mouth and brought it out through the gill. We both grabbed an end of the oar and with that leverage were able to lift the halibut into the boat. Hurray!