Halibut: North Of The Border!

[Nelly]

Headed out of Cornet Bay today for a little "flatty" action on a flat, calm Strait of Juan de Fuca.
We dropped anchor in Canadian waters and had to wait a little bit but our patience was rewarded!

John Martinis was the first to score with this dandy that was close to 60 pounds!

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Derek Floyd was next up with this 25 pounder that ended up on the dinner table tonight

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I finally got into the act with this fat flatty which was nearly 50lbs!

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Horse herring with a little bit of salmon guts fished right on the bottom was the ticket and the weather today was absolutely wonderful! Here's hoping the rest of spring looks like this!

[Chef Patrick]

Very nicely done guys! A beautiful day for fishing, and fresh halibut for dinner ..... I am so jealous right now.
Congrats!





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[Fishnut]

Nice job guys! What a great day.

[onwhiskeycreek]

Looks like the new anchor worked well. How much chain did you use with it in the deep water? Good job

Gary

[Nelly]

I like about a boat length of 3/8 galvanized proof coil chain.
It seems to work just fine!

[Jerry Garcia]

Nice fishes, looks like you are down to your fighting weight there, great job on the weight loss. Bet the knees feel a lot better.

[Fish_Kid]

Hey Tom!

Did you guys fish the banks or closer to VI??? And did you see tons of Tribal long lines on your way out??

[Nelly]

Yes,...and yes.
We were just over the US/Canada line and the tribal longlines had our side of the border pretty laced up.
Why do us sport guys have to wait until May???
I think we need to write a few letters...

[Jeff Nance]

Nelly I spoke to a WDFW officer last year in April, and he stated it was voted down by the sport guys. WDFW proposed a much shorter season that opened in April, the sports guys wanted a longer season....I would love a bank fishery where halibut and blackmouth overlapped for a month!!!

[Fishnut]

Yes, a few years ago we had the option of 13 days in May or 6 days in June. We figured 6 days in April would be too few. The next year they would probably cut us again. We did not have the option this year of any April days. they said we were 30,000+pounds over again. So it is going the wrong way to get earlier days. In the last three years of the tribes going hog wild, before us, we have had absolutely terrible fisheries with our PSA Sno- King club. only a few boats have had success. Every year it seems like they say we go over no matter what.
I think we are going into the meeting with fish left on the table to ask for more days and end up showing we caught more than our quota.


Those fish are cleaned out when we go. When we started this fishery I would go out an average at least one fish per trip, trip since 2004. I would have a minimum of 5 to 6 bites a day. This was up until 2010. Since, it has been a total collapse, at least in my area and opinion.

Tribes are reporting 100,000 pounds taken when we start.