Halibut opener

[The scout]

It's sad. They have issued long line permits for the hood canal and we have been seeing them out there slaughtering the bottom fish. Makes me sick

[Dmulcahy]

Nice job!  Were you guys way out by Seiku, or inside? What depth were you finding them if inside?
[/quote]

We were inside area 6, fishing about 130'

[baldopepper]

Went out of Neah Bay with my future son in law on his Defiance 290 boat.  Limited on butts, lings and bass Thursday and Saturday and bass and in shore lings Friday and Sunday.  New experience for me, but he knew what he was doing.  Seems the boats that went way out (he said we went out 45 miles) had no trouble getting their halibut and lings, but guys we talked to that stayed in closer were really struggling.  Never used an electric reel before, seemed kinda like cheating, but were fishing down about 600 ft. and I was only too happy to just push a button.  6 of us on his boat so filleting took a long time at the end of the trip but nice to have all that fish in the freezer.  Good trip but those trips out and back are hard on an old body.

[kball4]

1 Halibut over the 2 days for our crew in Sekiu.  Spots that we limited out on year after year were dead, not even a true cod or dogfish.

[JKEEN33]

Went out of Neah Bay with my future son in law on his Defiance 290 boat.  Limited on butts, lings and bass Thursday and Saturday and bass and in shore lings Friday and Sunday.  New experience for me, but he knew what he was doing.  Seems the boats that went way out (he said we went out 45 miles) had no trouble getting their halibut and lings, but guys we talked to that stayed in closer were really struggling.  Never used an electric reel before, seemed kinda like cheating, but were fishing down about 600 ft. and I was only too happy to just push a button.  6 of us on his boat so filleting took a long time at the end of the trip but nice to have all that fish in the freezer.  Good trip but those trips out and back are hard on an old body.

 Nice load of fish. Not sure it was the distance, but knowing some of the less popular spots. I know several people that fished the further holes with no luck. We had our success on the less popular spots.

I'm definitely considering the electric reels. Gets tough when you have to fish the 500-600 foot holes all day. Do you know what reels you were using?

[baldopepper]

Went out of Neah Bay with my future son in law on his Defiance 290 boat.  Limited on butts, lings and bass Thursday and Saturday and bass and in shore lings Friday and Sunday.  New experience for me, but he knew what he was doing.  Seems the boats that went way out (he said we went out 45 miles) had no trouble getting their halibut and lings, but guys we talked to that stayed in closer were really struggling.  Never used an electric reel before, seemed kinda like cheating, but were fishing down about 600 ft. and I was only too happy to just push a button.  6 of us on his boat so filleting took a long time at the end of the trip but nice to have all that fish in the freezer.  Good trip but those trips out and back are hard on an old body.

 Nice load of fish. Not sure it was the distance, but knowing some of the less popular spots. I know several people that fished the further holes with no luck. We had our success on the less popular spots.

I'm definitely considering the electric reels. Gets tough when you have to fish the 500-600 foot holes all day. Do you know what reels you were using?

We were using the red Daiwa's-had trouble with the power cords on a couple of them and I guess that's not uncommon.  Poor connection right at the reel and they break quite often the guys told me. He thinks he's gonna hard tape them about 6" down from the reel to take the stress off.

[Moose22]

I understand all the frustation that is being expressed in this thread. One thing that is really killing the sport fishing is returned punch cards. Cards that are not turned are counted as full, acorrding to one particular game warden that I had a long discussion with. Creel checks and fly overs are silly and encounters (fishermen that tell the fish checker that they released a fish counts towards OUR limit) are killing us.

The most important thing we need to do is encourage all sportsman to turn in punch cards!!!

[lokidog]

I understand all the frustation that is being expressed in this thread. One thing that is really killing the sport fishing is returned punch cards. Cards that are not turned are counted as full, acorrding to one particular game warden that I had a long discussion with. Creel checks and fly overs are silly and encounters (fishermen that tell the fish checker that they released a fish counts towards OUR limit) are killing us.

The most important thing we need to do is encourage all sportsman to turn in punch cards!!!

And not brag about all those released fish......   

[Moose22]

I understand all the frustation that is being expressed in this thread. One thing that is really killing the sport fishing is returned punch cards. Cards that are not turned are counted as full, acorrding to one particular game warden that I had a long discussion with. Creel checks and fly overs are silly and encounters (fishermen that tell the fish checker that they released a fish counts towards OUR limit) are killing us.

The most important thing we need to do is encourage all sportsman to turn in punch cards!!!

And not brag about all those released fish......   

Amen brother!

[JKEEN33]

Agreed about the released fish. It's not illegal to release, so what I came in with is all I caught.

As far as punchcards for halibut, the catch is totaled before cards are due so I'm not sure how that would affect the halibut quota. They usually have an estimate after the first week to decide if sports gets a full second week.

[Moose22]

Agreed about the released fish. It's not illegal to release, so what I came in with is all I caught.

As far as punchcards for halibut, the catch is totaled before cards are due so I'm not sure how that would affect the halibut quota. They usually have an estimate after the first week to decide if sports gets a full second week.

You are correct. I guess my complaint about returned cards (lack of) had more to do with salmon and steelhead. I don't know how to have a better account of flatties and other bottom fish counts, but we all know the fish checks on a few boat catch that are counted and then a fly by and count boats, averaging that catch, is not helping us.

[James]

At Neah bay we got our halibut Thursday, but couldn’t quite get our ling limit.  Friday took it easy slept in, and then went out for a seabass limit. Saturday was a bit snotty and took us over 2 hrs to get to our fishing spot. It was a bit slower, only getting three halibut, but picked up our lings even though they were a bit smaller than I am used to (largest one was 15lbs).

Heading out wed after work to fish the Thursday opener.  Hoping for the best!