Launched at tidelands and made the long paddle to the bait barge. On the way over I decided to troll a kastmaster and rapala shad rap to see if anything wanted to play on the surface and managed a few macks on the crankbait. I also caught a lizardfish on the kastmaster which kind of surprised me as I thought they were bottom dwellers. However what really caught me by surprise was that after I cast the kastmaster back out I instantly hooked up to my first ever halibut
. Unfortunately he was about the size of a small pancake but its still a first and I took it as a sign of good things to come. I got to the barge and picked up some sardines that were in pretty good condition and decided to drift from there for some larger butts. Pretty quickly I hooked up to a good sandbass that came in a hair under five pounds. He went on the stringer and I sent another dine back down. For the next couple hours I got some interest from halibuts as I got constantly raked baits.I couldn't figure out why I could not get a hookup until I let a dine swim around the yak for a second and discovered that the hooks were getting buried in the sides of the bait. I started collar hooking and that changed things big time. At around noon my clicker starts to slowly go off. I hook up and a short fight later netted my first barely legal halibut who also went on the stringe
. I sent another dine down and within two minutes I hook up to another much larger but. After about six minutes get him to the surface and my jaw dropped
, This thing was bigger than the front hatch on my stealth12. I reach for my gameclip so its ready and managed to knock it into the water
. I then go through the motions of what i have read online and go for the gaff shot. I got him in the gills and it held still until I attempted to get it on board at which point it went absolutely beserk
. It almost capsized me and then proceeded to try to drag my gaff to the bottom with me holding on. I let the gaff come out thinking I have a good hookset and can bring it back up. However it goes two feet and
. I had reeled in my swivel into the rod guide without realizing and the line broke there
. After that I made the paddle back to the launch completely exhausted from the fight with the giant. Final fish count was two macks, 1 lizard, 1 sandbass and 3 halibut that I got my hands on with two landed. All in all a good day fishing and managed to break my hali cherry. Does anyone have any advice on how to handle large halibut like that when alone with no game clip? Once I lost the clip I had no clue how I could secure that thing. O well it really did not get to that point. Next time Im just going to powder its skull once in range
.