Heavyc
Active Member
The lesson of the day is, NEVER PULL A HALI IN BY THE HARPOON.
I'll attempt to phrase this out while I cry in my beer.
So my friends and I had a plan to fish the hump in CR early this AM. Met at big rock at 5am, and set to it.
Now begins the tale of woe.
We set to it, 2 lines down 180/200 feet trolling for the big boys. 1st troll in the tide rips our one deepline into our prop. We lose 200ft of braid and down to one side. We regroup, double stack the other side and do a few runs on it.
Then the weeds come in and we have to pull up. We get the lines in but while the deepline is coming up it gets gunked up and we lose yet another snap. Now, being down to only one snap, and the fact that by 7 we hadn't seen one fish caught, we decide to go jig instead. At least then all three of us can fish.
Head down to infront of ken forde park- get some undersized lings and a dogfish. Then the boat captain decides to hit shelter point.
167ft down of shelter point my buddy hooks into something acting like a plank stuck on the bottom. As he's pulling it up we prep the harpoon and look for the gaff(it isn't there). We get it up, expecting something in the 20-40 range, but we are shocked to see something well over 50 coming up.
Captain harpoons the hali, it goes berserk and thrashes. Still on the line at this time we are all buzzing about this big fish. Literally this is the first Hali I had seen caught. We go to pull it in some and get it bleeding out and as the captain gets its gill plate it thrashes again. About 20 minutes later and several thrashing fits, we figured it had had given up and was done. I say "It's probably got one more thrash left in her and then it'll be done". Sure enough it shook one more time and settled into its final sleep.
Cue the sad music
My bud, the captain, the one with the only hali experience on the boat up to this point, starts pulling it up over the transom by the harpoon line. Aaron, the stud who reeled it in, and I are high fiving. We are already eating this beast in our minds.
And then it breaks off.
It was a third in the boat so the angle it fell back to made it drop too fast so we couldnt net it. Its unclear whether the head of the harpoon broke or how it joins the line, but the loop in our poonline was still good. But the lesson of it all is, Poon it, kill it, gaff it and secure it. All before you pull it into your boat.
It ended a bad day with a tale of woe that deserved telling, so here it was.
And for those who say "BS proof with pix or it didn't happen" here you go. You can see we have it with the harpoon line in its cheek.
PS I hear the crabs are feasting at shelter point right now, may want to drop a trap around 167 ft
I'll attempt to phrase this out while I cry in my beer.
So my friends and I had a plan to fish the hump in CR early this AM. Met at big rock at 5am, and set to it.
Now begins the tale of woe.
We set to it, 2 lines down 180/200 feet trolling for the big boys. 1st troll in the tide rips our one deepline into our prop. We lose 200ft of braid and down to one side. We regroup, double stack the other side and do a few runs on it.
Then the weeds come in and we have to pull up. We get the lines in but while the deepline is coming up it gets gunked up and we lose yet another snap. Now, being down to only one snap, and the fact that by 7 we hadn't seen one fish caught, we decide to go jig instead. At least then all three of us can fish.
Head down to infront of ken forde park- get some undersized lings and a dogfish. Then the boat captain decides to hit shelter point.
167ft down of shelter point my buddy hooks into something acting like a plank stuck on the bottom. As he's pulling it up we prep the harpoon and look for the gaff(it isn't there). We get it up, expecting something in the 20-40 range, but we are shocked to see something well over 50 coming up.
Captain harpoons the hali, it goes berserk and thrashes. Still on the line at this time we are all buzzing about this big fish. Literally this is the first Hali I had seen caught. We go to pull it in some and get it bleeding out and as the captain gets its gill plate it thrashes again. About 20 minutes later and several thrashing fits, we figured it had had given up and was done. I say "It's probably got one more thrash left in her and then it'll be done". Sure enough it shook one more time and settled into its final sleep.
Cue the sad music
My bud, the captain, the one with the only hali experience on the boat up to this point, starts pulling it up over the transom by the harpoon line. Aaron, the stud who reeled it in, and I are high fiving. We are already eating this beast in our minds.
And then it breaks off.
It was a third in the boat so the angle it fell back to made it drop too fast so we couldnt net it. Its unclear whether the head of the harpoon broke or how it joins the line, but the loop in our poonline was still good. But the lesson of it all is, Poon it, kill it, gaff it and secure it. All before you pull it into your boat.
It ended a bad day with a tale of woe that deserved telling, so here it was.
And for those who say "BS proof with pix or it didn't happen" here you go. You can see we have it with the harpoon line in its cheek.
PS I hear the crabs are feasting at shelter point right now, may want to drop a trap around 167 ft
