Halibut Fishing - Day 3

I'm not totally accurate in the daily schedule for yesterday and today.  On both days, we set all 700 hooks and pulled them back in.  For blog purposes, I figured I'd concentrate on setting yesterday and pulling today.

Now it's time to pull the lines and see what comes up.

The line comes up from the water and through the block above Fabian's head, then over to another block, and then back onto the reel.  Fabian is the "roller man" who unsnaps gangions and deals with whatever comes up on the hooks: rockfish, starfish, skates, sharks, coral, and sometimes a halibut!

Oh yeah!  Here comes a halibut.  Get ready, Greg!

Greg pulls the small ones aboard, bleeds them like he's doing in this photo, and snaps them over to the other side of the boat where I can clean them and get them in the hold.  The faster they get on ice, the better quality they are for the consumer - and we like our fish to be the best quality!

Sometimes the big ones take two people to haul aboard.  If we're really lucky, we'll get a three person fish.

Get that one, Greg!  It's a nice one!

Greg and I switch jobs every set.  It helps our "mature" hands and arms to vary the job and we end up being less sore.

Greg got this 100 pounder to clean.  Then he'll take it and slide it in the "ice slush" ready in the fish hold to his right.  It'll be kept nice and cold.

Captain Fabian put us on the fish.  We tally the total by measuring each fish.  You get in quick trouble from the National Marine Fisheries Service if you go over your quota. 

It always happens.  As soon as we caught our limit, 5 fish between 80 and 120 pounds came up on the line.  We released them gently.  Come back next year!