Halibut fishing is near and dear to me and my family. Every spring since I was a young child, we readied our boat and geared up to fish halibut together. Early on, my sister and I would “help” out by releasing the occasional starfish that was still clinging to a piece of bait. As the years went on we were taught more important skills — we learned how to coil the lines as they came in and how to bait and set gear so that my dad could focus on finding the best location to set the gear.
As soon as we were teenagers looking to earn money, my parents took advantage of all that teen angst and energy and taught us how to “clean” fish — cutting out the gills and guts of the halibut so they could be packed with ice. This is one of the more challenging jobs on the boat. The fish can sometimes weigh 200 lbs or more and, as you can imagine, be difficult to move around the deck. Their gills are also thick and coated with small teeth to protect them from the spiny crab and rockfish with poisonous quills. For comparison, cleaning salmon is a delicate and straightforward process, whereas halibut is more akin to butchering a cow or a deer. There can be as much as 40 pounds of guts and gills to heft after cleaning! Once cleaned, these giant halibut are carefully iced, packed, arranged, and layered like a game of Tetris in the fish holds. If you don’t layer each fish perfectly the large ones take up too much space and limit the amount your boat can pack.
Each year we worked harder and learned the ropes so that our crewshare — the percentage we were paid of the total trip — grew. Thirty plus years later, my sister and I still fish with my dad each spring. He just turned 70 so he’s not hoisting big fish like he used to, but he’s pretty spry and refuses to give up his favorite job of running the roller. This is where he quickly removes the hooks from the groundline and releases any live unwanted bycatch back into the ocean. If the fish is too big or wild for him to shake he passes it to me.
We use circle hooks — hooks shaped like a “c” — for halibut fishing. They hold fish really well and minimize the potential for deep hooking and bleeding often found with “j” hooks — hooks shaped like a “j”. They are also safer to use since they won’t grab a hold of you as easily if the line slips. The downside with a circle hook is that you have to spin the hook out of the fish’s mouth — not an easy task when there is a 30lb wild lingcod shaking its head violently!
My dad has trained us with a particular vernacular to describe each different-sized halibut as he sees them come up on the line. The smallest ones — sublegal — we call “shakers” and are delicately released back to the ocean. The next size up he calls “keepers” and, after seeing thousands of halibut come over the rail, he knows exactly which ones are legal sized. We then measure them to be sure they are above the legal 32’’ limit. The next size after that — halibut between 35lbs and 60lbs — we refer to as “baby soakers”. Nice-sized fish, but small enough for one person to pull in by themselves. After that, we have “soakers”. When you hear someone on deck yell “soaker!” you drop whatever task you are doing and help haul it in. Sometimes it takes all three of us pulling our hardest to yard in a giant halibut. These extra-large fish have their own name — “whales”. These are halibut over 150lbs and take all of our might to bring onto our decks.
Each fish is immediately bled to preserve the pure white flesh. If not properly bled, a halibut will turn pink and the flavor won’t be as clean or delicious. We take great pride in taking care of our fish and making sure each one is handled with care. We know how great a perfectly handled fish is and we want to be able to share that with you.
This time is also really special for our family because it’s concentrated time working hard together to fill our little boat. After all this time together I feel like I know all the secret spots my dad wants to fish and we negotiate on where we will put our gear. I’m happy to have his historical knowledge of all the different areas and he appreciates that I remember where our best sets more recently were. Against the weather and the tide we find ways to find the fish and bring them to Sitka with the quality that makes us proud — together on a little boat laughing and arguing the whole time. We wouldn’t want it any other way and we hope you enjoy the next piece of fish knowing who caught it.
