Early season halibut fishing in British Columbia remains a springtime right of passage for Coastal anglers.
Whether a devout flatfish jigger or anchor game disciple, early season halibut hunting is a decidedly cool pursuit from Prince Rupert to the Juan de Fuca…and most points between.
New halibut regulations kicked in April 1 coast wide in British Columbia, including a limit of one halibut per day with a maximum size of 112cm or about 40 inches. This is a slight increase over last season, bumping keeper size up towards 40 pounds. It’s no 133cm of yesteryear but decidedly good on the conservation side. And ain’t nothing wrong with a 40-pound slab for the freezer.
Thinking big halibut gets my cognitive juices flowing and winds my occasionally fading memory back to Winter Harbour and filming an early years Big Coast episode with Glenn Olson. Now Oli’s Fishing Charters is pretty established and Oli himself has built hefty Quatsino legend, but back then he’d just got his first float cabin and was kicking butts in Winter Harbour.
Oli sold me on the Winter Harbour trip and I recall towing the old rig up from Parksville and launching for the WCVI. Our mission was pretty simple, head offshore and go catch a really big early season halibut and release it for the spectacle of TV. And a boatload of fun of course!
Now any one who has fished and boated off Winter Harbour in May/June has a pretty good idea what kinda weather gets thrown at you. Big messy swells. Steady drizzle. Life in greyscale. Standard West Coast fare. With prevailing weather lining up exactly so, we hunkered down and got ready for some roller coaster halibut fishing.
As it turned out, the swell and conditions on our big halibut morning were pretty manageable and we ventured offshore, found Oli’s zone and anchored down. The exact depth eludes me but I seem to recall something like 250 feet. Winter Harbour is especially cool as the Continental Shelf comes way closer on the Northwest corner of Vancouver Island. While Tofino and Bamfield may necessitate a 50-mile run to reach underwater canyons…it can be more like 15 miles off Winter Harbour. Note to Albacore trollers: this is a good thing.
Anyway, I remember getting lines down with Oli and serving up some big stinky oily salmon bellies or heads or something. Anticipation was up and we knew this early season window was one of the best times to hook a monster from the depths off Winter Harbour. But really, neither of us was prepared for what ensued.
When the big halibut hit standard pandemonium hijacked the rear deck. The rod was bent in half and line absolutely melting off the big level wind while our second rod also doubled over in total chaos. As I held on and heaved ho like a madman, we quickly realized that this monster Hali had gone bonkers down deep and swept up not only our second line…but our anchor line!
The mess that unfolded included Oli and I both reeling and heaving this big halibut up from the bottom with our anchor line and one complete mess. If you’ve ever fished with Oli you know he’s a big dude and ready for a fish battle, with maybe a little leftover angst from his old AHL hockey days. On this given day he managed to separate the main line the halibut had struck. After untangling the second line and anchor mess, we tied the mainline off to a cleat, cut it from the tangle, and Oli re-tied a blood knot. It was a show as I recall…and if we can find the old TV episode I’d love to watch it.
To make a funny old halibut fishing story complete, I managed to finish the reeling job and the mended line held perfectly. When we got the massive barn door up beside the boat we were definitely freaking out at the size. Oli laid down his 6’6” gaff and we figured the mega halibut was about 5” longer…making it 6’11” and approximately 315 pounds. With some handy work on heavy pliers and gaff, we released the salty specimen and watched it swim back to the depths. A super cool fishing moment really.
Well, to this date that remains my biggest halibut and I haven’t hooked one nearly as big in almost 20 years. On that particular West Coast morning off Vancouver Island, Oli and I got to wrangle with one big monster halibut and build one memorable fishing story!