553 pounds!!!

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Holy crap! The cheeks on that thing would each fill a dinner plate. Mmmmm, 'but cheeks!

Oh my god that thing is awsume!!!

That is a monster for sure...

I wonder how many baby butts something that big makes every year?

Awesome! I have always been a fan of big butts!

HOLY SH!T
that is one big a$$ butt!!!

Dammmm thats a nice butt!!!!

HOLY SHNIKEYS!!!

Now that's what ya call a Barn Door!!

I wonder how much $$ that fish was worth?

How Sad

My sentiments exactly chaser. That fish was probably 30+ years old.

The meat is probably so worm-filled that it's commercial value isn't much more than that of a handful of chickens, which are far better eating anyway.

Impressive sight? Yes, but I agree with Jeff and Chaser, that fish would have been MUCH MORE valuable making baby halibut than it will be rotting away in the seafood case at Safeway.

Never thought about it being worm filled, but anything bigger than about 25 lbs. is on it's way south as far as table fare.

It IS nice to see that some of them still live long enough to get that big, though.

Just wondering?? whats the world record on butts.. ?? Never fished for them.

I've seen a picture of a hallibut that was 11 feet long and weighed over 1500 pounds. It was commercially caught by a sein net in Alaska by a boat that was netting a school of chum salmon. The halibut was swimming through the school gorging itself. When it was brought on board, the halibut was full of chum ranging from 11 - 15 pounds apiece. The picture showed the fish laying on the deck and it was thicker than the height of the boots that the deckhands were wearing.

I wouldn't want to reel that in from 600'!

A range keeper like the Columbia Sturgeon should be implemented on halibuts.
But again, this is only relevent to sports fisherman and not trawlers.

Sounds like a good plan, but all good plans end up hurting us folks.

I used to sort out dead BUTTs up to 300#+ and throwing them back into the ocean while I was on a factory trawler in the early 90's.
What a waste of life and resource.

That is a good Idea... but, even with a slot limit once you haul them monsters up from the deep their likely dead anyway...

I'd vote for a line test limit... say 18 lbs... aint no way you'll get a bruiser up on 18lb test...

He wouldn't even know its hooked... he he he

:p

Nope,
Not on hook and line.
Only ray-finned fish get the benze.

I got a question for you all!

Who side it was a "female"?

"It was alive,'' Barry Davis said. "It took all five of us to get it on board. It was kind of hard getting him over the rail. We had five gaffs in him. We weren't going to let him go.''

That's 3 "hims" are you guys sure it was even a female?
The Pacific halibut (Hippoglos-sus stenolepis) was called “haly-butte” in Middle English, meaning the flatfish to be eaten on holy days.

General description: Halibut are more elongated than most flatfishes, the width being about one-third the length. Small scales are imbedded in the skin. Halibut have both eyes on their dark or upper side. The color on the dark side varies but tends to assume the coloration of the ocean bottom. The underside is lighter, appearing more like the sky from below. This color adaptation allows halibut to avoid detection by both prey and predator.

Life history: Spawning takes place during the winter months with the peak of activity occurring from December through February. Most spawning takes place off the edge of the continental shelf in deep waters of 200 to 300 fathoms. Male halibut become sexually mature at 7 or 8 years of age, and females attain sexual maturity at 8 to 12 years. Females lay two to three million eggs annually, depending on the size of the fish.
Fertilized eggs hatch after about fifteen days. Free-floating eggs and larvae float for up to six months and are transported up to several hundred miles by currents of the North Pacific. During the free-floating stage, many changes take place in the young halibut, including migration of the left eye to the right side of the fish. During this time the young halibut rise to the surface and are carried to shallower waters by prevailing currents. In the shallower waters, young halibut then begin life as bottom dwellers. Most young halibut ultimately spend from five to seven years in rich, shallow nursery grounds as in the Bering Sea.

Younger halibut, up to 10 years of age, are highly migratory and generally migrate in a clockwise direction east and south throughout the Gulf of Alaska. Halibut in the older age classes tend to be much less migratory. Older fish often use both shallow and deep waters over the annual cycle, however they have much smaller “home ranges” than younger, more migratory fish.
Research indicates that there may be small, localized spawning populations in deep waters such as in Chatham Straight in northern Southeast Alaska. However, because of the free-floating nature of eggs and larvae and subsequent mixing of juvenile halibut from throughout the Gulf of Alaska, there is only one known genetic stock of halibut in the northern Pacific.

Halibut live quite a long time, but their growth rate varies depending on locations and habitat conditions. Females grow faster and live longer than males. The oldest recorded female was 42 years old and the oldest male was 27 years old. Halibut are the largest of all flatfish. The largest ever recorded for the northern Pacific was a 495-pound fish caught near Petersburg, Alaska.
Food habits: Being strong swimmers, halibut are able to eat a large variety of fishes (cod, turbot, pollock) plus some invertebrates such as crab and shrimp. Sometimes halibut leave the ocean bottom to feed on pelagic fish such as sand lance and herring.

Commercial fishing: Commercial halibut fishing probably began in 1888 when three sailing ships from New England fished off the coast of Washington state. As the industry grew, company-owned steamers carrying several smaller dories, from which the fishing was actually conducted, dominated the halibut fishery. Subsequently, smaller boats of schooner design in the 60- to 100-foot class were used in the fishery. These boats carried crews of five to eight and, specifically designed for halibut fishing, were very effective. Today, many types of boats are used in the halibut fishery. Most of the old-time halibut schooners have been replaced by more versatile craft that are also used in commercial salmon seine, troll, gillnet, and crab fisheries.
Halibut gear consists of units of leaded ground line in lengths of 100 fathoms which are referred to as “skates.” Each skate has approximately 100 hooks attached to it. “Gangens,” or the lines to which the hooks are attached, are either tied to or snapped on to the ground line. A "set" consists of one or more baited skates tied together and laid on the ocean bottom with anchors at each end. Each end has a float line and a buoy attached. Hooks are typically baited with frozen herring, octopus, or other fresh fish. Depending on the fishing ground, depth, time of year, and bait used, a set is fished 2 to 20 hours before being pulled. Longlines are normally pulled off the ocean floor by a hydraulic puller of some type. The halibut are cleaned soon after being boated and are kept on ice to retain freshness.
Sport fishing: Sport fishing for halibut in Alaska is a very popular activity, with over 65 percent of the effort and harvest occurring in Kachemak Bay, Southeast Alaska, the Kodiak area, and near the mouth of Deep Creek in Lower Cook Inlet.
The halibut taken by sport anglers are generally 15 to 20 pounds in weight; however, fish over 150 pounds are frequently caught. The current Alaska state record for a sport-caught halibut is 450 pounds, and a fish must weigh at least 200 pounds to qualify for the state’s trophy fish program. Anglers use stout saltwater fishing gear to harvest over 1.5 million pounds of halibut annually. The effort and the interest in catching these delicious fish is increasing each year. In Southeast Alaska halibut are second only to king salmon in sport angler preference.

Halibut, along with salmon, provided subsistence for several Pacific Coast native groups. Much folklore is found concerning the halibut. Each fishhook used by the Indians was carved with special designs to bring good luck and large fish. The halibut were smoked and dried for winter use.

Fishing for Pacific halibut is regulated by the International Pacific Halibut Commission. Members from the United States and Canada meet yearly to review research, check the progress of the commercial fishery, and make regulations for the next fishing season. The management of halibut fishing by this commission is intended to allow a maximum sustained yield of halibut.

Does anyone know if it was a male or female?

Cowlitzfisherman

Never heard that one before

Coool...

How does that work???

I dont believe anyone said it was or wasn't... Besides untill recently it has been proper english to apply the masculine... "him or he" when a gender is unknown or unspecified... at least thats what I was taught in the good ole days...

Not being a marine biologist and all wouldn't it take both a male and female to make babies...

So does it really matter if it was him or her....

Thats one less big fish in the gene pool...

kinda like bonking a big ole 25# steely buck...

Does every friggin thread have to turn into a political or moral discussion??

It was a big damn fish and is cool to see.

Yup!

Ray-finned fish such as rock fish get the benze and die when you pulled them up from the deep.
Salmon, dogfish, halibut, etc... do not express this sympthom.
Why... is another topic.

She or he is not relevant because they both reproduce. But don't you agree that larger males have better luck with large females compared to smaller males.

It aint the size, but the cute little way they - aah never mind!

right awn HookNose...no [Bleeeeep!]

Thank you Cowlitzfisherman for taking the time ot post the info on the Halibut. Very interesting

Paul

What a halibut....be that fish is gonna have some grainy meat.

Cowlitz,

If you delve into your research just a tad deeper you'll find that pretty much ALL large halibut (say over 150lbs. or so) are female.

from the NOAA site:

"The Pacific halibut is the largest flatfish known, with females living 40 years or more and reaching 2.5 m and 300 kg. Males are smaller (1.5 m) and have shorter maximum life spans, near 25 years. Spawning occurs during the winter in deep water (180-450 m) along the continental slope at a number of well known locations in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska south to British Columbia. Females spawn repeatedly over the season, producing as many as 2 million eggs.


Hooknose,

Nobody's denying that the halibut in the pic is a very impressive sight. We were just expressing a touch of sadness and concern that a rare specimen so large as this one is now relegated to probably being wasted because it's meat is pretty much worthless.

If the commercials hadn't killed it, she would have continued to grow and potentially produced thousands of baby halibut.

Yep, 99.99999% chance i was a female. A follow-up article in the paper today ... the fish was never weighed, so the true weight will never be known.


http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/3901952p-3924988c.html

4Salt, I understand that.

It is just getting ridiculous that so many threads are being highjacked and turned into some big political or moral discussion.

Heaven help me if I post a picture of my daughter with the 20 lb chum she got last year....

I hear ya! Hopefully we haven't yet reached the point where a pic of your daughter holding a large chum will incite the kind of controversy we've seen lately, but I guess you never know.

p.s. Howdy neighbor! We seem to have more than a few members residing in Lynnwood.

WOW!!! in the immortal words of that great Seattle fisherman Sir Mix Alot

"I like big butts...."

Yeah, all the cool people live in Lynnwood...

Well, at least some of the cool people live in Lynnwood...

Alright, only a few cool people live in Lynnwood. We are the one's without the big hair and blue eye shadow.

I have seen some big ones in my comercial day but never one that big.That thing is huge.

I had to through one over board once that measured a rough 86 inches.That fish about knocked me out slapping me with its tail.It went nuts as we were trying to get it up a stairway and off the boat.Everybody thought it was funny but me

Kinda sad that they take so long to grow into proficient egg producers and yet are allowed to be taken....... I have to wonder how old a fish like that is.....

MC

When it is relavent to a moral issue.... Yes....

There are those that think a beheading would be cool to see.... Doesn't mean that it would be right....
Usually, the large 'Butts like that are female, as is the case with many bottom feeders (sturgeon, Lings, etc..). Probably was a female, but those guys look like commercials and they look at something like that only in terms of poundage and $$..... Attitudes such as that when it comes to monster fish are why the 1500lb Marlins are nearly a thing of the past.....

MC

No, now THAT would impress the hell out of me and bring a BIG smile to my face! Post it, please!

MC

Here's a couple of pics of her chum from last November. You gotta love the look on her face in the first one.

Great pictures hooknose!

Cowlitzfisherman

Now THAT is a beautiful thing to see!!!! Nothing better than being able to pass it down to your children!!
Quite the little fisher you have there Bud!!

MC