The search, its starts tomorrow.

Tune into The Outdoor Line on Saturday Morning for an on-the-water update on the search for the Mystery Beast of Puget Sound.

So which reality show format is this going to take, Deadliest Catch, River Monsters, Finding BF, Mountain Monsters, Ghost hunters, Ax Men or Honey Boo Boo?

Scooby Doo.

Fish on...

Todd

No head shake? That has to be a skate! They get big but this sounds really, really big!

I'm starting to suspect a cable or other man-made type object you all are hooking on the sea floor.

No head shakes. Always in the same spot. Fast moving. That just doesn't add up to a fish - especially fish that migrate, move, or can swim.

Just like the "fish" that Stam hooked up in the Prince of Wales Sound. All fish eventually come up. The fact that we couldn't bring it up more than 50' off of the bottom tells me that it might not have been a fish.

I'd like to believe it was a halibut of epic proportions, but the odds just are not in one's favor.

I'm guessing it's a cable that swing/moves with the tides/currents and eventually get's caught up on the rock pile. Under tension, it springs back to it's normal configuration when you yank it up off of the pile with your lures. It's going to race back to it's normal configuration at a really rapid pace.

But, I'm hoping that it's a big-ass monster fish.....as I want to see the photos!!!!!!

PS. Ifsomeone emails me GPS coordinates of where this happens, I'll see if that area has been surveyed with side scan sonars, etc. If so, I bet I can find what's down there. Someone at UW Oceanography will have a photo of that location.

Sky Guy, post your halibut fishing coordinates.

There is a pinnacle off Makah Bay sticking up out of an area of sandy flat bottom that was loaded with big yellow eye rockfish and lingcod that would dive into holes as soon as they were hooked. It felt like a fish on and then a solid unmovable pull, as the tide moved you off the spot, until breaking off. The trick was to not give an inch of line on the hookup to pull them out of there. I don't really think this is what is happening from the description because of the high speed of the chase and the turns .
I have seen a 527 lb halibut hanging on the scale at Bay Fish ,1973 or there about, and can imagine that size of halibut could be quit a battle on sports gear.

Those narrows bridge monster have fooled alot of people. Pain in the ass to breK off of them too.

Are you taking RICH G fishing with you ?

Like some others, the first thing I think of with all the stories is large skate. I was on a boat in Alaska a few years ago when a huge skate was hooked. Incredibly powerful critters. I also once hooked a salmon shark while halibut fishing in Prince William Sound. Again, some similar characteristics to what's being described. Strong, fast, agile, etc. Who knows...

Scott

So...did anyone hook the mystery beast?

We can add our own chapter to the tale, kind of, I guess.

On Saturday after a long day of fishing, starting in Anacortes, fishing out around the outside of Orcas, out to Stuart Island, inside of San Juan Island, thru Cattle Pass, around Lopez, and then back up Rosario Strait to Washington Park, we ran into our own mystery fish.

We pulled over to make a couple of quick drops between Burrows and Allan Islands. My buddy Addicted was using a 6' heavy action rod, a big reel loaded with 65# PowerPro, and a 6oz. leadhead.

He was fishing to round out our lingcod limit, but had broken off his lighter lingcod rod at Lopez so picked up his light halibut jigging rod to finish off the day with.

65 FOW, he drops...I'm on the motor since the current is ripping along pretty good. Hits the bottom, bounce, bounce, and hung up. A couple of quick yanks and nothing happens, so I begin to motor upstream to get above his jig, and then it takes off...screams off, really.

I had to keep the boat at 10-12 knots to just to keep up with it, and quite a bit faster to gain line.

It would rip fast, then sit down and we would catch up and get above it...it would sulk a bit and then take off hauling ass.

At one point we got it into 30 FOW and were right on top of it...starting pulling up hard and it bailed out to deep water and we were back in 75 FOW in about two minutes, and on the chase again.

A little bit later we followed it into another shallow flat, got into 30 FOW a second time and were right on top of it, pulling straight up...and we may have been gaining a bit of line, or at least we thought we were...and the 65# braid broke off.

This took a bit over 20 minutes and while the fish did a couple of turns of just hanging out and not being budged, most the time it was swimming fast and I had to be in pursuit or it would have cleaned out his reel in a minute or two.

I'm guessing big halibut in that area, but since we never got to see it I guess we'll never know.

Thoughts?

Fish on...

Todd

I'm not...we borrowed Vedder's boat while he's in Florida

Fish on...

Todd

I've seen this before when fishing with Rico........This "Gotta be a 30 pound salmon" took about 15 minutes for him to fight and bring in.



If it was not that, than it was that Sea Lion that stole all his gear in Grays Harbor. I hear those sea lions never forget.....a dude on the bow of a boat, net in hand, screaming like a girl, doing 30MPH chasing a sea lion to get his gear back.

The boat starting part is hard to believe, but the rest sounds legit.

Ive never had a Halibut Fight like that, so I'm thinking it was a baby mystery beast..not an adult.
Halibut "runs" are typically pretty short lived and not the type that would ever make me fire up the main and give chase..they just shoot off in one direction for 10-30 yards, then stop.

Yep, I'm going with a baby mystery beast on this one.

my friend was out fishing a few days ago, didnt hook into one, but this was following his boat for quite a while i guess..

said it was 6 feet long..

To the Top!

If anyone halibut fishing hooks a Puget sound mystery beast this year, good luck landing it and get pictures if you do!

3 yrs in a row(2012-15) one of us hooked into something at Partridge that while didn't reach the speeds described, spooled away/no turning it. Always in the exact same spot+-. I had $75 worth of fresh #80(1000 yrds?) Spectra on top of a half spool of Dacron on the Diana 910 big crank....once into Dacron really wanted as much of that $75 back so took chase and maybe 30 minutes later hook pulled. I assumed big halibut, but it felt like something bigger....There were 3 pilot whales around all day so had to entertain that idea. Going down Sunday for the first time in 3 yrs to see what we see. Have totally empty 910 and if it wasn't so expensive, I'd put a whole big spool(3000 yrs) on it and just got a 610 with the beefiest rod I've seen from Fred P so could put the big guy on the most badass rod I've seen and am rigged for Pliosaur....Ha. Foul hooked a big skate in Neah last year and that was a project getting it up....I hooked a 5 ft 6-gill in the 90's at lummi rocks on lighter gear and it came to the boat. I like the pliosaur idea...good luck out there, Tom

Oh, and if I catch a pliosaur, I'm releasing it....Ha. Tom