Black cod fishing

[fish brain]

I did, & was successful. I found them on the westside of the island. I have had a few other suprises from the depths. Such as Shortrakers, Thronyhead rockfish, & even a Massive sleeper shark.

So the shark was asleep when you caught it? Did it drag up like a cod?

 

[Charter Tofino]

Ran a few charters out to the continental shelf targeting them last year. 500 ft flat areas with access to deeper water. Light hits so use tough salmon bellies and just reel instead of setting the hook. Lots of reeling but great eating and quick limits of hali.

 

[ILHG]

So the shark was asleep when you caught it? Did it drag up like a cod?

It was a very odd experience. We hooked it in around 2000' of water. I had a spreader bar out with a "lighthouse lures" 9" LED squid baited with fresh salmon belly. I have a Shimano Beastmaster electric reel. This is one of the most powerful electric reels for sportfishing. They use them on the east coast for sowrdfish. These will lay a beating on a +300lb sowrdfish all day

Not a big hit, just a slow but steady swim away with the bait. I engaged the electric reel and it was like I snagged a ship wreck. Once we got it off the bottom it would give some head shakes and slowly take line. You could feel the slow tail movment as it took line. The reel actually over heated and was out matched.

There were 4 men in the boat and it took 4.5hrs to get it up. We took 2-3 minute shifts and by the end of the shift you were burnt. We had to pump up every inch of line. Every inch of line was fought for.

During the fight we must have wore and stretched a large hole where it was hooked. When we had it ~40' from the boat we lost power to the reel. (I cant remember why? Might have kicked the cord and came off the battery?)
When we lost power to the reel we couldn't keep tension on the fish. As the swells moved the boat up and down we couldn't reel fast enough with the low gears. I remember the boat going down after a swell and the weight on my spreader bar pulling the hook down as I lost tension. The hook just fell out and the giant went back home.

We never even got to see it. Only image I have is when I stuck my go pro in the water and you can just make out the giant silhouette below the boat.

When we lost it the boat went silent. Emotions were high...