Halibut Caught in Georgia Strait

quote:Originally posted by Sangstercraft

Speaking of herring in the Strait, although this might be a bit of a side note -- I heard Jim Pattison owns a big part of the commercial fishing fleet - does anyone know if it's for herring or salmon? He's also very entwined with the Liberals, if I remember correctly. The same liberals that are promoting fish farms in Europe. You'd think he would be pissed at that idea.

Jimmy loves it, he owns the biggest fishing fleet in B.C., as well as a major processing company.Canfisco. I believe he also owns many fish licences and quotas. Way to much power for one little man. Jimmy loves Herring.
 
quote:Originally posted by Klob

quote:Originally posted by Sangstercraft

Speaking of herring in the Strait, although this might be a bit of a side note -- I heard Jim Pattison owns a big part of the commercial fishing fleet - does anyone know if it's for herring or salmon? He's also very entwined with the Liberals, if I remember correctly. The same liberals that are promoting fish farms in Europe. You'd think he would be pissed at that idea.

Jimmy loves it, he owns the biggest fishing fleet in B.C., as well as a major processing company.Canfisco. I believe he also owns many fish licences and quotas. Way to much power for one little man. Jimmy loves Herring.
Yikes - did you just get back from the legion?
 
quote:Originally posted by Sangstercraft

If I caught a hali in an area where hali aren't normally found, I'd keep it quiet and let them recover. Give it a few years, then start bragging. The Harbor Chandler's 'Halibut Club' is obviously just a marketing tactic to get people in the store. And I'm not a fan of the idea of a 'leader board' for the largest halibut taken. Just encourages targeting the big ones. Anyone that understands basic halibut reproduction should be offended by the removal of the big females.

Just my thoughts. Hehe, now who'll be the first to jump all over this? :D

total agreement on this. Also in favor of hidden weight derbys over largest catch. have a smaller prize for biggest fish. not absolutely sure but i think the larger fish are better breeders in all species.
 
quote:Originally posted by Poppa Swiss

I gotta say, I don't think a handful of guys fishing halibut on the inside is going to make any difference at all. Halibut are migratory and there is A LOT of deep water for them to hide in.

Its not like a cod where the fish has lived its entire life on one rock pile. That fish you catch of nanaimo could have came down from the port hardy for all we know. If I was going to fish em, I'd be on anchor on some rock pile close to where it drops off to 1000' feet in the straight and I wouldn't feel bad about bonking one at all.

For the females it used to be 100lbs+ was female, then 80lbs was the magic number, then 70, then 50 now 40lbs? Come on guys they aren't ALL females ya know. In norway they have recorded male halibut to over 170lbs.

The point being is, yes larger fish tend to have a greater chance of being female, but lets not treat them like they are rare and can't be harvested. Sportsfishermen take a tiny percentage of the total biomass of halibut - don't let anybody guilt you into not targeting them.

I've been lucky enough to tag into maybe a half dozen or so over 100lbs - been there done that, the meat is chewy and I'll doubt I'll take another one that big. But if someone else wants a trophy go for it, it isn't going to make one bit of difference to their abundance.

Everybody wants to say release big halibut, but chinook are crashing in some of our rivers and I don't hear anybody promoting releasing mature springs?

http://www.fishingvancouverisland.org - Win an 8-Hour WCVI Charter!

fully agree with this one as well poppa.. the only change would be now that you caught your 100lbs for the year you should be off the water. We need seasonal limits if anything around this island is going to have a chance. Anyone notice how sparse the rockfish are becoming south of estevan and around into the gulf.
 
Sad to see guides that think its "ok" to kill large hali's and that it wont have an impact on the fishery. Just because DFO has made bad calls towards conserving the resource doesnt mean that we shouldnt try to do our part to keep it as strong as possible. 100+ pound halis have ****ty meat and thats a fact. I have more respect for a man that lets a big one go than a man that drags one to the dock pretending hes a fishing god. Ive let plenty of big ones go and will continue to do so.
 
It becomes guide mentallity.. Plain and simple.. Some guides don't get a chance at many if not any lg. halis during there career.. It comes down to the excitement of the guest that has absolutely no idea what freaking *** the thing is as long as there is a picture attached to it.. If their into c/r then the tip won't be affected but if the guy is trying to chuck the poon as well as hold the rod you know that thing is coming into the boat..

If hali fishing is to become popular in the straight once again their should be some type of restriction until there is more knowledge about the big girls spawning in the straight.. And to answer the question, yes there is more than enough water in the straight for females to lay their eggs.. They definately don't need 3000'--dirty always behind the [8]
 
The present halibut rules don't make any common sense. There should be an annual limit of around 10. You should only be allowed a maximum of one trophy halibut per season. (determine a length) As we know they aren't good eaters and you can only eat so much any way. With these simple changes we would eliminate the threat of in season closures and only a single hali a day limits while open for many years. (under the present quota of TAC) Ideally the quota system would vanish and we would go back to the old system...but I would still argue for an annual limit.
 
OH OH..!![:o)]

kosi99@hotmail.com

IMG_3509.jpg
 
I agree LC its not about conservation...its about common sense. (under either system) No SPORTSFISHERMAN needs an open ended annual limit for hali's, UNLESS they have an underground buyer for it! Really, nobody should be complaining about an annual limit of 10. That is a lot of meat even if they are all 15 to 35 pounds.
 
We could live with an annual limit. That may be a way to get the daily limits up to 2 a day. I would prefer to see some sort of size limit also which would encourage folks to stay away from the larger spawning females. I appreciate the tit for tat with the commercial guys who we all know would never release anything of size, but we also have to recognize that a lot of the large fish caught on the long lines come up dead anyway. These are two entirely different fisheries, which need to be managed differently for those reasons.

So, perhaps if we looked at a combination of ways (annual, daily and size limits) to limit the sport fleet catch so it stays within the TAC yet allows reasonable daily limits we could fix our problem.
 
quote: If the longliners start to practice conservation, maybe I'll talk guests out of chucking back a trophy.

X2

And not singling anybody out here - but I would LOVE to see a picture of someone cutting the line on a 100lb+ halibut, cause I haven't seen one yet?

Its really easy to say you'll release a trophy fish, its one thing when you got a boat full of guests or buddies and one of them hooks a monster.

http://www.fishingvancouverisland.org - Win an 8-Hour WCVI Charter!
 
quote:Originally posted by Poppa Swiss

quote: If the longliners start to practice conservation, maybe I'll talk guests out of chucking back a trophy.

X2

And not singling anybody out here - but I would LOVE to see a picture of someone cutting the line on a 100lb+ halibut, cause I haven't seen one yet?

Its really easy to say you'll release a trophy fish, its one thing when you got a boat full of guests or buddies and one of them hooks a monster.

http://www.fishingvancouverisland.org - Win an 8-Hour WCVI Charter!

i would say that the longliners are the only group that is practicing conservation. from what i read they have never exceeded their TAC.
 
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