This is a very bizarre story..
I was fishing for rock cod in about 70 feet of water with a 6 inch zinger with a size 1 treble, a mooching rod and Calcutta 400 with 80 pound braided line. All of a sudden i hook into something, first i thought it was the bottom so i start to yank it trying to free the zinger
when all of a sudden my rod starts bending from the cork
, and i could feel the head shakes of something big at the end of my line. It wasn't moving much so i slowly started the lift and drop technique. When it reached the boat for the 1st time we saw it was pretty big it looked maybe 20-30 lbs. When we tired to gaff for the 1st time it shook the gaff and got free, so back to the bottom it went. The second time my dads friend wanted to use the fishing net
and try to bring it up, lol i assured him that it would never fit. The 3rd time we had a good gaff set but it was on the gill plate, it ripped the gill plate and the Hali B-line on the surface, almost spooling me but we slammed the boat in reverse and chased the
BEAST. The 4th time we had it near the boat we gaffed it mouth but it bent the gaff
... It was probaby 40-45 min into the battle and I'm really tired. After each attempt it would go straight to the bottom. The 5th time we got a halibut reel and rod and put a big hook on the line and when it was on the surface we set another hook into the Hali. It had no chance, and was brought on the boat beaten, and hog tied.
Okay so i guess you want to know how big it actually was....
1 hr later and several attempts...
Just shy of 80 lbs. It was and awesome battle, but this time the man beat the beast.
( i have pic of the rod bending but are on a friends cam)