Everything is bigger in The USA.... Or is it?
This is probably the only fish that we have in the cold Scandinavian (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland) waters.
I just wanna return som fish-carma, for some of the fantastic adventures all of you have shared with me, thank you.:thumbsup2:
12 dudes were going from Denmark, to Saltstraumen, Norway. The top species for us to hunt was the halibut, cods, Pollock, flounders, wolfish and saith.
We had 7 days of fishing at 10-20 meters of deepth in the 11 degree Celsius water.
The first day, the monster of my dreams gave me quite a battle.
The current had just turned, and the clear water from the open sea was streaming in, making the water flow pretty fast. So fast that you would never be able to swim against it.
We had a boatman, and he was watching us as we were drifting fast with our bouy, rigged with a breakaway system.
This was my homemade 125 doubleband guns virgin ride, actually virgin shot I realized that same night, while drinking a beer reliving the situation.
There were a lot of cods swimming, and hiding behind the stones as I was sliding 2 meters above the seabed. I wanted the focus on the halibuts, as a codkill would mean 30 mins of realoading and sailing upstream.
at about 10 meters i see this flat-fish laying on the bottom. Since you judge the distance from things you know the size of, i totally misjudged the distance to the bottom. Thinking it was in the very shallows arround 5 meters deep.... Diving down, and down and down... the fish became bigger. And at, what must have been arround 5 meters, i shot the gun virtical down and nailed the fish to the sand!
Silence... no reaction.... WHAT?.... dive down and take a look at the fish.... no reaction! Had i just shot dead, what should be the best fighting muzzlemachine of the north?
Well, i guess i could lift the fish a litle and grab the shaft in the flopper end?! So i did, and as I tipped the fish to grab the shaft, it turned ballistic, taking allmost 35 meters of floatline, passing through my hand before i could return to the surface from the 10 meters of deepth.
In the surface, in the hassle, i forgot that the gun was rigged with beakaway... I grabbed the gun before right next to me, and now it was game on! I was waving and shouting at my boatman... and the bouy was telling him that i had something big.
The force of this fish was gigantic. I pulled me up the stream, and after a while, say 10 min. i had a second gun with another bouy, to secure the kill.
Only problem was, i couldn't barely outswim the current between the bouy and the fish. I didnt want to let go of the fish, since the shaft was single flopper and it needet to be keept tight, not to fold in. I was swimming for 15 mins, before i began diving, scouting for the fish. The water was still under 15 meters, but the high concentration of CO2 in my blood was just killing my downtimes, went to 10m constantly maxing out my fins sinus curves. 20 secs downtime... and surface time keeping the line tight.
Now the fish stopped swimming.... no current down there, when you are a hallibut on flat ground, hydrodynamic and all! But still hard times keeping me at point over the fish.
After a few dives, 2. shot well places behind the gills, upper side. More swimming action, this time with me in the boat.
After 30 mins. The fish was in the boat, and feel-good-fish-drugs was just flowing in my veins!
We took out the otoliths, and came to the conclusion that this fish was arround 12 years of age.
Weight: 31 Kgs
Length: 140 cm
Regards Søren