6/12 Halibut school
Last fall Phil on the Fire Escape expressed some interest in getting together for a little halibut tune-up before he retired from the fire department. With only a week left before he retires, we finally got on the water for his first lesson in the Halibut 101 series.
We met down at the Shelter Island ramp around 7:30 just as the tide was going slack for the first low of the day. With the halibut season getting off to a slow start, I felt the bay offered the best chance for us to find a fish or two.
We started off out in front of the Del were we metered a lot of bait but were unable to put a scratch on a bait in the two long drifts we made there. The next move was back to the channel to a spot that rarity lets me down. Charlie you might remember the spot. It's were I took you to pop your halibut cherry.
It took two drifts before we put a scratch on a bait and on the third pass we drew blood. I was first on the board with a modest 13 pound fish. On the next pass Phil gets hooked up and contributes one to the box. On the next few drifts we came up empty so we move back inside the bay to explore a few more areas that held fish in the past.
A few more hours of drifting on the Navy side of the bay releasing spotties and Phil hooks into his second keeper of the day.
We called it a day at 1:30 with 3 keepers in the box and one happy student on board.
Mike
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