Knifing Halibut

[labaladeplata]

Hello everybody, this is my first post and I'm liking the boards.

I have landed many Halibut but now I'm looking to knife one. Anyone have techniques on how to knife a Halibut.

Photos of your knife kills are welcome!

 

[Narced Out]

I have a good story for you,

My instructor went bug hunting a week or two ago and came across a 5ft halibut on the bottom. He had no knife or spear with him. EXCEPT a 3 and a half inch blunt knife on his bc. Small knife, big halibut??????

He stabbed it in the back and this thing took him for a ride, i mean for a good 10 minutes. he tried to hit it in the spine but was a little off at first. Dragging him around he finally was able to move the knife into the spine and kill it. He said it was a good dinner.

 

[labaladeplata]

I'm going to have to see pics of that to believe it...I really don't know how you would hold on to a 5ft slimy Halibut.

Getting back to the topic of the post, how would you approach one?

 

[LouieLouie]

The halibut is quite common here and specimen around 500 pounds/8 feet are caught by sports fishers every year. The general advice given to divers is to stay away from them. Most likely you'll end up just wounding the halibut unless it's juvenile, in which case it should be left alone anyway. Spearguns are a big no-no as the halibut usually will try to escape by swimming for deeper waters. Deeper, as in several hundred meters.

It has been reported that German tourists use divers to attach fishing hooks to halibuts, but this approach is generally frowned upon.

 

[labaladeplata]

I forgot to clarify that I'm only trying to knife California Halibut. So they don't grow to be 500lbs.

 

[cmburch]

For the story about using a knife on a halibut. That sounds very irresponsible. IMO If the knife had a way to retain the fish, I could see it. I have never seen a halibut knife with retention system for sale in California. Maybe someone on BloodyDecks may know. Pacific and California Halibut.

 

[labaladeplata]

A "halibut knife with retention system" never crossed my mind.

 

[Fish Flayer]

I've never attempted, however have witnessed first hand flounders being caught with a knive. Simply slowly aproach stab into sand, get hand under the fish and grib the blade * must use gloves as to not cut your hand!!!

however they halibut knife with retainers sounds best I wonder if you could make one self proppelled on the end of a pole just harassing you

 

[M2]

stab through, grab the blade and flip it over. Once upside down they usually calm down a little.

 

[cmburch]

My thoughts on this:

A halibut knife would need to have a lanyard. The blade could be wasp-like. The front half thicker and near the hilt thinner. Also no cutting edge near the hilt on thinner portion of blade. Perhaps a larger hilt.

It is obvious that not all will brain the fish or sever the spine on the first stab. What this means. The fish will take off. May lose the fish if knife comes loose such as pulling off or making the cut larger than blade. Have to brain fish, or cut or pull gills when it stops running.

This is public thread. Which could lead to a ban on the use of knives for capturing fish by advertising to the public and CA DFG if they read about lost fish, or fish running and dragging the diver. Of course, can argue that a spear is just a shaft with a knife on the end.

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/mspcont8.asp

Our California halibut are not necessarily small fish. Grabbing the knife blade for California Halibut?