By Paul Lebowitz

“My first thought was this feels legal,” said Julia Benak of the California halibut she hooked in Dana Point late February. In the prior weeks she’d been getting a lot of practice catching the flatfish from her kayak. The largest had weighed nine pounds, and this fish didn’t feel much different.

Was that ever wrong. The massive brown head that came to the surface after a patient twenty minute fight on 12-pound test line belonged to a doormat. The fish had fooled Benak. “We didn’t realize the weight until we saw it. I said let’s not lose this one,” the Spring Valley kayak angler recounted.

Benak knew landing her giant halibut would be tough. “The hardest part was sinking the gaff,” said Benak. “Once you get the gaff in, they fight like crazy.”

Benak’s kayak fishing companion Aaron Brenner handled the difficult task without incident. Once on shore the big halibut weighed in at 46.1 pounds: a pending International Game Fish Association Women’s’ line class record. Incredibly, Benak topped off her day of a lifetime with a second large flatty, a 34-pounder. This time when Brenner gaffed the fish he had some trouble. Although smaller, the halibut’s powerful tail-walking and bucking nearly overturned Brenner’s ultra-stable Fish N Dive kayak.

The experiences of Benak and Brenner are typical. When a kayak angler gets a halibut boat-side, the fight is only beginning. Halibut are notorious for playing possum. They come docilely enough up to the surface and then hang there like they’re worn out.

Don’t be fooled by their act. Trying to get them aboard usually triggers furious, powerful and nearly uncontrollable thrashing. Biting too, and halibut have teeth that Dracula would envy. In short, landing these slabs of muscle from a kayak is potentially hazardous.

A power boater has the luxury of dumping a halibut into the cockpit and then safely standing back until the tremors subside. A kayaker has nowhere to put the fish except his or her lap – usually a bad idea with a big fish, unless you want to experience a knife fight in a broom closet.

Okuma pro staffer Todd Groessl has been fishing halibut his entire life. He’s no stranger to the kayak either. Groessl says the key to landing halibut from the confines of a ‘yak is preparation. Two things are necessary: a sharp gaff and a stringer, game clip or other means of securing a gaffed fish. The gaff should be at least three feet long. A large halibut is a big beast. The extra gaff length is needed to reach the sweet spot, that area just behind the head.

When you’re ready to sink the gaff, “Hit the halibut hard,” said Groessl. If you get it just behind the collar the fish should be stunned. Don’t lift it out of the water. Allow the halibut to float just submerged next to the kayak. Put the reel in freespool with the clicker on and set it down in a rod holder. Now it’s time to secure the fish.

PREPARATION = REWARD – When a big halibut latched onto her saltwater plug at Dana Point in February 2006, Julia Benak and her fishing companion Aaron Brenner were ready with gaffs, stringers, and rope. Benak patiently fought the fish that “felt legal” up to the side of her kayak, where Brenner gaffed and secured it. At the time, Benak’s 46.1-pound flatty was a pending IGFA 12-pound line class record. PHOTO COURTESY AARON BRENNER

OKUMA PRO STAFFER Todd Groessl says two tools are key to landing big halibut: a sharp gaff and a stringer, game clip or other means of securing a gaffed fish. PHOTO COURTESY TODD GROESSL

The task will be much easier to accomplish if your stringer has a rigid rod or wire that can be pushed into a halibut’s mouth and routed out through the gills. A serviceable stringer can be fashioned from a metal rod attached to a length of light line. Tie a metal ring onto the other end of the line. Alternatively, purchase a diver’s game clip which is something like a safety pin fashioned from heavy wire. Once you have the fish on the stringer, you’re almost there. Tie it off to the kayak, and then dispatch the fish while it is still in the water. Groessl recommends cutting a gill as the most humane and trouble-free method, although he carries a short club for insurance.

“Give the big ones a few good thumps on the head before you bring them on board your kayak,” said Groessl.

Be careful too, and don’t rush. Like something out of a horror movie, ‘dead’ halibut sometime come suddenly back to life. It’s not going too far to immobilize the trophies by tying them down head and tail.