A few anglers here may like this photo

[Jerry]

Mickey  i have no idea if it was a minipulated photo. As I told Kaz, it was not my picture.

Joyce:  get you swimming jewelled butt to california and we will feed you and take you fishing.  Mickey would join us too I  bet. (Yes Bill is welcome too)
We even have a spare room for you.  You may want to rent a car, but we can handle the rest!

[LeeAnne151]

I  had no idea you could catch halibut in CA, I thought they were a northern water fish.

They are indeed delicious but salmon is my favorite. My big problem with fish is that DH loves to catch them but won't eat them.

I think it is wrong to kill them and bring them home if you won't eat them.

He doesn't even like halibut and salmon. It is rare that he will eat them. He wants them cooked until they are jerky too.

heavy sigh. I order salmon as often as possible at restaurants.

[Jerry]

Yes we do have halibut  it is called California halibut. ( Paralicthyus californicus)   Not close to the Pacific halibut in Alaska  That one can run 1500 pounds!  Not a typo, you read it right..    The record for California halibut is 72 pounds !   Formidable teeth as well! Unhooking one is a chore.
My big one was 42 pounds.
There is an annual halibut derby here, one can win huge prizes like an automoblie!
Recent winners were in the 40 pound class.

You are eating the fish Bob brings home and that's a good thing.  

i may have told you guys more than you wanted to know.

[EagleEye]

I don't want to catch one of those little Paralicthyus californicus, I want to catch me one of those big washintonpiticus monstorous 1500lb beauties!

Steve

[Jerry]

How about this antique photo of a lady at Catalina island with a huge Black Sea Bass.  OOooops,
On closer inspection it Is a Toutuva, not a black, Had to be from the sea of Corttez.

They are rare now days.  Indiscrimanate fishing in the 50s and 6os decimated these fine fish

[kaz]

Don't tuna get quite large... (I never know what to believe... anglers can tell such whoppers )

[EagleEye]

Kaz, how could you say such a thing?

Steve

[Jerry]

Kaz there are many kinds of tuna  from the giant blue fin off of Nova Scotia  (1000 lbs.)
to the lowly mackeral (yes it is in the tuna family)
In the pacific and in Calif during warm water years, El Nino, we get the yellowfin tuna.  They do get huge. 200 and 300 pounders are taken south of San diego

We here have blue fins too, but 20 pounds is typical.  The favorite on the west coast is the albacore, the white meat tuna. Again 20 pounds is common but sometime 40 to 50 pounders are here.  yes they migrate accross the pacific and show up on the west coast in the middle of june. The one in my avatar is a small albie.

Again i may have told you more than you wanted to know.

This is Zane Gray with a giant Blue Fin in 1924
Note his antique rod has a "set" to it. Likely made of calcutta or tonkin bamboo

[EagleEye]

Now that's a tuna

Does anyone remember those old B&W movies of the tuna boats with men lining the sides, two men to a pole, hauling in those big tunas one right after the other?
I'd sure love to see that again.
BTW, Jerry, you couldn't tell me more than I wanted to know.  (about fishing)
Steve

[kaz]

You lads and your tackle and 'in your dreams' - live bait and catch... makes me chuckle!  Bless!!!

[Jerry]

Steve, she called us "Lads" I can live with that.
Kaz the fish in my avatar is modest.  if i posted all big fish you would think i was bragging!

Steve a video is available, i think it's called, "In the racks" it is of those guys using 3 rods  to "Jack pole" a big tuna.  Now days they use nets and "wrap" them.
 Yellowfin tuna can bring prices in Japan you wouldn't believe.  How about 500.00 a pound!
Below my Mother & Father with albacore on my first fishing trip in California.  I was sick as a dog. I had met my father a few weeks before, really.

Note: my mom's fish is a lot bigger than the one in my avatar. Both are albacore. Note the distinguishing long pectrol fin

[Mikey]

I recently tuned into a TV show about how this commercial enterprise actually rounds up tuna in the open ocean and keep them alive in huge netted pens.  "Fishboy" divers must go beneath to patch holes in the net and rustle out the sharks that entered into the pens.  It was quite fascinating.  The skipper then slowly drags his catch back to base, New Zealand???, and there they fatten up the tuna and start selling them off to the Japanese and others in auctions.  I wish I had seen the entire documentary.....

[Jerry]

keeping this thread alive.  Here is a famous lady angler with a giant blue fin tuna.
Circa 1930

Oops  sorry for two photos, those &%$%# computers!

[EagleEye]

All of you fisherman should read this book, "The Hungry Ocean" written by Linda Greenlaw.

It's about a 30 day swordfishing trip.

Steve

[Jerry]

here is a nice shot, wish I was the photographer

[Jerry]

Alcatraz was where these nice halibuts were caught

[Jerry]

Since this thread has some unexpected "staying power", how about this.
Nature in the raw.  Yes it's brutal, but that's how it is.