A fish blog.com

After a long winter and a lot of bad weather I finally got the chance to use my boat. Here is a kind of fishing report:

The sun shone, the wind was calm and I went home from work early. This day I wanted to use what I call “mini long lines”, which are short long lines. I use three lines with 10-12 hooks on each line, and mackerel is used as bait. The plan was to fish for turbot and dabs on sand bottom (20 meters depth). When I hauled the first line I saw a bright shadow coming up from the deep. It was too big and dark to be a dab so I hoped for a turbot.

I used a landing net to get the fish on board. No, it was not a turbot. It was a small halibut.

Halibut is not the most common species in the southern part of Norway, and some people prefer to release (and tag) halibut caught on long lines.

Hauling the lines is always exciting. With the line in my hand I can feel the movements when a fish has taken the bait. On the next line I got a cod. The hook fell out of its mouth the moment I got it in my landing net.

When I got my second halibut, I almost felt as if I was doing something illegal. It is impossible to release them as long as they swallow the hook. The third halibut was very small, and it had not managed to swallow the bait. I just had to take a photo of it before I let it go.

I then gave up fishing for turbot, and I moved to an area where dabs are more common. I got two dabs before I went home. This was really a perfect day. I hope that my catch of young halibuts indicates that there are some recruitment to the stock. Regarding the turbot – I will not give up.