Halibut Fishing in Victoria, BC

My husband & I have always talked about going salt water fishing. We never went in Hawaii because the seas were so rough. We thought that the straight just out of Victoria would be calmer.  Here are photos of our adventure led by Adrian O’Connor of Reel Obsession.

Adrian picked us up at our hotel at 5:40 am. Tides dictated an early start. Non-resident fishing license was very reasonable at $7 each. Adrian has his boat in the inner harbor (it’s on the left).

I really wanted to go crabbing too, so Adrian baited two crab traps before we set out. The container on top acts as a buoy.

It was still dark as we left the harbor.

Out in the harbor Adrian set the two traps out in 30 feet of water. He humored me by answering all my questions & putting up with the numerous photos.  :) He’s been doing charters for 8 years.

What looks like an orange exercise ball on the left was used later with the anchor.

The crab traps were set out. They are just to the left of the fishing rod.

Adrian used a sonogram for water depth & also to note how far we had left to bring the fish up. The screen shows 238 ft. We fished in almost 300 ft of water! He turned it off when we were fishing though because he said that the halibut may sense it.

The sun was coming up. Did I mention it was a bit nippy at 34 F?

We could see the Olympia mountains of Washington state not far away. It’s about 25 miles across the Straight. I had a birds-eye view when I flew on the float plane from Seattle to Victoria last October (and my camera battery was dead – ugh!)

We watched the sun rise.

Then the excitement hit! Adrian was talking to a fishing friend on his cell phone & had a cup of coffee in the other. He yelled ‘fish on!’ and threw both on the floor. My husband picked up the cell phone & started talking to the friend (who asked what bait was being used). Adrian gave me the rod & I realized that I was supposed to reel in the fish. Now halibut are near the bottom – so that meant bringing in almost 300′ of line. Adrian told me to brace myself against the edge of the boat. ummm as heavy as the fish was pulling I wasn’t thrilled at the idea of losing the rod. So my husband followed Adrian’s instr’s & helped me lift the rod to 45 degrees, then I reeled down…repeat… But the fish had wrapped itself in all 3 lines. Each line had 2 lbs of counter weight on the bait.. umm this meant that I was pulling up 6 extra lbs plus the dead weight of the other 2 lines. It seemed like a long time but we did it. And Adrian brought up our fish with his gaffe hook!

No one was hurt & we had landed the fish! This is not a lovely photo. The belt is for resting the rod in (probably helpful if one wants to land a fish by themself? :)  ). We caught a little halibut that was 20 lbs & had made a horrid mess of the 3 lines.

One of Adrian’s friends called & was sick because they had lost a 150 lb halibut & the harpoon broke. Adrian showed me his & I’m glad we didn’t have to ponder that problem. (I really don’t know how one would get that much dead weight into the boat?!!). While we were talking Stuart had mentioned that he wanted to catch a mud shark. So he did. :) It was thrown back.

We had a great time on the water with Adrian. I learned a lot! We talked about his marketing online & he felt it was much more successful than attending trade shows.

In mid morning the ferries started going by. They were creating some waves & so we decided to call it a day. Adrian had Stuart pull up the crab traps & we caught many! This guy was the only one that we could have kept. They have to be male & at least 6.5". But he went back in the water because I didn’t have any way of cooking him.

Stuart noticed this guy while we were waiting for Adrian to wrap up his tasks on his boat. It turns out that this is Charlie & he lives in the marina. He has only one eye. He begs & takes food from people’s hands. Didn’t the camera take a great photo? (I so was NOT in the frigid water!)

If you’re looking for a fabulous experience, Adrian does a top-notch job! It’s a great family activity because there’s so much to learn & it was obvious Adrian enjoying sharing his passion for fishing. You can contact him at Reel Obsessions 1-888-855-7335  for salmon & halibut fishing (and crabbing too!)