The Addictions of a Big Fish Battle

There are many ways to describe a days fishing. Sometimes, you start hot and finish cold. Sometimes you can’t find them for the life of you. Sometimes you can’t get away from them …and sometimes you start slow and end the trip with a great fish to erase the day’s misfortune in one fell swoop. In any case, there is always

Target acquired!

an adrenaline rush that hits you especially when a bigger model fish is hooked.

It starts with the initial hit when you realize it is not a run of the mill sized fish. This is the first “Rush” you get. Your mind and body go into instant preparation to ready itself for the next stage in which the battle begins! Lots of things cross your mind at this point like “Are my connection knots good?”, “Is my drag set right?”, “Do I have any weak spots in my line?”, “Is he too close to structure?” and so on. Your body and mind go into overload as you are excited and thrilled to be fighting the fish, but have a slight nervousness just hovering close enough by you to have a presence during the battle. Beach, Boat, Kayak or jetty fishing, it is always there when you realize you have an extra large model on the end of your line.

The excitement and nervousness grows with each passing second as the fish nears the boat. This is just the build up to the end game and not too far unlike an angler’s “Happy Ending”. The minute the gaff sinks in, or the net surrounds that fish and you know it is not getting away (or at least very unlikely), pure joy, excitement, awe and even relaxation just floods your mind and body.

This is why fishing is a drug to us. It is an endorphin overload plus a feeling of accomplishment which all fisherman have and what keeps them coming back for more. It never really stops either as the bragging rights and stories will live for years within you.

This is even more pronounced when you catch a prehistoric looking beast, like a California Halibut. Big butts are hard to come by in the SoCal bight and just being able to catch at least one legal fish per trip is hard enough and quite an accomplishment. Catching a California Halibut over 20 pounds is an adrenaline rush… Catching one over 30 pounds makes you a little loopy of the shear size of this true flounder (they are not a true halibut) and catching one over 40 pounds is truly a difficult task. I have seen my buddy next to me pull in his biggest at 44 pounds and it just blew my mind. I have yet to break into the 40 pound club for butts, but here was one that had a shot. Its head was big like a 40 pounder, but the body was only that of a 30 pounder. In any case, they are a spectacular fish to catch. Many boring hours go into halibut fishing for that one small chance at reward, and the reward is so sweet and tasty!