Had a special guiding mission with Chris from Netherlands and Mattew from UK. They both live in Stavanger and have great experience in hunting turbot and other stuff off the bottom. This experience really helps when you come here to hunt halibut. First day we were off to a good start. Chris spotted a big fish on the first drift but the lady spottet him aswell and vanished like a card throw. We changed spot after 4 hours and Chris breaks the ice with the legendary HALIBUUUTSCREAM!! He says quickly to me that its a 10-15kg one. I go in the water to check it out and well.... That lady got jucie. Turns out its a 40 kg +.Mattew didnt see a fish that day and was questioning his eyes and life in general.
Second day and new area. First drift of the day and Chris lands a nice 15 kg + fish. Mattew sticks his head in the water even harder now. He stay focused in the rest of the drift, the next drift, the third drift, the forth and baaam he manage to catch his first halibut. A nice 13 kg one. Happy as fuck we ride home and stop on our scallops spot and secure some nice dinner. Tasty shells that grows in plenty on our spots.
Third day is a day we put in alot of dives in a new area and end up with seeing zero fish. Cramp and hallucination starts to kick in hard and after a long day of nothing but promiss looking stones and seaweed, we head for the harbour. You need these days with nothing. Its part off the whole weird thing about halibut hunting.
Last day and the day starts with 3 hours drifting seeing nothing. Me and Mattew then start on one of the longest drifts known to mankind. We swim with and against the current forever. Both off us are losing our mind and body, but we push on and are not willing to give up before the other one does. Classic indirect teamwork. This is often at this stage you find a halibut. When your body has giving up and your mind is telling your sorry ass to stop this nonsense and do nice, warm and dry things. Chris suddenly see the light, the might, the Butt. 37kg fish and it really took his float for a run. Good end to the final day.
The tubothunters from Stavanger managed to land two great halibuts each and a lot of nice scallops. They called up a hunter friend and made some trade deals with wild deer meat to be sure all the fish ends up on the plate. Great guys! Hope to see you in Lofoten soon;)
Cheers Axel
