The Fisherman's Dream...
Imagine yourself sitting in the boat, rod in hand, lazily gazing at a bald eagle riding the wind currents above and the occasional “blow” from a distant pod of whales.  The water rhythmically laps against the side of the boat and has you totaling relaxed.  …Suddenly, …electrically, your senses cause you to jump as your fishing line signals you from the depths!  Two hundred feet below the surface there is a light nibble.  Your muscles tighten and you feel adrenaline rising in your body.  You adjust your grip on the rod.  Slowly you come to your feet, trying not to disturb the fish sucking the bait below.  You assume the stance of a spring ready to recoil.  Then you feel the weight of increased pressure against the stiff rod.  It’s pulling your rod tip toward the surface of the water.  You want desperately to set the hook!  But well coached, you stifle the reflex to yank the rod back.  ….Wait  ….Wait  ….NOW! 

You arch your back and uncoil, simultaneously yanking the rod with all you have in you!  It feels like you just hooked the bottom of the bay.  But then line starts screaming off the reel!  For good measure you rare back on the rod once more to set the hook deeper into the jaw of a monster halibut.

The guide snaps a fighting belt above your hips and helps you guide the butt of your rod into the gimbaled rod holder while you try to hold the halibut back.  The line is smoking off your reel and you wonder if the halibut is going to stop before your guide has to pull the anchor and chase the fish.  You are holding on for dear life!

Then he slows.  You begin to pump your rod and retrieve line.  You winch the rod up and reel down.  …Winch up and reel down.  After many long minutes your forearms begin to ache and burn.  You grunt and grimace as sweat drips from your brow.  Your friends offer assistance that you would love to accept, but pride causes you to decline their offers.  Twenty minutes have now ticked by.  He has made several short runs.  Everyone but you is leaning over the side of the boat peering into the deep trying to glimpse the behemoth.  The guide readies the harpoon.  …Then a flash of the white underbelly!   There it is!  She’s 40 feet below the boat!  Your strength is renewed and you breathe a sigh of relief. But just then, the Halibut sees the boat and immediately takes off straight away stripping line off the reel like it was just playing with you all this time! 

Now that is halibut fishing!