That's the story of George Levasseur and his partners in the summer-long Valdez Halibut Derby. Levasseur now holds a commanding lead in the competition and has enough prized fillets to feed a small army.
But it's the memory of the battle -- not the potential prize money or the delectable white meat -- that will stay with him the longest.
The fish struck a jig with a herring attached at a depth of 170 feet, far into the Gulf of Alaska. Levasseur knew he had a monster on the line. The fish ran one way, then sped into some rocks.
The angler, who is 58, recalled to the Anchorage Daily News: "I'm no spring chicken. My arms are just shaking."
Levasseur managed to jerk the fish free of the rocks but it required the strength of all four anglers aboard the boat, using its rail as a fulcrum, to pump the rod upward and reel on the downward motion and gain some line.
Luckily, derby rules allow this type of assistance. The fishermen eventually hauled the fish to the surface, whereupon they fell back in awe of its size.
It was reasonably motionless until one of them flung a harpoon into its flesh. "The fish went berserk," Levasseur said. "It snapped that 100-pound PowerPro [line] like it was thread."
By this time, the angler's fishing line had snapped, and the harpoon was pulling free of the flesh, so a second harpoon was hurled into the fish, and a gunshot finished it off.
It required the strength of all four men to haul the fish onto the deck.
"I've done a lot of fishing and that was the most exciting moment of any fishing trip I've been on," Levasseur continued.
The group returned to an awaiting crowd and learned the weight of the fish, which shatters the derby record by 21 pounds and in terms of derby weights, pales only to the 376-pound halibut that won the Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby in 1996.
Lavasseur will wait until the end of the competition, on Sept. 5, to see if anyone can best his catch and claim the $20,000 first-place prize. That will be a tall order -- at least eight feet tall.
-- Pete Thomas
Photo of George Levasseur and his 364-pound halibut courtesy of Valdez Halbut Derby
Comments