Arctic spearfishing: Halibut hunting in Norway

roadrunnerdk said:

Hej Anders

tak for super historie og billeder
hvor langt nordpå var i?
jeg har selv været i kristiansund 4 gange sidste gang var fra den 19.-27. august det var en super tur jeg fik en (lubbe) på 8,3kg men en af mine kammerater fik en pighvar(ved ikke om den hedder det samme på norsk)
Jeg vil også rigtig gerne skyde en kveite og har tænkt på at tage til saltstraumen til næste år (hvilken tid på året mener du er bedst til kveite)

mvh.
lars

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As Podge so eloquently put it, this is an international forum so I'll reply in a "non-viking" language

roadrunnerdk:
Apart from saying that I was hunting in Arctic Norway I'm not going to disclose any details regarding the location.
"Saltstraumen" is the worlds strongest tidal current, close to Bodø in Norway. It's a very popular fishing spot, both for halibut, wolffish and saithe/coalfish (and probably more species). If I were going to suggest a spot for halibut hunting, I'd go with something with a little less current
I think the halibut come up shallow in the spring, and likely stay until late fall, so it should be possible to find them pretty much throughout the entire summer (which is probably when you plan on going?). Personally, I've had the best of luck in the early fall (early september), but that may just be a coincidence. Late August-early September is also the time of year with the highest water temperature (up to 12 degrees) and that does make the diving more pleasant. Good luck with the hunt!

And here's part 2:

I decided I’d had my fill for the day and settled for some rod and line fishing and some much needed coffee and cookies. I must have had my fill of luck for the day as well; nothing turned up on my rod. My buddy on the other hand landed a decent size fish at roughly 20 kg after a few hours. He even went on to catch one more fish; a barely legal one that he put back since we really had no need for any more.

The next day we were at it again and this was going to be a non-stop diving day. We’d picked up another friend and planned to rotate all throughout the day: two guys in the water and one in the boat.


Suiting up in a decent location




That day we hit lots of different spots and I must have been in the water at least 4 hours covering all kinds of bottom: sand, rocks, kelp and all of the above combined. For some reason, pretty much the only spot we didn’t visit that day was where I’d shot the fish the day before… Despite our efforts, we didn’t see a single fish all day. However, a little reward for our efforts did appear at the end of the day as our third crew member hooked and landed a fish at just over 90 cm, probably weighing just below 10 kg. He was very happy and went home that day with some nice fillets for supper, and then some.


Day three it was down to me and my buddy again. We decided to go back to the area where I’d shot the fish the first day. The conditions were pretty much the same as before: calm seas and 10-12 meter visibility. This day a pack of harbor seals had moved in on some of the adjacent islets and they were carefully monitoring my presence in the water, peaking up behind me and following me where ever I went. None of them ever got close enough for me to get a glance at them under the surface, but I felt as I was being watched all the time…
I started making my way to the approximate area where I’d found the fish two days earlier, passing kelp beds, schools of small coalfish/saithe and occasionally diving down to look for the giants. After a few minutes of swimming I passed through a narrow passage between two rocks and the kelp and bedrock parted to reveal flat sandy bottom ahead at 10-15 meter depth. Perfect! I was barely able to make out details/outlines on the bottom from the surface, so I kept on alternating between surface swimming and diving down to hover above the bottom for a better look. I’d been at that routine for some time and was swimming a few meters off the bottom when I spotted it a few meters to my right. The halibut was, as usual, sitting dead quiet on the bottom attempting to be as inconspicuous as possible for an animal of its’ size and had almost managed to elude my attention. It was facing me and seemed to be following my every move as I turned and swam towards it. As I kicked further off the bottom a little I took aim for the middle of the head and fired. As before, the spear hit its mark perfectly. As I was drifting up I was watching the halibut closely, waiting for it to bolt, but all it did was flap about like a giant version of a tiny flounder pinned to the sand by the spear. It seemed almost stunned, maybe somewhat disabled from the impact with the spear. I yelled out for my buddy in the boat and started pulling the small “brake” float up the float line to get it closer to the fish in case it decided it had had enough of flapping about
As I lifted the fish off the bottom it was just as quiet as before and I managed to pull it all the way up to the start of the shooting line without it putting up any resistance. It was simply hanging mid water, suspended from the “tomb stoned” brake float. When my buddy arrived with the boat he handed me my flopperless shaft and I made my way down to make the kill shot. I attempted to video it with a camera in my left hand, which was a bad idea: Turns out equalizing with your left hand is difficult with a camera in it :duh
I botched the filming attempt but seemed to get a well placed kill shot. However, the fish didn’t do the characteristic “shake of death” so I went back for a second and third try to be sure. That seemed to do the trick and finally the fish was ready to be brought up. When I got it to the surface my buddy helped me tie it to the side of the boat for a photo shoot.





We measured it to 135 cm, corresponding to ca 33 kg. Judging by the condition of the fish it was probably closer to 40 than 35 kg.

It was fat and I was happy!




Three attempts and many years of dreaming. Finally it all came together on this one trip! Now I guess what’s left is to get one bigger than the Norwegian record. I’ll be sure to let you guys know if it ever happens!

Thanks for the kind words guys, glad you like the pics and story

The visibility was actually not that good, at least compared with what I experienced the first two times I was up there. I've seen it up to 15m+, which is surprisingly different from the hazy 10-12m that I had this time. Basically, in the 10-12m vis I had now I could just make out the shape of a sizable halibut outline from the surface in 10-12m depth, while in 15m+ vis that would be no problem at all, even if the sand was interspersed with rocks and clumps of weed.
However, compared to the vis I'm used to diving in at home down south, it was stellar. So it was great fun none the less, just a bit more work than in absolutely perfect conditions

Unfortunately, I have no underwater pics or video, except from the pics earlier in the post of the first fish hanging from the boat. I did attempt to video the kill shot, but it came out so blurry, shaky and hardly ever with the actual fish in the frame that had I not known what species of fish was on the line I would not have guessed correctly.

This video was just put up on youtube a couple of days ago, and gives you a very good idea of how easily the big halibut can (at least occasionally) be spotted from the surface. It seems the depth is also similar to where I found my halibut and this fish is just a bit bigger than both of mine. After seeing this guys' struggle I'm certainly glad I had the luxury of taking kill shots on the fish before I grabbed them. Enjoy!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIvSOsFsRWc&sns=fb]Spearfishing in Norway, Paltus Halibut - YouTube[/ame]

foxfish said:

Good vid, strong fight!
I wonder if a decent trident head would kill the fish instantly?

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Potentially, yes, but you'd better hit it so that the trident tips go between the vertebrae. Otherwise I'm afraid it wouldn't do the job because it wouldn't penetrate properly. The skull on a fish that size or bigger is very hard and the brain is very small. I for one wouldn't risk it. I'd rather go for a head shot in order to get max holding power against the bone an use something that will go all the way through. I prefer to use the Innerlock SP3 detachable tri-barb tip for halibut. It has a tri-cut point, short penetration distance required to toggle and a streamlined shape.

That looks like a very nice tip for halibut; short penetration distance and lots of surface area when engaged. Do you know if it is still available for sale?
A 5/16" or 3/8" shaft would probably be ideal in terms of penetration, but will require a bit chunkier gun to avoid massive recoil. I use a 19/64" and it didn't have any problems going with through the head of these guys powered by thee 5/8" bands. That way the gun is a bit more versatile for other types of hunting and probably easier to move in the water as well..