Halibut Fishing with a 5-7

[gr8ful70x7]

Took my 5-7 with me fishing. My dad forgot his .38.

We had a big fish that the others in our crew were going to bring aboard. They underestimated its size becaue we hadn't pulled out big one in these waters for a while.

While they had bled it for a while after tying it to the boat, they were going to haul it on board and tie it up--so that the fish could not thrash us, but that wasn't good enough for me! Darned thing could have killed one of us.

So, I shot it with one round of LF. The blast was so huge that it splashed water all over us and the gun!

I figure I must've shot thru 6-9" of water to hit the halibut's vitals and was prepared to shoot at least twice. But, my rather new 5-7 stove piped causing me embarassment. I cleared the jammed round and reloaded took aim but the fish had stopped moving; crew said the shock of one round had done it.

Other than stove piping, it was fairly impressive. I'm far more confident of my (one) shot placement with this than the .38 special. But I really gave it a thorough cleaning when we got off the water. The shock from these 30 grain 5-7 rounds appears significant.

The fish came in at ~90 pounds; a little too big to boat alive and I'm not taking any chances. We had two others we had to harpoon. Overall, the size is down significantly. Most are small.

[Esteves]

Sometimes it's good to do things just for the halibut...

[Rapier1772]

I'd love to go halibut fishing sometime. Forgot you still had to shoot them sometimes :laugh:

[JumpedtheShark]

That's pretty wild :laugh:

[cHaMeLeoN352]

Wow, great story!

Would love to see pictures...

I have been wanting to rent a boat this summer for some good fishing.

What are the laws as far as carrying on board the boat?

[TheDreadPirateOmnom]

I second on the photos. That is a great opportunity to see the effects through water.... Its like mythbusters in real life.

[bagabonz]

I caught a 125 lb. Halibut in Homer a few
yrs. back. The deckhand shot it in the head
with a .410 slug before bringing it on the
boat. It still kicked up a ruckus when he started
cleaning it. Made believer out of me.

[gr8ful70x7]

It's been a while since I have been on this forum and a lot longer since I posted this. For the most part I forgot about it. I forgot my gun was pretty new and that was pre-tune up. It certainly jammed badly.

Most of all I remember nobody wanted me to fire a second round. The 5-7 is so loud and the blast so powerful that not many folks like being in proximity to one being discharged.

The shock from a 5-7 is pretty violent and sure makes the .38 Special rounds look light.

As far as laws and carrying on the boat. We are in Alaskan waters and a firearm is expected when halibut fishing. It's just a tool and we don't make a very big deal of it except to make sure we have one and we try to keep it out of the bait bucket. Herring is not the best smelling stuff.

Sorry, we did not take any photos that I recall. The fish have to be a bit bigger before we get too excited over them. Actually, fishing was much better back then.

[Rapier1772]

As far as laws and carrying on the boat. We are in Alaskan waters and a firearm is expected when halibut fishing.

Just curious, if you had guns on board & you were in Canadian waters, what would happen?