WILL THE REAL HALIBUT PLEASE STAND UP?

OCTOBER 3, 2008


I have this burning question on Halibut fishing in Oregon. Reading, the regulations they talk about refer to the Pacific Halibut and then in another page they talk about Halibut with a limit of 25 fish. On the special Pacific Halibut they talk about special regulations for possession, which is set by the Fish and Wildlife. This is a harvest cap.

Being confused I decided to take my question to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife office to have them explain the difference. OK here it is . Evidently there is more than one Halibut species. The halibut they're referring to with a 25 fish limit are the California Halibut not the Pacific Halibut. OK here is the big difference, which was explained to me. The Pacific Halibut is a right eyed fish and the California Halibut is a left eyed fish. Simple right, not quite there is some exception to this rule as sometimes a Pacific Halibut is a left eyed fish.

The California Halibut or California Flounder, Paralichthys californicus, is a large-tooth flounder that ranges from Washington to Baha California waters. It feeds near shore and is free swimming. It typically weighs 6 to 50 pounds (3 to 23 kg). It is much smaller than the larger and more northern-ranging Pacific halibut that can reach 300 pounds.
A top level predator that hunts by stealth, it is prized by fishermen as great table fare.
Sport fishers typically use light fishing gear and live baits for this halibut. Baits include anchovies, sardine, squid, mackerel, and queenfish (brownbait). Some anglers use plastic lures and scampitype "lead heads" to fool a halibut into striking.
Mostly fishing from boats in the coastal regions, anglers catch good quantities of halibut in 10 to 80 feet of water. Sometimes the fish are caught from shore or by kayak fishermen in very shallow water. Slow trolling and drift fishing is the preferred method of bait presentation.
This is an unusual fish in that one eye has to migrate around from one side to the other as it grows from an upright fry or baby fish into an adult fish that lays on its side. The adult has two eyes on the up-side as it lays on the bottom. The fish hides under sand or loose gravel and blends into the bottom. See flatfish for more information on this.

The Pacific Halibut is the largest of all flat fish, with an average weight of about 25 - 30 lb (11 - 13½ kg), but they can grow to be as much as 400 lbs . The Halibut is blackish-grey on the top side and off-white on the underbelly side. When the Halibut is born the eyes are on both sides of its head so it has to swim like a salmon. After about 6 months one eye will migrate to the other side of its head, making it look more like the flounder. This happens at the same time that the stationary eyed side begins to develop a blackish-grey pigment while the other side remains white.

The California Halibut in Coos Bay can reach 30 lbs in size and are caught in the muddy, sandy areas.

Now you know the difference.

They predicted rain for today and it finally arrived. Since it would not be a good day to crab or fish we figured why not make a good day of it anyway, and check out some more of the real estate along the North Bay near a couple of small communities known as Glasgow and Cooston. These areas are along the East Bay Road . We did see some pretty nice homes along the road overlooking the Bay.

We stopped by to check on one home that kind of met our fancy. Of course this was a short visit after we saw the price of the home, $450,000. A little over our price range. It was really nice, which encompasses almost 1 1/2 acre. It does overlook the bay, very scenic. The hillsides along the bay look like they could be unstable. The problem I see with the areas along the hillside is the amount of sloughs we observed. Not really to enthused with the area.

Funny even though it was raining pretty good you still see everyone out doing their own things, even the kids were out playing in the rain. In our area its in the house and wait it out.