Watching Our Water Ways

I don’t often get into fishing issues on Water Ways, but I’d like to make an exception for Ray Frederick, the guy on the right with the big smile on his face.

Ray Frederick (right) and Dick McDonald show off the halibut that Frederick caught Sunday west of Point Wilson.

Ray caught this 224-pound halibut Sunday west of Point Wilson near Port Townsend during the Kitsap Poggie Club’s annual halibut derby. He has been active for years in the Poggie Club and has served as club president in the past.

Until now, the biggest halibut Ray ever caught was a 70-pounder, he said in a story in today’s Kitsap Sun. He called it “sort of the catch of a lifetime.”

The Washington state record for Pacific halibut is listed at 288 pounds.

“It took a whole half hour to get it in the boat,” he said. “It was quite a struggle.”

The Poggie’s scales at the John Wayne Marina in Sequim couldn’t accommodate the big fish, so they headed to Port Angeles and had it weighed at Swain’s General Store.

Ray caught the big fish with a 16-ounce lead-headed jig with a “twister” tail. He used a custom jigging rod made by a Poggie Club member with 100-pound Power Pro woven line.

Needless to say, Ray won the fishing derby and took home the $440 prize.

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Tags: fishing, halibut

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Fish, Fishing interests, Recreation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.