Mezirow has developed a simple tool to get the circle hook out of the fish’s mouth while the animal is still safely in the water next to the boat.
about an 80-mile steam. From this anchorage cloaked in tall peaks, we’d be just 20 minutes from the spot Mezirow had in mind to take advan- tage of the early morning tide. It never really gets dark up in
Alaska during the summer months when the halibut follow bait in closer to shore. According to Mezirow, the halibut move offshore in the winter months but follow the bait back into shallower water for the peak sportfish- ing period, which runs from mid-May to mid-August. “If I had any day, tide or current to
pick the best time of year, it’d be tomor- row,” Mezirow said as we were motor- ing toward Montague. “We’re going to have a good day.” Sure enough, our first spot the next morning in just 80 feet deep produced
40
Using this release stick, he can grab the barb of the
exposed circle hook with the wire
at the end of the broom handle
and have his mate snip the leader.
right off the bat. The mate, Jeff Seward (he’s actually a direct descendant of U.S. Secretary of State William Seward for whom the town is named), began cutting frozen herring into bite-size chunks for the chum bags. He wraps
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the chunks up in brown paper bags and sends them down to the bottom on a rod and reel, where a swift yank of the rod opens up the bag and dishes out the chum on the seafloor. The secret is to double-bag the chum so it doesn’t soak through the bag by the time you get it ready to go down. Mezirow anchored the boat so the
stern sat at the top of a ledge. Our baits and chum would send scent down the ledge, which brings up the halibut and rockfish. For bait, we used a mix of whole
salmon carcasses, salmon heads and herring, all on 10/0 to 12/0 circle hooks. While the baits sat a few cranks over the scraggly bottom, we also jigged 6- to 8-inch white plastic PowerBait curly tails on big, 12- to 20- ounce leadhead jigs. Fishing the jigs
TIDE
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