Hi everyone Captain Zac here - this was a really fun outing where we encountered some unexpected creatures while halibut fishing!
After getting our bait nibbled off a few times, we suspected a school of rockfish may have been the culprit. To our surprise, we were right about the rockfish but amazed at the type of rockfish - a Tiger Rockfish! These are fairly rare around the Juneau waters so it was really cool to see a couple of these beautiful fish come up from the deep. These fish are catch and release only so we immediately sent them back down to the deep using a deepwater release device.
On top of the Tiger Rockfish, we also caught a Tanner Crab! This cool crab was actually just pinching onto the jig the entire time as it was being reeled up more than 150 feet!
Also, in and around catching these unexpected species, we did hook into some great halibut to round out the outing.
You never know what Alaska will serve up!
Tight lines my friends!
Captain Zac