Yep, it's an Opah alright. One of my fellow guides on Langara Island caught one on a rod and reel while guiding. Late one August night, in 1997 I ran out off Coho Point and helped net the bugger. It went 106 lbs. It looked exactly like that fish. It was EXTREMELY POWERFUL, as they had played it for 3 and a half hours on a 10.5 foot medium action mooching rod with an Islander MR2 reel. I believe it was 20 or 25 lb test and at the time it was an IGFA line class record for that species. When I left the water at 615 to run my guests back to the lodge for a hot tub and cocktails before dinner, they had already hooked into it. It would strip out half the reel of line before taking a break, and I mean STRIP off the line. Truly Amazing!
It was dark when we slipped the net over it, and they hadn't seen it up close until that point, 3 hours into the fight and it was late, like 930. When we put it in the net, it literally went flying flopping itself in the extra large net from Gunwale to Gunwale across the beam of a 17 foot Whaler like a kangaroo. Enough to break limbs. We had to cut the net with sheers to get the fish out.
They are common in the Pacific Coast waters, and are seen often around the Charlottes I have many pictures of them around my boats in my albums. They have been caught as far North as Alaska and as far south as Mexico.
Cool fish.
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Topic: what sort of fish is this? (picture) (Read 8894 times)