Anchorage Daily News

A table-size halibut altered John Calvert Jr.'s fishing plans -- and his bank account -- Monday night in Homer.

Fishing for halibut and lingcod on an overnight charter in Cook Inlet -- and anchored hours from the Homer harbor -- the Stafford, Va., angler landed a 279.6-pound halibut around 4 p.m. that looked like a derby leader.

Fortunately, he had a Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby ticket and a captain willing to drive the boat back to dock before the 9 p.m. deadline, which closed the derby booth and the June monthly standings.

"The catch was none too soon," Calvert, 39, said by cell phone from Homer. "It put some drama into the trip."

Captain Bryan Bondioli of Captain B's Alaskan C's Adventures docked the Ashtikan at 8 p.m. and hung the halibut on the scales with only 45 minutes to spare.

The effort earned Calvert $1,000.

Not only did Calvert win the top monthly prize for catching the heaviest halibut, he became the overall leader for the five-month-long derby that ends at 9 p.m. on Sept. 30.

The jackpot for the largest fish of the season won't be known for months. It's made up of $2.50 from every derby ticket sold. Last year's winner, Duane Olson of Anchorage, bagged $43,612.

Poor Pat Clark, an angler from Tacoma, Wash., had led the June standings for the last 11 days until Bondioli bee-lined it to Homer and Calvert's monster fish squashed his chance at $1,000; he wound up with $750 for second place.

"That was my last cast of the day," Calvert said. "Eleven fish were in the boat, and I was just waiting for one more fish."

Then something huge from the murky depths of the Cook Inlet struck the bait of the Virginia angler visiting Alaska for the first time in 13 years.

"My initial reaction was, 'Maybe I had caught Alaska?' " Calvert laughed. "But Alaska doesn't pull back."

The creature started stripping yard after yard of fishing line until Calvert, an active duty Marine, resumed control of his bait caster and steadily cranked in the barn door.

The halibut was so gargantuan, five people were needed to schlep it over the railing.

"Just getting it into the boat ws a team effort," Calvert said.

The halibut measured 80 inches in length, Calvert said, which estimates out to a live weight of 277 pounds. The derby leader stood at 251 pounds.

Given that fish lose water after they're caught, Bondioli didn't have much wiggle room to decide whether the halibut was worth canceling the overnight trip for his six clients.

Calvert said it took Bondioli about 3 1/2 hours to anchor up to his honey hole. Considering the outgoing tide, the ride back to Homer would take at least four hours.

"It was well worth it," said Paula Frisinger of the Homer Chamber of Commerce.

She got a call from Bondioli's boat around 5 p.m., saying they were on their way into the harbor with a big fish.

Meanwhile, Calvert sat in the cabin alongside his father, John Calvert Sr., and family friends, recalling the moment before the herculean halibut nailed his hook.

The boat's 11th halibut had just been landed, and one of its eyeballs had been knocked out and just sat there on the deck. So Bondioli's deckhand dared Calvert to eat it. The deckhand told Calvert it was good luck to eat halibut eyes.

"Are you kidding me?" Calvert asked the deckhand.

Calvert swallowed the eyeball whole. Chewing it, he said, apparently doesn't work.

About an hour later, Calvert had himself a monster fish and, later that night, $1,000.

Coincidence?

"That stuff just maintains superstitions," Calvert said.

So is he a believer?

"True or not, I'm going to be eating another eyeball before I go fishing (today)," he said.

Find Kevin Klott online at adn.com/contact/kklott or call 257-4335.

ADVERTISEMENT