Anchorage Daily News

The table-size halibut that Anchorage angler Tim Kellar pulled from the bottom of Cook Inlet was so massive, it almost doubled the height of his 11-year-old son.

"I laugh every time I look at the picture," Kellar said by cell phone Thursday from Seward, where he was whale watching with son Jacob.

On July 12, however, Kellar and his boy went halibut fishing aboard a J&J Smart Charter boat out of Ninilchik. They came home with enough meat to feed their family and a few more for months.

"At the end of the day, out of the 12 fish (our party of six) caught, we ended up with 87 bags of fish," Kellar said. "That's incredible."

With the help of four-year charter captain Brandt Gauger and four of Kellar's Elmendorf Air Force Base coworkers, the 40-year-old Texas transplant landed a huge halibut that unofficially weighed 360 pounds.

J&J Smart Charters doesn't have a scale, so Dan Retzinger, another captain at J&J, went for the tape measure to estimate the barn door's weight. The halibut measured 7 feet, 3 inches, almost 3 feet taller than Kellar's 4-foot-6 son.

"I took a measurement because that was the biggest fish I had ever seen," Retzinger said. "The tail was 24 inches wide. Just between its eyeballs it was 7 inches.

Onlookers gawking at the size of the fish were quick to ask Kellar if he had purchased a Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby ticket. After all, he landed it just three days after California angler Jeff Pardi took the lead in that derby with a massive 348.2-pounder.

But Kellar missed out because his party launched out of Ninilchik, about 40 highway miles north of Homer.

Jackpot rules require that "the fish and angler must be transported to the Homer harbor on the boat on which the fish was caught." Kellar didn't buy a ticket and launched out of Ninilchik.

Had he bought a derby ticket and launched out of Homer, the halibut may have ranked as the second-heaviest fish on the all-time list of the Homer derby.

Jerry Meinders of Willmar, Minn., holds the Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby record. He landed a 376-pounder in 1996 that won the derby and padded his wallet with $25,984.

'AN INCREDIBLE FIGHT'

When Kellar saw his rod tip sink into the water, he knew he hooked something huge.

The creature started stripping yard after yard of line. He was convinced that at any moment, the rod might shatter.

Once the fish stopped pulling, he tried cranking line but the beast wouldn't budge. So Kellar said Cliff Cox, Kellar's coworker, pulled line with his bare hands while he reeled in the slack.

After a good 30 minutes of fighting, the fish darted toward the bow and tangled itself in the anchor line. One good head shake might have freed it from the circle hook.

"We thought it was a salmon shark," said Gauger. Then the fish surfaced.

"Oh my gosh, that's the biggest fish I've ever seen!" yelled Gauger, who was in the cabin at the time. He grabbed his shotgun onboard and put a slug through its head.

It took three military men to haul it onboard. Kellar didn't see the halibut until they stuck it with three gaffs and dragged it toward the stern.

"It was an incredible fight," said Kellar, who's lived in Alaska for about two years. "This was my Alaska dream."

Once the halibut was safely on the deck, Kellar's son -- shocked at the size of it -- gave his old man a high five. The trip was just their second halibut charter since moving from Korea.

"Way to go, Dad!" Jacob said.

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

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