Headed out at 01:45 from Reno with a pierfishing newbie friend of mine in tow. Got our live bait from J&P and had rods in the water by 0624 off the Muni Pier. Tide was outgoing and bottoming out at 0930. Fished hard all morning with jigs, swimbaits and live anchovies for only one small ray. No nibbles or any other activity. Decided to pack it up and try our luck across the bridge after tide slacked out. Headed over to Fort Baker and set up shop again. Nothing but crabs and a few other fisherman catching jacksmelt and juvenile lingcod. Something in my gut was telling me to be back over at Muni Pier for the top of the tide, so we packed up again and returned to catch the last two hours of the swift incoming. My gut ended up proving right: at around 17:30 I hit a baby lingcod and then a keeper 23" Halibut right after. My friend hooked into a 24" halibut 10 minutes after mine. While he was still settling his fish in, I hooked into an absolute monster on my jig. Fought it for about 15 minutes, with bulldog runs and headshakes and all. Finally saw it and got excited to see it was a massive Halibut hooked through the tip of its tongue. Wouldn't fit in the crab net so we had to utilize my new flying gaff I just bought online. After 3 tense minutes of having a recovering fish on a short line below the pier, my buddy got a perfect gaff set through the bottom gill plate, and we struggled to lift it on deck. By now there were about 20 tourist gathered around us and everyone cheered as we flipped the fish over the rail. She measured in at 48.5" and my mechanical scale marked her at 40 lbs (although it felt heavier, and size charts would estimate the fish being more towards 46 lbs). Either way, its a fish of a lifetime for me. Casting for 11 hours non-stop and keeping my head in the game with my finesse jigging technique paid off. We fished the slack tide and beginning of the outgoing for nothing after that but it didn't matter because we were both on Cloud 9 still from the previous fish. Packed up and headed back up the hill to Reno, arriving home around 23:30. All in all a great way to end this awesome halibut season.
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