02-07-2025
Alaska woman lands massive halibut, describes moment as ‘highlight of my life'
A woman from Fairbanks, Alaska, has taken the lead in the annual Valdez Halibut Derby with a catch last Friday that tipped the scale at 144.2 pounds.
Melissa Hurd told Alaska's News Source that the hookup was subtle until the giant halibut began to run, at which point 'it felt like I had hit a tree or something.'
Hurd's catch put her in the top spot in a competition that runs through August and offers a grand prize of $10,000.
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Her lead is unlikely to hold – since 1991 only two anglers have won the derby with catches weighing fewer than 200 pounds – but Hurd was excited simply to have joined the 100-pound club when it comes to Pacific halibut.
'We could see the size of that thing and to know that I had pulled this thing from the bottom of the ocean up to the surface – so fun,' she boasted. 'Just the highlight of my life.'
Alaska's News Source reported that the potentially dangerous halibut was 'shot' by the captain before it was brought onto the boat.
It's worth noting that the average weight of Pacific halibut caught in the Prince William Sound region weighs 30-40 pounds. But in the past, several 'barn door' halibut exceeding 300 pounds have been caught.
The Valdez Halibut Derby record, set in 2017, stands at 374 pounds.
For comparison, the all-tackle world record for Pacific halibut is 459 pounds. That giant was caught out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in 1996.
