Read the article with FishingTheSpot: the halibut fish
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See the fishing tripsThe Halibut fish
More productive in Spring
81 cm
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The Halibut fish belongs to the Pleuronectidae family. It can measure up to 4 m, weigh more than 100 kg and live to be 50 years old. It breeds from February to May and lays up to one million eggs. the fishing season is open from March to November.
Halibut is a flatfish of the Pleuronectidae family. Like all fish in this family, its eyes are both located on the right side of his head (dexter fish), with the left side blind and unpigmented facing the ground. Its body is elongated, its lateral line strongly arched in the pectoral region, its mouth wide, its teeth curved and its tail concave. The color of its right flank (upper flank) varies from greenish grey to dark brown, while its left flank ranges from white to pale grey.
The Halibut fish lifestyle
The Halibut fish is a big eater. When young, it feeds mainly on crustaceans, shrimps, hermit crabs, crabs, sand eels, flatfish. As adults (10 to 13 years old depending on the region), it feeds mainly on northern shrimps, or even crabs, octopus, and squid. Finally, when it exceeds 70 cm, it eats fish such as haddock, cod, sand lance, herring, rays.
Females spawn between February and May in waters between 700 and 1,000 m deep, laying several million eggs. The latter have a diameter of 3 to 4 mm and are pink in color. Once fertilized, the eggs grow somewhat and float freely in the water at depths of 300 to 400 m. The eggs hatch in about two weeks, giving birth to a larva measuring 6 to 7 mm in length. At the time of hatching, the larvae are provided with a very large yolk sac that serves as a food source until they begin to feed on their own (4 to 5 weeks after hatching). When larvae reach a length of 50 mm or more, they migrate to the bottom like adult fish. From the time it settles on the seabed until it reaches sexual maturity, halibut grow from less than 10 cm in length to about 1 m.
The Halibut fish habitat
The Halibut fish live at depths of more than 150 meters in the waters of the western Atlantic, from Labrador to the Gulf of Maine, up to Sept-Ăles in the Gulf of St. Lawrence estuary. In the eastern Atlantic, it can be observed from the Bay of Biscay to the Barents Sea. Halibut swim at depths of more than 500 meters in winter and rise to the surface in summer.
The Halibut fish angling
Halibut is fished by longline, which consists of a large bottom line with slightly lighter secondary lines equipped with a large halibut hook and bait pieces. The line (which can reach one mile in length) is anchored with a beacon and, after several hours (or even a few days), the marked anchor is lifted and the line is hoisted. Longlines provide a better product quality than nets by giving fish a better chance of survival before they leave the water.
