This painting, “The Soaker,” was done in the early 1970’s. When a very large halibut comes up on the gear, the roller man, in this case the fellow in the white shirt and yellow wristers, yells “Soaker” and everyone runs to the side to help.
Some of these fish weighed as much as 300 pounds, and it was hard to bring them in even when using the roll of the boat. The man in the background is the person coiling the line as the hydraulics bring in the fish. The man in the white hair is the skipper, who usually would run down the side of the boat to give a hand as well.
Copyright © 2012 by Mike Florian
