Halibut is one of my favorites but is a pain to fish for. When I fished in the Queen Charlotte Islands, for them it was like fishing for catfish. They are bottom feeders, and we were in 60-70+feet of water, using heavy duty stiff rods and hooks baited with scraps from salmon processing. The halibut are like flounders, flat, bottom feeders and feel like trying to pull up a barn door when caught. Not much fight, just flat dead weight, until you get them to the top. A 20 pounder is a real job to pull up, but we saw one pulled up that weighed 120 lbs and much bigger ones have been caught. The big ones are not the best to eat, as they often have parasites and some worms in the meat. But--the smaller ones are my favorite ocean fish. The local fishermen called it "chicken" fishing. They have become very expensive, recently. Not sure why.
Hope yours was as good as it looked.