Fishing alone on Sunday, Harold Bressler reenacted the story from Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.”

Bressler may not be an old man, but the rest of the story plays close to the novel. He hooked a huge fish, spent hours getting it under control, and finally tied it to the boat and dragged it home through the water, since it was too big to haul into the boat.

The only part missing from Hemingway’s classic fish tale was the shark. The Old Man’s fish was eaten by a shark, but Bressler’s huge halibut arrived on shore perfectly intact.

Tipping the scales at an unofficial 163 pounds, the halibut will provide good eating for Bressler and his friends for weeks to come. “It’s vacuum-packed and frozen,” he said Monday. “I’m giving all my friends halibut meat.”

The Oak Harbor resident said he was fishing with herring about a mile out of Keystone near mid-channel when he felt a hearty tug on his 70-pound test PowerPro braided line. “It’s pretty strong stuff,” he said. “Part of a halibut rig I got from Kevin (Petersen) at Ace Hardware.”

The effort to coax the reluctant leviathan into the boat lasted two hours and 11 minutes, as timed by the exhausted Bressler. Finally, he dragged it near enough to the boat to harpoon it. The harpoon slowed it down, but didn’t stop it. “It swam with the buoy,” he recounted, bringing images from “Jaws” to mind.

Bressler made one mistake. He tightened the drag on the reel, which only gave the fish more pulling power. “I was hanging over the rail,” he said. “I had a couple close calls.”

Eventually he maneuvered a rope around the fish’s tail, which allowed him to drag it to shore.

“I couldn’t get it in the boat,” he said. “I was all alone.”

The Washington state record for halibut caught by a sportsman is over 200 pounds, but fish the size of Bressler’s 163-pounder are rare, especially in the inland waters.

“For around here it’s a really good size for a halibut,” said Richard Bartlett, who was manning Ace Hardware’s fishing tackle counter Tuesday morning. “That’s great.”

Halibut season opened April 9. Generally the weather hasn’t been conducive to fishing, but signs point toward an excellent year. Bartlett said he was fishing the Keystone area Saturday and everyone was talking about a huge fish in the 100-pound range that got away from another angler. Like Bressler the man was fishing alone, but unlike Bressler he failed to get the fish under control. “There was no way to get it in the boat so it got loose,” Bartlett said.

Fishermen have been badly injured and worse over the years when trying to bring a big halibut onboard. “Halibut can be very dangerous; you can get killed,” Bartlett said.

At Ace Hardware, the fishing center of North Whidbey, they not only sell the proper tackle to halibut novices but emphasize the danger of the sport. “We like to make sure they’re safe,” Bartlett said.

From early reports, Bartlett sees this halibut season as very promising. “If we get a break in the weather there’s a lot of them to be had,” he said.

Bressler managed to get his fish home, but it took heavy tackle, a harpoon and a rope, and he wisely didn’t try to bring the huge halibut onboard. As a result, he’s the talk of the Whidbey Island fishing community, and very popular with friends who love fish & chips.