Tourist hooked huge halibut

A 69-year-old German tourist could go home to tell the ultimate "big fish story" after a fishing adventure on Norway's Sognefjord.

Dieter Krüger of Hamburg also had to go home exhausted and slightly shaken after hooking a halibut that weighed in at 105 kilos (231 pounds).

I thought the article about Mullah Krekar was more interesting. I hated paying taxes to support that idiot on welfare when I lived there for 17 years.

Krekar feared CIA plot
A Norwegian newspaper is reporting that several agents of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have been present and operating in Norway, in an effort to spirit Mullah Krekar out of the country.
Mullah Krekar's pronouncements in support of terrorists have infuriated many, not least US officials.

PHOTO: AL-Jazerera

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US officials have long suspected Krekar of having terrorist links. As the former head of guerrilla group Ansar al-Islam, Krekar also is accused of murders back in Iraq, and he has voiced support for Islamic terrorists on Arabic television.

Newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad has reported that the US government tried to spirit Krekar out of Norway three years ago. The newspaper said it had information showing that several CIA agents were in Norway in the summer of 2003, including two wanted in Italy for the kidnapping of Egyptian Abu Omar in Milan.

Aftenbladet reported that the secret CIA plan was to kidnap Krekar as well. Krekar's Norwegian attorney Brynjar Meling told the newspaper Saturday that Krekar feared a kidnapping, and that he'd be sent to the US.

Meling said Krekar avoided being alone and asked for police protection in the spring of 2003.

Aftenposten English

Yup.

Two weeks ago or so when I was in Alaska, we visited Homer, on the Kenai Peninsula.

There was a small shop there processing the halibut caught by tourists on fishing junkets.

While I was there one halibut arrived which weighed 225 pounds.

Full Disclosure: Look later tonight (7-20) or tomorrow for my vanity on my trip to Alaska which covers this, search for the title words Vanity and Alaska, or by keyword grey_whiskers.

His big-fish experience unfolded just 500 meters from the popular Kvikne Hotel at Balestrand. He and his wife Ingrid have been spending holidays there for the past 26 years, camping at Veganeset just outside Balestand.

He spends nearly every day out on the fjord in his little plastic boat. One day in late June, he was sitting in the boat just offshore from the landmark hotel, over an area of the fjord that he said is around 200 meters deep.

"I had half a herring on the hook," he told local newspaper Sogn Avis. "I had 300 meters of fishing line and suddenly it all ran out."

He said he was sure his rod would break. It was only designed to reel in fish up to 20 kilos.

What followed was a long and hard fight between the man and the fjord. And the halibut.

"It drew out all the line I had three times before it calmed down," he said. "After three hours, it gave up. Then it was just to reel it in."

Krüger claims he never considered giving up. "Luckily, the hotel wanted to buy the whole fish," he said. "We didn't have room for it in our camping van."

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