as far as shooting halibut in alaska, first of all, the flatties up there i believe are pacific halibut which get A LOT bigger than californias. those fish up north will actually do damage to the boat and injure the crew. even big california halibut can be dangerous, but not nearly to the point where you need to shoot them before bringing them on board. i personally have never had the need to kill a fish before storing it on my float tube. i figure if i get a fish that big, i'll be happy to just put it on a stringer and pull it shore and call it a day. (that's what rob did on sunday). unless you hook up with like a 20 pound fish, it ain't gonna do much damage while it's on the stringer or whatever. ok, i don't think you'll have to worry too much about a fish puncturing your float tube (unless you swing it into the boat and it starts thrashing around with a hook in it's mouth, rob did that on tuesday...) so, i think a stringer and a bag will be just fine. i just bring a stringer and it works.<BR> -Brian