Tim Berg played the halibut for 45 minutes before landing it Tuesday morning, the Anchorage Daily News reported. He was equipped with 40-pound test line on a salmon rod, light equipment for a 300-pound fish.

"It was just lucky, lucky, lucky," Berg told the newspaper in a telephone interview from Soldotna, Alaska. "This was an experience of a lifetime."

Running a guide business cuts into Berg's fishing time. This trip, with Mike Schmahl as captain, was with an old friend from Berg's previous life in California, Terry Gonsalves. They were celebrating Gonsalves's retirement from the Napa police department.

Schmahl said that Berg never buys fishing derby tickets, possibly seeing it as a conflict of interest. But Gonsalves bought the ticket -- and now Berg may win $10,000 unless someone lands an even bigger halibut soon.