Jay Landreville, deckhand on the Arctic Envy of Silver Fox Charters, holds up a wolf-fish a client caught July 12 off Pogibshi Point. The client had been jigging for rockfish when he caught the wolffish. Landreville of Hutchinson, Minn., estimated the fish was between 4.5 and 5 feet long. They let the fish go.

Glenn Holliwell, a fish biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Homer, confirmed the identification of the wolffish. Holliwell wrote in an email that the wolffish he’s seen are usually dark brown, but do have a reddish-brown color phase.

“That thing was so big and prehistoric looking,” Landreville said. “That’s the rarest, freakiest thing I’ve ever seen come up out of the water. It looked like an alien.”