It's hard to tell you what you caught without a picture. But ugly is a good indicator. I will describe what we on the east coast call an "angel fish". They can be large disc shaped and swim on edge. They give the appearance of a garbage can cover with a fin at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock. The mouth is small and at 9 o'clock. The tail is relatively small. The color is what you described. Could not find the latin name for it.

mexhunter; could not upload your picture but I did find the tech term for the one I was describing. It is molidae or half fish. Google it; it's also called a saltwater sunfish. It is a unique looking fish. If you see them on the surface at a distance. Your first thought is shark.

I'm with Santa, I've never seen one but thats how I have always heard Halibut described. Would love to go to Alaska and fish for Halibut too, beerbattered Halibut is hard to beat.

Carl, the fish you seem to be describing is an Ocean Sunfish or Mola Mola I believe, I've seen a handful off the east coast but I would be hard pressed to think of someone actually hooking one of these fish unless they snagged it, and they are usually more greyish than brown from the encounters I've had.

Carl, the california halabut is notthing like a regular halibut or flounder. It has large teeth and looks pretty mean. It is a common fish off Mexico and Baja California. Most "flat" fish such as flounder are either right sided or left sided depending on the species, but the california halibut can be either right or left sided. Overall, it is one funkie looking fish that most of us will never come into contact with.

I'm with Santa, California Halibut.
I caught one of these ugly beasts while off of Baja trying to catch Rooster fish and I thought it looked pretty mean. I took my surgical forceps & stuck them in it's mouth & it clamped down pretty good, wouldn't want my fingers in there.