Need some help

[wpschaef]

I am wondering if anyone here can tell me/send photos of what they use
to catch Halibut and the specifics of how to do so. I have never been fishing for these tasty fish from a boat and would like to, caught one from the beach as a kid more by accident than design. I am in the N. Calif area and know they are fished in the S.F Bay as well as the coastal areas. Trying to cut down some of the trial and error time a little. Thanks in advance.

 

[glehav]

wps i cant tell you how to catch one but i can show you how to eat one.. wish we had them down here they are one of the best fish i have ever put in my mouth. so if you learn how to catch them send me one and i will teach you how to eat them.

 

[albacore11]

WPSCHAEF; basically you drift your bait across the bottom, which is usually sandy. There are commercial, pre-tied halibut rigs available. Halibut are an "ambush" fish, waiting for their prey to get close enough so that they can spring from their hiding place and eat them.

I am certain if you did a Googles search on "Halibut Fishing" you would come up with some good information as well. Don't forget your local tackle shops, someone should be knowledgeable in the shop as well.

Contact Nefarious directly. He is a Triumph owner on this board, and he has offered to take me out and "show me" on the water. I couldn't pass up on offer like that.

Personally, I rather have a ling.

Chris

 

[Genelie]

Albacore11 is basically right. If you go into a good tackle shop they will have pre rigs for halibut...I recommend the ones that come with a stinger... hee hee hee..= a treble hook that you stick in the tail end of a live bait. Halibutt like to grab their prey, but not always swallow right away, hence the setting of the hook, and the lost fish. The stinger as I call it keeps that from happening. You can also use a dropper loop set up and that works as well.

 

[ceasniper]

I do a lot spear fishing but when I cant see them then I fish for them, a good set up is to use a three way and run about 18" of line for the sinker and then about 30"line with a 2/0 hook and then 4" of line and treble hook for the stinger . I try to use enough weight to keep the line straight down as I drift or troll and live bait is best, choves have been working great out santa cruz island but dead bait works too. 30 feet or less has been working great! hope this helps. and good luck...

 

[Genelie]

There is one more set up that you can buy, but you can only find in a GOOD tackle shop. it is called the bouncing ball. Still a typical set up. the difference is, that it has a 6 inch piece of shiny metal, and you use a 1 pound wieght, You troll for your fish, as you troll, the heavey wieght cause's friction, then bounces off the floor, makes the shiny metal flash...hence eitheir attracks the fish or makes them mad.

 

[wpschaef]

Thanks!

Youse Guys Rock! I think Nefarious is a bit south for me to go right now but a great thought. Thanks for all the info and the offers to help, (yes and eat it too). This is just one example why I love this website! I am gonna try some out soon and then I will get together with submersible geek and have a grand ole' time with his new girlfriend.

 

[Genelie]

Cool, post pics of the girl...ooooh I mean the fish

 

[wpschaef]

Update

Well......... so far I am 0 for 2. I found the halibut rigs with stingers, 2 different types, read other local fishing forum technique articles, watched local "how to" videos on striper and halibut fishing, checked tides/lunar tables/current and contour information, almanac type fishing probability tables, and still come up empty. Now I'm in it to the end!!!!!! I'm gonna make this happen and when I do ya'll will get pics. I get all wound up watching how easy it looks on the videos and go to the same places at correct tides etc. It's about 1.5hrs each way just to launch but I use more fuel in my truck than I do in the boat. I think one of the main differences is that live bait is not available until Feb. Frozen should work, and even artificial but so far my buddy and I have only had 1 good bite and we couldn't repeat. It's a tough job but someone's got to do it. "Once more into the breach dear friends." A friend is trying to hook me up with a seasoned halibutter,(?), but he's in Mexico right now. Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Gonna go pack the boat and hope it doesn't rain on Sat. Thanks again for the help guys. Wish me luck!

 

[Nefarious]

I would be happy to show you how to set up your boat, rods , and terminal tackle to target( I mean really target) these fish. I Power Drift(modified bounce ball technique) Every year we put 20 or more 20 lb fish in the boat, and all in very local waters. Today was 1st Halibut trip of fall,see report called "LA Harbor Halibut" for results. Your 170 can be a real Halibut killer. Next 2 months is best time for big ones. I will be going out tomorrow again at 6am in Harbor. Reach on Ch 88a

 

[wpschaef]

Wow

Thanks Nefarious, that is a very generous offer and I would love to accept it. Right now finances are dictating that I not go on long trips. Hopefully that will change soon. If it does, would you mind if I took you up on it at a later date? I don't know how long your season goes. Up here they say it goes until late Nov- early Dec. Thanks again for your kind offer.

 

[wpschaef]

Flatty 4 me

Well finally! Got my first Halibut out of Berzerkley. A friend of mines son used to run a bait shop in the area and was nice enough to come out with me in not so nice conditions. We came in after about 4 hrs because the wind was up near 20 knots and the chop at 3-5 ft. Got a "bit damp" even wearing boots and raingear. It is windy enough that they cancelled the Fleet week parade until tomorrow. Thanks all for the community support and technical assistance.

 

[Nefarious]

Nice job Biff, now your'e doing it. Were you drifting or Power drifting? What was your bait? Glad you saw my little description in other post. A less expensive way to Power Drift is to hang 2 Drift socks off your bow cleats, also good for slowing a controlled drift. Keep at it and CONGRATS

 

[wpschaef]

Thanks

Thanks Nefarious, we were just drifting in the wind, lots of wind. Using anchovies with a stinger rig, about 6 oz of weight. The main difference was that we were actually dragging/bouncing the weight insted of just occasionally bouncing. Hope to go back son and do it again. Will try to find some of those hootchies like you have but so far no one I have checked has them. Having Halibut florentine for dinner, Gotta go, buzzer went off.

Been thinking about drift socks for just that purpose.