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Posted by jerryG on 10:53:08 08/08/03
In Reply to: help w/halibut? posted by Otter
Halibut will eat swimbaits, grubs, jigs and just about any other kind of artificial lure but will respond best to live bait. Take a bucket and a bait snagger and you should be able to snag some bait up there. They will eat almost any kind of bait fish. If you cant snag bait then try frozen anchovies or sardines. You can drift one set up with bait and throw plastics on the other. There are several rigs you can use but to keep it simple you can try a carolina rig. The freshwater bass hooks work great on smaller halibut but I beware that a big halibut will easily straighten out a fresh water bass hook. Riging your bait with a trap hook in the tail is optional.
You definitely want to be drifting and if you drift an area couple times with no results then try a different area (deeper or more shallow). When you find them you should concentrate on that area and take note of the conditions and depth. You will generally find they will hold at the same depth and that is where you want to be drifting. If stops happening keep looking trying new areas.
Last Sunday I tried for halibut after the bass bite proved to be a tough one. The halibut didn't want anything to do with the swimbaits so I tried making bait and between my buddy and I we were only able to make 2 baits. All I had with me was thin wire bass hooks. I set my drag real lite anticipating that the hook might straighten on a big fish. So I put my bait threw towards the beach and it seemed like as soon as it hit the water I was picked up. I let it run put the reel in gear and fish on. A couple minutes later a 37" flattie met my gaff. Just as I gaffed it the hook had become straight enought to come off. The fish was already on the gaff so I got lucky on that one. My buddy got bit and missed his oportunity. We tried to catch more bait but it wasn't happening we hit again with plastics and they didn't want it.
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