Halibut Fishing

Fishing for Halibut

Fish Species Spotlight: Halibut Halibut Fishing in the Bay Halibut fishing in the summer months is a great way to escape the lake lice and enjoy catching some hard fighting, great tasting fish! Halibut meat is very expensive, and deliciously worth every penny, but you can easily catch them yourself. Fresh Halibut is one of the best tasting fish out there. Check the Halibut Fishing Regulations before you fish! There are strict regulations like size requirements that we must adhere to. Types of Halibut Fishing • Fishing for Halibut from the Beach • Fishing for Halibut from a Boat Halibut Fishing from the Beach Fishing for Halibut from the Beach Fishing for halibut from the beach is an amazing experience. Fishing from the beach is a bit easier than rock fishing as there is less snags, less seaweed, and less rocks to contend with. I like to fish with swimbaits, on a drop shot type rig, with a torpedo type weight on the bottom. I also do well with stickbaits on a slow steady retrieve. Halibut Fishing Gear Setup for the Beach Lures: • Berkley Saltwater Swimming Mullet - 4 or 5 inch - Chartreuse or White • Kalin's Lunker Grubs - 4 or 5 inch - Chartreuse or White • Zoom Fluke - 4 or 5 inch - Chartreuse or White • Lucky Craft Flash Minnow - Metallic Sardine Lucky Craft Flash Minnow Berkley Gulp! Alive! Saltwater Swimming Mullet Kalin's Lunker Grubs Zoom Fluke Video of Halibut Fishing from the Beach with a Lucky Craft Flash Minnow Hooks XPS Wacky Worm Hooks - Size 1 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Stinger Hooks - Size 1 Mustad TitanX Finesse Wacky/Neko Hook - Size 1 Swimbait Worm Hooks Sinkers Torpedo Sinkers - 1 or 2 oz. Bass Pro Shops Pencil Sinker - 1 or 2 oz. Northland Fishing Tackle Rock Runner Slip Bouncer - 1 or 2 oz Lindy Rattlin' No-Snagg Slip Sinkers - 1 or 2 oz Sea Striker Trolling Sinkers - 1 or 2 oz. Offshore Angler Trolling Sinker - 1 or 2 oz When selecting the style of sinker to use, it’s important to find a sinker that won’t get snagged, and can gently bounce and slide around on the bottom as you reel in your swimbait. You do not want the square type, or pyramid style sinkers as they will bounce around and make too much commotion. The waves and rough hectic water would catch and spin and tumble other styles of sinkers too much. You want a nice, smooth, sliding torpedo style sinker, which would be perfect in this instance. Torpedo Style Sinkers Halibut Fishing from the Beach - Technique Swimbaits or Mulets Using a worm hook, add your swimbait or mullet or grub to the hook. Tie on a sinker about eight to ten inches below the hook. It needs to be a torpedo type sinker that can just slide along the bottom without getting caught and thrown around in the hectic water like other types of sinkers will. Cast out as far as you can, and slowly reel in, a constant slow reel, until you get bit. Then set that hook hard and fish on! Halibut are good fighting fish, and fun to catch. Halibut Fishing from the Beach - Technique Stickbaits Using a shallow diving stickbait, like the Lucky Craft Flash Minnow, cast out as far as you can, and reel slowly. Just reel in a constant steady slow speed. If you aren’t getting any bites, move along the beach, sometimes you need to cover some ground to find them. Try changing the movement a little now and again, stop reeling for a second then slow stead reeling in again, a slight twitch up here and there on the rod will change the movement slightly, and may entice a strike as well. Best Bait Recipe’s and Catch Your Own • Brined & Dyed Bait Fish Recipe • Catch Sand Crabs Fleas for Bait • Make Your Own Ghost Shrimp Pump • Salted Squid for Rock Fishing or Beach Fishing • Shrimp and Prawn Bait Cure Recipe Video of Halibut Fishing from the Beach with a Drop Shop Swimbait Halibut Fishing from a Boat Bait Fishing and Trolling for Halibut from a Boat Methods for catching Halibut in the bay from a boat include drifting live anchovies, herring, or sardines and Trolling live or frozen anchovies, herring, or sardines. A stinger hook setup is a must when trolling. 3 out of 4 fish are hooked by the stinger. I use a size 2 treble hook for a stinger and a 1/0 single hook. Hook the minnow through the nose with the single hook and let the stinger dangle behind the baits tail. Run 30 pound line to a 3 way swivel, 1 ft. dropper to a 10 oz. trolling weight, 3 ft leader to a chrome or green dodger, 2 ft. leader to your hooks. Troll slow at first letting your weight drag on the bottom all the time. Slowly pick up your speed to 2 mph if you're not picking up fish at 1.5 mph. I rarely troll for halibut over 3 mph but sometimes they like a faster presentation. Good Halibut Trolling Spots I like to start in the Berkley Flats because it's only a 5 minute run from the launch ramp at the Berkley Marina. find 20 ft. water and let em down. The south side of Alcatraz, west side of Treasure island, east of Candlestick park, south west side of Angel island, just north of the Golden Gate, paradise, south hampton shoals, are some of my favorite spots on the inside. You can drift live bait in any of these spots as well. Video of Halibut Fishing from a Boat Trolling with a Flasher and a Stickbait World Record California Halibut The biggest world record sized California Halibut ever caught, as per the International Game Fish Association, was caught in Santa Rosa Island, California. It was caught in 2011, and it weighed in at 67 lb 5 oz. • Weight - 67 lb 5 oz • Location - Santa Rosa Island, California, USA • Catch Date - 01-Jul-2011 • Angler - Francisco J. Rivera State Record Big Fish can be found here. See more fishing tackle in our Fishing Gear and Tackle store. Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Mendenhall Outdoors team. We highlight products and services that you might find interesting. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. If you click a link on this page, then go on to make a purchase, we might receive a commission – at no extra cost to you, and does not impact the purchase price of any products that you may purchase.