lure-washer
Member
What is the best choice of terminal set up for trolling for halibut?
Lures and flashers or what?
Lures and flashers or what?
Trolling for Halibut
- Thread starter lure-washer
- Start date
spring fever
Well-Known Member
Flasher and white hootchy
firelight
Active Member
Big spoon, big hootchie or big herring all work fine, I prefer the spoon with some stink on it. I use my salmon rods and reels cause I like them, buddy uses his Hali setup. I've brought up a 45 on my gear so far. The biggest thing is you need big balls and favorable currents to get down that deep, any where from 200 to 260' deep are the usual spots. You downriggers can be out at 300' to get you down there so have enough line on there too. I might try some 20 lbers this year. don't turn too quick either.
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
We mostly troll for them over the last few years. Everything firelight and others have said above for tackle. We just use our salmon gear and it makes for some interesting hauling up.
Here is a 60 lber that was my buddies wife's first halibut ever caught trolling with salmon gear using just an xtra large herring stuffed in a teaser head with no flasher.
We still jig for them too but trolling is always fun
.
We just run 15 lb balls with braid on the riggers. I let them bounce once and bring them up 5 feet. Seems to work good for us. We usually try trolling the top contour line on the edge of a bank right before it drops off steeply.
Here is a 60 lber that was my buddies wife's first halibut ever caught trolling with salmon gear using just an xtra large herring stuffed in a teaser head with no flasher.
We still jig for them too but trolling is always fun
.We just run 15 lb balls with braid on the riggers. I let them bounce once and bring them up 5 feet. Seems to work good for us. We usually try trolling the top contour line on the edge of a bank right before it drops off steeply.
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Kildonan
Well-Known Member
We trolled one up in Sarita bay once back in the day on large whole herring. An epic battle ensued, it went on for what seemed an hour or more with my old man and his buddy passing the big fiberglass rod and 6 inch Peetz back and forth until the wind came up and the decision to break it off was made. Too bad, we never saw how big it was. Got it off the bottom a few times only to have it pull all the recovered line back out again. LOL
trophywife
Crew Member
i have learned to backtroll in the last couple years, still workin on the technique ,, downrigger with a spreader bar at the bottom, sash weight "Cheap" and about 7 lbs tied on with 25 lb mono so ya can break off the weight without losing more gear....spreader bar has the downrigger clip,, 4-6' out from clip run a large spoon or a chunk of bait,, bounce bottom every second or so swell, nice bringin up chickens without the weight attached...definately find bigger hali at the edges...
fishinforever
Well-Known Member
Never targeted them trolling but got a half-dozen on swiftsure trolling for salmon, just with plugs about 20-40 feet off the bottom.
firelight
Active Member
Even with a big spoon you can get something pretty small on it that you might not notice. If there's no action for 15 minutes a lot of the time you got something small your dragging. You need to check your gear often and it's a long wind up. Another use/excuse for a 2 speed avet.
tubber
Well-Known Member
Turd with a piece of anchovy stuffed insde. Don't forget to fish it out before putting it back in the tackle box. Nasty odor after a few weeks. Also got one on a small green and white gypsy at lighhouse bank doing the mixed fishery bottom bounce thing in about 170 feet. Someone said to have a longish (40 feet) set back to the flasher so it can stir the bottom better.
hambone
Well-Known Member
I agree... I've also found that its fairly common to check your gear only to find that you actually have a chicken on your line. For some reason we had a few that didn't bounce the rod at all and gave no indication they were there until you checked your gear. Some smaller ones just seem content to ride around at trolling speed
Anyone else??lure-washer
Member
So if you are using salmon gear when fishing for halibut, do you have to use barbless hooks?
Lure-washer
Lure-washer
spring fever
Well-Known Member
Hope you have a lawyer on board-if all your gear is for salmon I think you'll get a ticket for a barbed hook -if they ask you to pull. I haven't lost any I can remember barbless-wouldn't want to try a big one though.
firelight
Active Member
No lawyers sorry, but they are barbless for trolling. Doesn't seem to be a problem.
When we go out to the bank we are targeting any species of fish, you troll deep and can get salmon on the way up or down. Hali ling or rockfish on the bottom, so you need to be prepared for what you might catch. Hence the need to pinch the barbs.
When we go out to the bank we are targeting any species of fish, you troll deep and can get salmon on the way up or down. Hali ling or rockfish on the bottom, so you need to be prepared for what you might catch. Hence the need to pinch the barbs.
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lure-washer
Member
Yeh that`s what I thought. Just had to ask.
Would you use a longer leader than normally used for salmon?
Lure-washer
Would you use a longer leader than normally used for salmon?
Lure-washer
firelight
Active Member
I use about 4' leaders on the big spoon, it's not that fussy of a fishery offshore wcvi. I don't use a flasher but I do have a flasher on the downrigger line.
Hardest part of this is when you hook up and your buddy won't slow down cause he's still trying to hook up. And you have to drag your fish up from 230' with the boat in gear on your mooching rod. If your lucky he'll hook up too.
Hardest part of this is when you hook up and your buddy won't slow down cause he's still trying to hook up. And you have to drag your fish up from 230' with the boat in gear on your mooching rod. If your lucky he'll hook up too.
I used to use the large army truck hooch for hali trollin then I found somethin that really slays em. The Lyman plug!!!! 6" #14 and #10. for those of you that don't know what a lyman is, they are a hand made cedar plug made in the okanagan. made for trout. They work well at slow speeds perfect for drifting for hali. I change the hook to an 8 odd gami. keep it close to the cannon ball like 10-12 feet back so its swimmin in the cloud of mud. you will also get some big lings on it. seem to get less of the small chickins with that plug and not many salmon will bite it which is a good thing. thats all I use for hali trollin now, never lets me down.
IronNoggin
Well-Known Member
I generally back-troll or drift fish them with spreader bars.
But, when in Search Mode, I too will actively troll them.
Happened across a Deadly terminal last season. So effective I actually began to prefer trolling to working the spreader bars, and for me, that says a LOT!
Debated on sharing this Secret Weapon, but decided WTH, may as well
So...
This fellow here, in their "06 Glow Bug" version (Color & spec Page) is MAGIC!
Trolled Dead Slow (like ~ 1 knot, no more than 1.5 knots) is wiggles much like a large flatfish. Run it right off the ball, drop to the mud and lift about 4 - 6 feet. Was responsible for a huge number of halibut last season, many of rather fine size! When using the larger (9 1/2") size, we encountered little in the way of by-catch beyond large lings and the odd yelloweye.
I removed the front treble completely, and replaced the rear one with an over-sized commercial treble filed Razor Sharp.
These are a little large to run off salmon gear IMO, so I simply ran the regular halibut rods 'n reels for them off the downrigger.
Not many stores carry them as I discovered. Some will bring them in for you by request, but you can order directly off their site: http://www.river2seausa.com/t/arrowt.html#thumb
Happy Hookin'!!
Cheers,
Nog
But, when in Search Mode, I too will actively troll them.
Happened across a Deadly terminal last season. So effective I actually began to prefer trolling to working the spreader bars, and for me, that says a LOT!
Debated on sharing this Secret Weapon, but decided WTH, may as well
So...
This fellow here, in their "06 Glow Bug" version (Color & spec Page) is MAGIC!
Trolled Dead Slow (like ~ 1 knot, no more than 1.5 knots) is wiggles much like a large flatfish. Run it right off the ball, drop to the mud and lift about 4 - 6 feet. Was responsible for a huge number of halibut last season, many of rather fine size! When using the larger (9 1/2") size, we encountered little in the way of by-catch beyond large lings and the odd yelloweye.
I removed the front treble completely, and replaced the rear one with an over-sized commercial treble filed Razor Sharp.
These are a little large to run off salmon gear IMO, so I simply ran the regular halibut rods 'n reels for them off the downrigger.
Not many stores carry them as I discovered. Some will bring them in for you by request, but you can order directly off their site: http://www.river2seausa.com/t/arrowt.html#thumb
Happy Hookin'!!
Cheers,
Nog
