Trolling for Halibut

[fish brain]

There has been a bit of chatter about trolling for halibut recently. I usually just drift for them, but often think that trolling would cover more ground.
I have several questions:
How do you set your cannon ball, do you drag it in the mud, or bring it up a ways?
Do you loose many balls doing this?
Do you often wind up with ling by catch?

 

[hebert]

On a Tofino charter a few years back we landed 4 with our chinook setup(flasher/spoon). The guide said the chickens free swim.
We were fishing in 200 @ 150-175. No cannonballs were lost.

 

[Hardy Guy]

Used to troll for them in Rupert. Large spoon 3 to 5 feet off of a flatish bottom. Worked well got some lings also. Watch for boulders and reefs and you wont loose gear,

 

[spring fever]

There has been a bit of chatter about trolling for halibut recently. I usually just drift for them, but often think that trolling would cover more ground.
I have several questions:
How do you set your cannon ball, do you drag it in the mud, or bring it up a ways?
Do you loose many balls doing this?
Do you often wind up with ling by catch?
I usually set my speed and tack-drop the ball-let it hit bottom bring it
up 5 ft-note the sounder depth and that way you can go up a foot or down as required. Losing balls--well you have to know the bottom-helps to have a hi speed rigger for those surprise pinnacles. Ling as by-catch--hell you get everything fishing this way including Springs LOL

 

[Mako 22]

Years ago I trolled here on the bandits side of the border in Juan de Fuca Strait, around Port Angeles on the flats. and drop offs along the ledges.

Started trolling for blackmouth with 4 inch Tomics, but the little plug was hit by a halibut, about 160 feet deep. Got it up enough to see the outline through the water, then violent head shaking and the 5/0 siwash on the plug straightened. Bye Bye!

Hmm. Thought a bigger plug with a large Duratin hook would be better, so next trip brought along some 7 inch Tomics.

So yea, the 7 inchers worked, over a period of years I managed to boat several nice Halibut.

20 foot leader behind the downrigger release clip. Downrigger ball about 4 feet below the clip. Drop to bottom, crank up about 10 feet, and set a steady troll course.

Old reliable 7 inch white plug on the bottom. Now retired and hanging on the wall in the shop.

Now I mainly use bait or large jigs for halibut.

 

[Sea lyin’]

If we’re trolling bottom my go to is a 7” tomic #700.

 

[Sharphooks]

A few years ago I took my daughter to Barkley Sound....fishing was slow....in a fit of desperation I bought a 6” long Tomic spoon at the Bamfield General Store. It was pushing $ 15 and it was banana yellow.....(yes, the last one remaining on the rack)

I felt like it was a bad move both for the price and the color, but I told my daughter we had to do something different

I dropped it down to 200 feet off Diana Island, came up 10 feet on the downrigger, then promised my daughter we’d get a 40 pound spring in short order. First 5 minutes of the tack we got a 40 lb halibut

I’ve never amortized a piece of fishing equpment so fast in my career....

Meanwhile, I never specifically target halibut, but always seem to catch them...usually chickens which is handy for boat food when camping and the bigger ones when going deep with plugs

 

[saanauk]

There has been a bit of chatter about trolling for halibut recently. I usually just drift for them, but often think that trolling would cover more ground.
I have several questions:
How do you set your cannon ball, do you drag it in the mud, or bring it up a ways?
Do you loose many balls doing this?
Do you often wind up with ling by catch?

Normally I will drop down and hit the bottom and come up 5ft. Will try and stay 5 ft off the bottom by dropping down and hitting every once and a while. I stand next to the Downrigger in case I bounce bottom and can bring it up quickly.

I normally only do this in places that I know the bottom is pretty forgiving so I don’t lose to many balls.

I don’t catch lings very often at the locations I troll for halibut. Probably a lack of rocky structure.

There have been days when we got out limit of salmon so thought we would try and troll some flats for halibut. Just kept catching chinook after chinook while trying for the halibut.
My go to trolling setup is a green/glow flasher with a green splatter back needlefish hootchie.

 

[paguy]

Motor mooching large herring in shallow water has caught many a halibut for us over the years.

 

[Mako 22]

Motor mooching large herring in shallow water has caught many a halibut for us over the years.

Yep. Think I will upsize my herring on August 19 and try a little mooching on Halibut Flats. We fish the same areas.

"Mooching Ready and Halibut Ready":

 

[sly_karma]

There has been a bit of chatter about trolling for halibut recently. I usually just drift for them, but often think that trolling would cover more ground.
I have several questions:
How do you set your cannon ball, do you drag it in the mud, or bring it up a ways?
Do you loose many balls doing this?
Do you often wind up with ling by catch?

Trolling will work in areas with fairly consistent depth and a mud or sand bottom. Normally lings are around rockpiles and pinnacles, areas you will want to avoid if bouncing cannonballs on bottom.

 

[paguy]

Yep. Think I will upsize my herring on August 19 and try a little mooching on Halibut Flats. We fish the same areas.

"Mooching Ready and Halibut Ready":

Bring lots of bait, I have found it near impossible to fish halibut shallow this time of year, Too many dogfish around.

 

[Mako 22]

Bring lots of bait, I have found it near impossible to fish halibut shallow this time of year, Too many dogfish around.

I will have Tomic backups!

We need a dogfish repellant.

 

[Sir Reel]

In Nootka, out at Bajo Reef, I used a red flasher and white hootchie on advice from an old timer in Critter Cove.
We fished in about 90 feet of water just off bottom. Caught an 18 pound halibut, 12 pound Ling, and 16 pound Chinook on that same rig in about an hour so would consider it pretty successful!

 

[ChilliSpoons]

When trolling with a Tomic and bouncing bottom with your cannonball doesn’t the Tomic dive down into the bottom? Or do you set your release clips a little higher?

 

[Mako 22]

When trolling with a Tomic and bouncing bottom with your cannonball doesn’t the Tomic dive down into the bottom? Or do you set your release clips a little higher?

Tomic runs nearly level, drop the plug a few feet under the surface so you can see it behind the release clip. I use 20 feet to the plug behind the clip. You will note the line runs almost level. Then drop the cannon ball down to about 5 feet from bottom if you have a good flat bottom, higher if rocky and uneven.

Cannon ball 4 feet below release clip.

I have posted this photo before, note the modification to the release clip.