Halibut bait or lure of choice

[Kramer]

Yes, spreader bar with the herring setup, at least for me. Weight on the short leg of the bar with about a 20" section of 20 lb mono and then short leader for the herring, say 16-20" or so. Really depends on how deep and what kind of bottom you are fishing. That's how I'd fish a rocky-ish bottom but on a sand flat I really like pipe jigs or mudraker style jigs, and even a tuna cord slider setup. When drifting I've found that current, depth and bottom structure will determine what kind of setup I'll use. All that goes out the window to some degree when I'm on anchor though, and even then I change it up based on how fast the current is ripping.

 

[Fisher-Dad]

I like salmon belly but also hit one this year on a sardine and another on makeral. Nothing on herring yet? Just luck I'm sure the boat has only caught 4 out of about 8 trips.

I sometimes catch baby octopus in my prawn traps. I tried using one for bait and it had great action but in my opinion it had very little smell. Does octopus usually leave a good stink trail or is it just the action they like? I know a lot of guys use Octo plus some other bait I did try that too.