Halibut Fishing

[franky]

My brother lives in california.  We fished for rock fish and linq cods and caught a few.

Now he wants to try Halibut Fishing and we know that Halibuts can be very big.  Here are some questions:

How deep are the waters when people fish for Halibut?

I got him a torium 50 reel, is that big enough to handle the Halibut?

How much pound test should his mainline be in that reel?  How many yards should he put?

Is it best to go full braid? or is it better to go braid underneath and top shot with mono?

Thanks in advance for all the responses. 

[akfish]

If he is fishing for California halibut, he can and should use much lighter tackle. A big California halibut may weigh 30 pounds, but most are much smaller. He'll also be fishing in relatively shallow water. If he is fishing for Pacific or Alaska halibut, he needs heavy tackle and probably straight 80# braid, and may be fishing in 300 feet or even deeper. Pacific halibut get up towards 400 pounds, and 100 pound fish are not uncommon at all. Pacific halibut range as far south as only far northern California.

[john2244]

X2 what Bill stated.  I fish for halibut in So. Calif. using my bass gear.  A light reel with 50# spectra and 15 to 20# mono top shot.  Along the coast a lot of halibut are caught in water 40 to 80 ft deep.

John

[Bryan Young]

I've used 15# mono drifting and up to 50# braid with 50-100# leader trolling

Only got hits on straight 15# mono though, and all broke off 'cause some people like to try to horse the fish in and kept putting their finger on the spool every single time.

I don't seem to have the right set-up for trolling yet, and haven't been recently.

Based on what I have learned, I would probably go 50#-65# braid with 50# leader if trolling or drifting based on a commercial guy that I know.  He doesn't play much as his money is often underwater, and geting them above water fills his wallet.  If using live bait, same main with 20-30# mono.  Butts are not line shy, so will probably not need fluorocarbon.

[franky]

Ohhh, good thing I asked...seems like I'm really out of the park with my thoughts...

Coming from Hawaii, everyones rig is big, especially fishing off a boat.  When we fished for rock fish and linq cods, I was the only one on the boat 60 lb mainline and 80 lb hook leaders.  lucky for me the live sardines and anchovies still attracted the fish and we still had action.  Lots of others were using 20-25 lb test line.    If I recall, we were fishing in waters between 150feet and 300feet.

So actually, for california halibut, the torium 30 filled with 40 lb test straight mono line would be more appropriate?

[LTM]

Franky,

My Halibut experience has been in SoCal only.  I've caught up to 6(keeper) halibut in less than an hour private boat fishing with 12# test and a #4 extra strong treble hook on an egg sinker. Im a light line fisherman (lightest line possible) when it comes to fishing.  15# is the heavest that I use to catch SoCal Halibut.  My mentor loved fishing for halibut; so when I first learned to fish we did a lot of halibut fishing till I complained and we started targeting other species.  Halibut was my mentors favorite fish to eat and I got tired of catching them.

Anywho, Ive caught 20-30# halibut on 12/15# line.  I dont horse-them-in, and out here the butts are very finiky eaters so I pressent bait with the light line.  My mentor and I used to fish Ocean tournaments all the time and we won several as team mates and individually.  I said that to say that my mentor won the first annual halibut derby (Marina Del Rey/Santa Monica, Ca_ and a trip for two to the Great Barrier Rief in Australia with 15# line and a 40# plus halibut. He's an excellent halibut fisherman.

As stated earlier SoCal halibut are much smaller that the North-West/Alaska butts and you should scale up/down accordingly.

Leo

[Bryan Young]

I hear what you mean Franky.  It's the same when we shore cast.  Probably over do it for most of the game we fish for.

Toruim 30 should be fine with 40# or 50# mono.  If you are going deeper than 100', I personally would prefer braid for less current resistance allowing you to fish straighter up and down, better bite feel and more solid hook-ups.

[franky]

Oh, 40lb halibut on 15 pound test line....He is good!  

Okay okay...I gotta rethink this...back to the drawning board...

[Bryan Young]

A good balance, maybe a Torium 16 with 50# braid and 20-30# leader.  Thats probably a good set up for California near shore fisheries.

[LTM]

Franky,

Like I said, Im a light line fisherman and 20# is what most people use.

[ALASKAFISHMAN]

Just my two cents...

I have lived and fished in Alaska for almost 50 years.  I Grew up fishing halibut.  I did have a chance to go halibut fishing in CA, while on vacation.  To say the least they do it a bit different than we do up here.  Everyone on the boat was using small hooks, jigs and bait.  Light lines...  For the most part they caught Small Halibut.  Half way through the day, after getting to know the capt of the boat.  I asked if he had any baits or jigs a bit bigger.  He let me go through is stash of goodies and I came up with what I would consider a small bait for our Alaskan halibut.  But was still twice the size of the largest bait being use by anyone out there.  In short After the switch I caught very few halibut but they where much larger than the 5-10 pounders everyone had been catching.  Two that where in the 35-40# range.  To catch larger fish, use larger baits.  If you want fast fishing use smaller baits.  But do not be afraid to try something different or new. 

More times than not it is the one bait that is different that will catch the fish.  I have caught 150 pound butt on 5" baits, but I have caught many more in that size range on 10" baits.  This is not a hard fast rule, but it tends to be true more times than not. 

All bets are off, if you have a school of bait fish move in.  You better have something in your box that looks like the bait fish.  Many have this conception that halibut do not come off of the bottom, or stay very close to the bottom.  While this is some what true.  I have been fishing in 160' of water and not been able to get my hook past 60' with out hooking up to Butt.   They will feed at any depth, if you are jigging while drifting and see  bait fish higher,  pull up to them.  You may be rewarded.

Brent

[smnaguwa]

Hi, I have fished for halibut both in California and Alaska. In California, I use 30# braid with similar mono leader but if you get a snag, breaking off will be challenging. In Alaska, haven't had as many snags and halibut are bigger so I use 80# braid with a short 100# topshot that the deckhands can grab when they "bounce" small(~20#!) halibut. If you can get it, salmon head/entrails are great bait in Alaska.