Mark,
This upcoming month for halibut is my favorite fishing time of the year. It's taken me a couple of years of experimenting (and seminars) but I finally feel I'm doing enough right to have a decent chance to catch a fish.
Some important points:
- you have to be on bottom to catch these fish. You should have a good selection of weights to continually 'bounce the bottom' during various tides. If you're not bouncing the bottom, your not fishing. (12-30 oz range)
- In Puget sound your probably fishing between 100-200 ft. If you're off the coast (LaPush, Neah Bay, Westport), you may be in 300-500 ft of water. You'll need more weight in this case.
- In Puget sound the tides are great the second and forth weekends in May. The first, third and fifth are going to be harder to fish because of strong currents.
- I rig up with a zip cord (about 2' long )with fixed swivels on each end and a sliding one in the center. The leader with bait attached goes on the sliding swivel. You can buy the zip cord assembly and stainless halibut leaders with double hooks. Tie the weight to the bottom swivel with a 6" long piece of 20 LB test line. You'll get hung up ocassionally and will want the mono line to break instead of the 85 lb braid.
- For bait I use the white 9" B2 plastic squids with a large herring jammed into the skirt and secured to the top hook with a piece of thin solid wire(several wraps around the fish). This holds the herring securely and does not cover up the hooks. This setup is my own and has worked on several occasions- the squid add the visual component, the herring gives the scent.
- Halibut are dumb fish. Look for humps on your map and depth sounder and fish across them. Keep moving because the fish will be moving around as they feed- especially during tide changes.
- If your fishing off the coast, you don't bother with the herring. You can drop anything down and they'll probably hit it.
Good Luck! I'll be fishing in the Strait on the 8th and Memorial Day weekend. Plus three days fishing at LaPush (20-22).
