Fishing for Halibut

[taggermike]

I have caught exactly 2 legal halibut on artificials in my life. It can be done and I'm sure there are many people much better than me at it, but when I target halibut I use live bait; smelt, deans, chovies. macks, or squid. I started out with the trap rig but found that I only caught more sub-legal halibut while gut hooking too many non-target fish like bass or lizard fish. In the bays or from the shore I prefer a sliding sinker rig with a fluoro leader and for deeper water I use a reverse dropper loop. Keep the rod in your hand, reel in free spool, and line tight to the weight and let out line at the immediately at the slightlest hint of a strike. Many people miss the "strike" of a halibut. Some times the line just feels heavy or there is a light thump but no line leaves the reel. Those are bites. Halis rarely run with the bait, they just lay back down on the bottom. Well that's some of it. Mike