Will be up in the Santa Barbara area next week and was looking for advice on rigging for Halibut from the shore. I usually do allot of Corbina and Perch fishing on light tackle and was thinking about rigging more for larger fish.. Halibut/Sharks. I currently use a GL 8' rod and medium casting reel with 8lb line, 4lb flouro leaders. I have another rod, GL 8'6" heavier and could rig it with 15-20lb or so. Good approach? Other ideas? Terminal tackle for halibut from the surf? I'm not looking to toss 5oz. of lead and half a mackerel, just to vary the otherwise good perch fishing. Ideas? Thanks - Paul

LAST EDITED ON Jul-30-01 AT 01:41 PM (PST)

Paul,

Dump the bait. Use 3 - 4 inch plastic swimbaits on 3/16 - 3/8 oz. heads, jerkbaits (Rebel Minnows or Bomber Long As), or krocodiles. For the swimbaits a straight in or reel/pause retrieve will work. Good colors are Keylime, Sardine, Channel Island Chovie, Rainbow Trout.

A 7 - 8 ft. spinning rod with 6 lb. test, a 3 inch plastic on a 3/16 oz. head is probably my most successful surf halibut setup.

When I'm going a little heavier I'll use my 7.5 ft. Loomis with 10 lb. on a calcutta 150 with 4 inch fishtraps on 1/4 - 3/8 oz. heads.

Pete

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You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.

Thanks.. Casting over the breakers or in them? Or maybe just as far as you can throw? Any specific structure hints to look for or avoid? I know fishing other surf fish I usually go for a just over the tops of the swells cast and work the grubs or other plastics slowly in the boils. Unless it's a day for Corbina then I'm throwing the grub at my toes almost. :) Thanks - Paul

I wouldn't necessarily dump the bait, Paul. There are times when the bait works but the artificials don't. I would bring bait and plastics. Bait being either dead anchovies or whole dead squid. For plastics, the colors and leadhead sizes that Leapin' Bass recommends would be perfect. There's nothing wrong with the jerkbaits and crocodiles (they work too), it's just that they can be a bit "snaggy" with the treble hooks. Keep in mind that oftentimes there is a lot of seaweed that you can get hung up on. In my opinion, an artificial gobbed with seaweed and being dragged towards shore is probably less enticing to a fish than a real anchovy or squid that has a scent. Under clean water conditions (i.e. no seaweed), artificials can work quite well. You'll just have to try and see which works better for you. Let us know how you do...

Like they said, your 8# rig should do nicely for the ave. Surf caught Hali. You might bump up to 10-15# if you are thinking big.
You also mentioned shark. For them I'd go with a 15-30# rig and double that for your leader. Try to run a 5' leader with a split shot right next to the hook. 2oz of lead should be good on the slider, so long as it has flat sides. Either a squid head or hood should work for bait. If you want to get creative try cutting a flattened out hood into a scampi type shape, or a spiral. These can be deadly on both the sharks and Hali'sl, but take some practice with the bait knife, and may add twist to your line.

Tight lines,
Wade

Are you guys throwing the hardbaits(Cranks and JerkBaits) in the surf? How do you get them down deep enough to get the attention of a halibut???

Thanks

You only have to get them down a little ways. If you can get a bait within 4' of the bottom they SOMETIMES will come up for it.
In the surf most of the water is less than 6' deep that you can cast to, so you only have to get a bait to dive more than 2'. Most cranks and minnow baits will do that.
Furthermore, sometimes, you don't even have to do that. 2 yrs ago I got a Halibut on a Popper while trying to take out a "professional over run" while Striper fishing near Moss Landing. He grabbed the bucktailed treble and hooked himself as it bobbed in the waves.

Tight lines,
Wade

Hey Wade,

Are there any stripers at Moss Landing now? are the snaggers there this year again?

Nico

I haven't seen any impressive Striper reports (atleast not believable ones). If you can get out into the deeper waters there is a steady pick on Halibut to 25+#s in around 30-60' of water Straight out from the south jetty and South towards the Research pier. Especially looking around the edges of the tidally formed channel. There has also been a few White Sea Bass to 20+#s caught.
You might check with Mitch on this. His buddy stopped by the weigh-in at Pinto L. and said the boat he was on got a few halibut and a WSB (I think he said 18# on the WSB). Then he admired Swimbait's MS Slammer and wondered aloud if it could be Bounce-balled for a monster Hali, and I showed him my Castaic swimbait. He looked like he was interested after I told him it was about $8 at Walmart.
Are you still Grrring the Pacifica Striper? The full moon is Sat, so Thurs. and Mon. should be about the best fishing for the next month. Thurs. is also the peak of a Solunar period, so it should be doubly HOT.

Tight lines,
Wade

The pacifica stuff is basically over. I'm not going back unless I hear about anything real good, which is unlikely.

The monterey halibut sounds really good though. I'm going to try it a few times in August for sure.

Nico

Contact me when you do.

Wade - could you elaborate on why Thurs & Mon will be the best fishing days when Sat is the full moon? Why two days on either side of the full moon? I assume because the tides are high, but when is the best time to fish those tides then?

Thanks,
Mark

I've read about this in many places with many different reasons given and experienced it more than once. The reason that works best for me is that as the full moon approaches tides and the amount of light are affected both "usually" in a manner leading to higher activity levels for all creatures affected by one or both of these stimuli. Or in other words fish eat more at these times, but they seem to get full a day or so before the full moon or something, so they don't feed as well on the actual full moon.
Also, when it's a full moon there is so much light that the predators don't have an advantage in eyesight, but they seem to have an advantage 2-3 days off of the full moon.
Another possibility that I've heard is that They get tired from being active 24 hours a day before the full and have to rest.
I personally put the most stock in the first one and the other 2 kind of fall in behind.
I don't know if this clarified anything but I hope you'll try fishing anytime you can and especially +/- 2 days from the full moon.

Tight lines,
Wade

4 ft. off the bottom!

If the water is clear enough they will come 15 ft. off the bottom (probably more but I rarely fish that deep). Sometimes the strikes are violent.

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You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.