Best Bait/lure for Halibut

[Charter Tofino]

Anybody ever try tuna bellies for hali? I would think the oil in them would draw the halibut in from quite a distance.

I bet they would be deadly! I think mills still has a bunch of carcasses. Will save a few next year.

 

[Finished Business]

waiting for next season to try out some blood lines on some flatties...I'll save the bellies for my own consumption lol

 

[fish stalker]

I cringe at people using salmon bellys for halibut, I bet tuna is the same, the best part! hm fresh bbq'ed salmon belly, its like the rib eye of steaks nice marbled fat threw it, thats what makes it so good.

 

[Hindsight]

Salmon guts, took most Halibut the last few years. mmmm gills

 

[hooktender68]

Whole FRESH pilchard and mackeral. Whole salmon heads for size large.

 

[Aces]

Salmon guts, took most Halibut the last few years. mmmm gills

Yup, salmon gills work great unless the dogfish are around

 

[Gerry]

Whole FRESH pilchard and mackeral. Whole salmon heads for size large.

How are you rigging salmon heads. I used one once for bait, had a couple of massive hits on it but could not get it to stick. I found that it was difficult to get much of the hook exposed and the head is so tough that it would stay on and not hook the halibut. What did I do wrong?

 

[scott craven]

Pink or Coho heads work best, run a circle hook right through the roof of the mouth with the hook point out the nose.

 

[Rum Buddies]

Pink or Coho heads work best, run a circle hook right through the roof of the mouth with the hook point out the nose.

A lot of BIG halibut come from a setup like that, caught my biggest on exactly this setup. Good when dogfish are thick too, they have a tough time getting a fish head and circle in their mouth and just kinda nibble on the head spreading scent.

 

[Dogbreath]

Use a monster sized circle hook and run it through the cheek.

 

[Curtis]

I wouldn't believe it unless it happened on my boat but our best lure for catching halibut up to 50lbs this past summer was a glow in the dark yellow spoon with a few black spots on it. It usually fished our other rods 3 to 1 that had bait of all kinds. When you have four rods in the water I like to throw a odd ball down and see what happens. Any other "odd" lures work out there? All of our Halibut bigger than 50 lbs were taken with a combination of baits sandwiched together.