Cant Catch a Hali :(

[TelStar26]

Hey guys, left sooke yesterday morning and spent a god awfull amount of fuel ripping to peder bay/race rocks to ancour up for a stab at a hali. I spent half the morning bringing up and putting down my anchor trying to get the dam boat to float over the right spot over the chart. It was impossible! When we finally got it half decent.....the wind would change and we would be slowly blown off. Its starting to seem inpossible to anchor on a specific spot!
What am I doing wrong guys? Never hali fish with a breese or wind? Am I targeting a way to small of an area? I would guess this area was aprox 50x50 in about 180ft of water, with the anchor being dropped in the 220ft range. Should I try and posistion my self on a way larger areas? does it matter if im in the middle of a spot or off to the side? How close do I actually have to be to said spot?
Im getting starting to think its impossible, but theres so many people that catch hali!
Any advice or help would be great!
Thanks

 

[bananas]

Telstar , don't panic !!! Lol

First of all you have to figure out your tides , did you notice there was no boats hally fishing yesterday.. You couldn't land on your spot because the tide was ripping.

Second halibut don't all live in that 50 by 50 spot.

Go put your anchor out in a good looking spot and relax and wait they will come!!

Next week weds rite thru till the following week ate great tides!

 

[scott craven]

Just my opinion, but i wouldn't try and get too technical.
Halibut move around in search of food.
It's more important to set up somewhere close to where you want to be
and get your bait to the bottom.
It's the scent that draws them to where you are.

 

[Peterman]

Some keys,
Pick the good tides
A proper Anchor set up for your size of boat
Choose a known Hali area
Use some nice fresh big herring off a spreader bar set-up
Turn the music up (that really helps)
It will happen

 

[scott craven]

Question for the experts, looking at currents for East Juan de fuca for tomorrow
looks like the best time would be between 1:00-5:00 pm
1knot ebb going to a 1knot flood
am i reading this correctly?

 

[bushwackin]

Some keys,
Pick the good tides
A proper Anchor set up for your size of boat
Choose a known Hali area
Use some nice fresh big herring off a spreader bar set-up
Turn the music up (that really helps)
It will happen

Also, DO NOT forget the beer, THAT is the worst luck!

 

[Peterman]

Beer "Duh" ofcourse.. lol

Another proven method is to grab a couple buddies
Take a guided Trip with one of the boys and cut your learning curve in half...
It will more than pay for itself in the amount of Hali's you will catch once you learn from the pro's.. so worth it...
Ask lots of questions and get some hands on experience.. years of knowledge packed into a day on the water.. cant beat it...

 

[AlGee]

There are lots more experienced fishers on this forum than me so I am strictly speaking from my (our) own experiences out on the local waters.

Someone posted age/weight ratios of hali from Alaska a while back. It basically told me that hali are fairly fast growing fish, ie. 250 pounders at only around 20 years old! This suggests to me that they are not very fussy eaters. I've heard all kinds of stories like guys using bulk hotdog weiners, porkchops, chicken parts etc. for bait. I've unzipped quite a few halibut and have found crabs (red rock, kelp crabs etc), prawns, octopus beaks, sculpins, etc etc. They pretty much inhale anything that passes by their face. If you are using adequate bait (fresh and smelly), drop your hook at the right time (usually during a tidal turnaround) and do not hook into a fish w/in a couple hours then they are simply not there. Fast tide rips happen when there is a large distance between high and low tides, therefore we avoid going out during those full moon and new moon cycles. Slack tides during those lunar cycles are very short-lived. You can still catch fish during those periods but you really have to time it right and even then its a fairly short window before currents pick up and your balls start flying.

Halibut, like any other animal has to use some energy to catch food. There is always a tradeoff and if a large amount of stored energy is expended at catching a prey item in fast current then the reward (energy potential taken in) is not very great. During fast current periods they hunker down in dips and hollows and become ambush predators. During those mild current periods they are out there actively following their noses, so scent IS important.

I've worked around lots of commercial fishers in the past and have heard some fanciful stories, can't verify all of it but some still sound plausible. One guy was trolling for pinks at 300 ft in 600 feet of water and halibut were latching onto his pinks and getting hooked! Halibut were actually off the bottom and chasing pinks in midwater during low current conditions! believe it or not, its up to you.

 

[Rum Buddies]

I've worked around lots of commercial fishers in the past and have heard some fanciful stories, can't verify all of it but some still sound plausible. One guy was trolling for pinks at 300 ft in 600 feet of water and halibut were latching onto his pinks and getting hooked! Halibut were actually off the bottom and chasing pinks in midwater during low current conditions! believe it or not, its up to you.

That does sound like a fancy story, would be strange enough to have the troller targeting pinks at 300', no? There are videos on youtube of halibut feeding well off the bottom and even right on the surface attacking bait balls. I think they are a lot more active then people give them credit.

Just keep at it and try not limit the areas you fish. If you can pick 2-3 known halibut spots and keep working them in different currents and from different angles eventually you'll find out what works for each area. If you fish a new spot every weekend you might never land on a spot when its feeding time.

Beer and music does help, that's just science.

 

[stones93]

I think they are a lot more active then people give them credit.

Beer and music does help, that's just science.

My dad and I caught a 55lb and 45lb hali's in a very unlikely spot on salmon gear. We were at 20 pulls (40 ft) and only 50 ft from shore. We were targeting salmon, mooching with cut plug herring, and had never seen a hali in this area before. There was an anusually huge amount of herring in that area so they probably followed that in from about 5 miles away (where the bigger ones usually hang out)

 

[Cuba Libre]

Someone posted age/weight ratios of hali from Alaska a while back. It basically told me that hali are fairly fast growing fish, ie. 250 pounders at only around 20 years old!

Not so anymore--- the growth rate has slowed considerably since the 90s.

 

[fish stalker]

Fast tide rips happen when there is a large distance between high and low tides, therefore we avoid going out during those full moon and new moon cycles. Slack tides during those lunar cycles are very short-lived.

Thats the information ive been looking for! Thanks! Trying to figure out what these 'hali tides' are.

 

[Rum Buddies]

you don't want to use tide charts for hali fishing, what you want to look at is the current. Generally when it comes to safe anchoring you'd like to look for currents that don't run faster then 1.5-2kts.

A little bit of current would be ideal say .5kts - just enough current to get the scent moving down stream, although we've caught plenty of big fish when the current was pumping close to 2kts.

 

[TheRock]

Big current swings tomorrow! here is the current station (Trial Island, 5.2 miles SSW) from right on Constance Bank for March 24 2012. ... there is a 0.0kt slk at 1pm. but very short lived, increases real fast... 1:45 its .5kts. by 3:30 its 1.3kts from 4:00-5:00 its 1.4 knts..

Question for the experts, looking at currents for East Juan de fuca for tomorrow
looks like the best time would be between 1:00-5:00 pm
1knot ebb going to a 1knot flood
am i reading this correctly?

 

[TheRock]

 

[sammyslabber]

You should also look for areas that hold feeding halibut and or routes used to travel to feeding grounds.. a good method is to search charts and establish troughs from deeper water that move into shallower easier accessed fishing areas.Halibut have been known to navigate from these areas in search of food - gravel or sandy substrates will hold halibut until it's time to feed -then they will move to feed in areas such as pinicles ect that hold bait fish.Like any species area, food source will be a factor in finding fish.

 

[bee15]

better to check race rocks current table gives you a much better look at what the currents are going to be like all around victoria and when

 

[pescador]

B15, can you be more precise with you location pls....lol. You might want to update your profile given some of the recent mayhem amongst members.

SS como estas hombre. Espero que tenemos un ano de puta madre. Pero que yo veo, hay un potential problemo con el DFO y JDF...Es una lastima. Dedos cruzados...

 

[Last Chance]

He means when you choose a current station choose the one for Race Passage, a little more accurate for the Race Rocks area as opposed to JDF East.

 

[scott craven]

Big current swings tomorrow! here is the current station (Trial Island, 5.2 miles SSW) from right on Constance Bank for March 24 2012. ... there is a 0.0kt slk at 1pm. but very short lived, increases real fast... 1:45 its .5kts. by 3:30 its 1.3kts from 4:00-5:00 its 1.4 knts..

That doesn't seem too extreme ?? 1- 1.5 knots just enough to get the scent out
I'm not fishing as far west as Race but notice the currents are ripping through that area.