HMD 19 - Yoda's legacy continues

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Fuzz
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Re: HMD 19 - Yoda's legacy continues

Post by Fuzz »

Is trolling the normal way you fish for halibut there? I have caught a few trolling but our normal way is to use bait on bottom.

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Re: HMD 19 - Yoda's legacy continues

Post by Cowbro »

Fuzz wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:23 pm Is trolling the normal way you fish for halibut there? I have caught a few trolling but our normal way is to use bait on bottom.
It is a slow-troll called "Bouce balling". 3 way swivel with a ~12" dropper to an ~8oz weight, then the other eye on the swivel goes to the bait, either with a dodger/flasher or without. We were using frozen anchovies. Set the speed at about 1.5-2.5mph and the weight just drags and bounces along on the muddy bottom. The bouncing of the weight supposedly helps attract the fish. If we had access to live bait, we'd be drifting live anchovies, but it is a little early in the season for that. I just read on one of the local forums that someone bagged a 37"er on Saturday while we were our there.

I'll also add that we are usually fishing in 10-25 feet of water. Any deeper than that, and it is tough to hold the bottom while "bounce balling"

Fuzz
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Re: HMD 19 - Yoda's legacy continues

Post by Fuzz »

I guess we do fish some what like you are doing. If we just drift and not anchor the tides will carry us along at up to 5 knots. We normally fish in 100-300 foot of water so if the tide is running hard it can be tough to get bait to bottom even with 16-24 oz sinkers.

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Re: HMD 19 - Yoda's legacy continues

Post by cracked_ribs »

Cowbro wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:42 pm
Fuzz wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:23 pm Is trolling the normal way you fish for halibut there? I have caught a few trolling but our normal way is to use bait on bottom.
It is a slow-troll called "Bouce balling". 3 way swivel with a ~12" dropper to an ~8oz weight, then the other eye on the swivel goes to the bait, either with a dodger/flasher or without. We were using frozen anchovies. Set the speed at about 1.5-2.5mph and the weight just drags and bounces along on the muddy bottom. The bouncing of the weight supposedly helps attract the fish. If we had access to live bait, we'd be drifting live anchovies, but it is a little early in the season for that. I just read on one of the local forums that someone bagged a 37"er on Saturday while we were our there.

I'll also add that we are usually fishing in 10-25 feet of water. Any deeper than that, and it is tough to hold the bottom while "bounce balling"
That's really interesting - around here you fish halibut in 200-800 feet of water. I genuinely had no idea that there would ever be halibut in water shallower than a hundred feet; I wouldn't have guessed that in a million years.
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Re: HMD 19 - Yoda's legacy continues

Post by Cowbro »

Important to note, we get California Halibut down here, they are smaller than pacific halibut (generally top out around 30-40lbs). Anything over 10lbs is considered respectable.

They come in shallow chasing schools of anchovies all over the bay all summer long. It would not be uncommon to catch them from shore in 6' of water.

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Re: HMD 19 - Yoda's legacy continues

Post by Jaysen »

Big flounder vs giant flounder vs “awww that’s a cute flounder” like we get get around here.
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Re: HMD 19 - Yoda's legacy continues

Post by cracked_ribs »

Okay, that does seem less shocking...the 30-40 pounders we see are little guys that are highly desirable eating fish. The big sea monsters are interesting to behold, but I don't know anyone who wants to eat a 200 pounder.
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viewtopic.php?f=12&t=65349

Fuzz
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Re: HMD 19 - Yoda's legacy continues

Post by Fuzz »

I have picked up a few halibut while trolling for salmon. Water around 30-50 foot deep and the gear was maybe 15 foot down. Around here you can catch halibut in about any water depth. I do not like to hand crank fish up from much over 300 foot. Commercial fishing I fished a lot in water 50-150 fathom deep.

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Re: HMD 19 - Yoda's legacy continues

Post by TomW1 »

Fuzz wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 6:22 pm I have picked up a few halibut while trolling for salmon. Water around 30-50 foot deep and the gear was maybe 15 foot down. Around here you can catch halibut in about any water depth. I do not like to hand crank fish up from much over 300 foot. Commercial fishing I fished a lot in water 50-150 fathom deep.
Dang Fuzz 150 fathoms is 900 feet. What did you catch that deep?

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Fuzz
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Re: HMD 19 - Yoda's legacy continues

Post by Fuzz »

Commercial halibut fishing I would lay gear at different depths trying to find them. Also we got paid more for the larger ones so I was looking for them. I ran 18000 foot strings with around 1000 hooks to a string. You can go over a lot of hills and valleys in 3.5 miles.

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