Northwest Outdoor Sports

HALIBUT FISHING

THE STRAIGHTS OF JUAN DE FUCA II

by Mark White of Port Angeles, WA

In my last article, I talked about where to possibly find fish and some of the methods and gear to use. This time I want to talk about what to do to hook, play, and land your halibut. Once you have selected your location and are drifting and waiting for slack tide with your bait down, you want to be bumping bottom once in a while. At the bottom of a swell, your sinker should touch bottom. If you’re bouncing on bottom, you’re fishing.

Sometimes a halibut will strike so hard you will hardly be able to get your pole out of the rod holder. Other times you may think you have a dogfish (shark) playing with your bait. When I caught my 73 pound fish earlier this year, I told my fishin’ buddy, “I’ve got a dogfish”. I always set the hook though. Halibut have a mouth like a tire, so set it hard. When I set it, the fish took off like a freight train. When he finally stopped, I put my rod in the rod holder with the drag set light enough for him to take line in case of another run, and reeled him up slow and steady.

If you “pump” the fish up he will know he’s hooked and fight you all the way. The good thing about that is you will both be worn out when you get him up. If he’s not hooked very well and with barbless hooks too, he could come off during the fight. I like to bring them up easy if they will cooperate, keeping enough tension on the line remembering that 3 pound sinker. But that way he’s ready and rested for the rodeo at the surface.

Whatever your tactic, when you get your fish to the top, don’t bring his nose out of the water or he’ll go all the way back to the bottom and you get to start over. If he’s small, you can gaff him and bring him in the boat. I like to slide him right into a large cooler, cut the line and close the lid. They calm right down in the dark.

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Harpoon shaft with arrowhead tip assembled.

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Harpoon arrowhead tip.

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If he’s large, a harpoon is the way to go. With the fish about a foot below the surface, aim for the pectoral fin and go straight through the fish. Make sure the harpoon goes all the way through, hold the rope there and pull out the harpoon stick. This leaves the harpoon on the other side of the fish and hopefully it turns sideways and now your fish is on the rope. If you hit the sweet spot, he’ll run to the end of the rope and be pretty much done. Make sure the rope is tied to a boat cleat and don’t get in the bight (slack part or loop) of the line. I keep hold of the rope to slow the fish and also to make sure he doesn’t hit the end of the rope hard. When you get him back up, it helps to cut his gills and bleed him out. This helps keep blood out of the meat too.

In all the excitement, don’t forget to mark your catch record card. If it’s a slow day fishing, any boats around will have seen you catch the fish so expect others to pick up and run over by you to drift over the same spot. Sometimes they are like seagulls that way.

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“cut straight along that line as if it didn’t curve”

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Back at the dock it’s time to fillet the fish. There is an nice lateral line down both sides. It curves near the belly but you cut straight along that line as if it didn’t curve and go all the way down to the backbone, gill to tail. Take your knife and follow the ribs out to one side and cut through the skin at the side fin. Again with the knife out along the ribs to the other side. Flip the fish over and there are two more identical fillets on that side. I take the belly flap from around the stomach to deep fry, but a lot of people won’t. Don’t forget the cheeks. There’s a nice handful of good meat in the cheeks. Just poke the knife in and follow the bone around.

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“go all the way down to the backbone, gill to tail”

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The meat is mild and it’s hard to do something wrong when cooking as long as you don’t over cook it. Find a recipe and experiment. I like it just baked in a glass pan with nothing on it, or barbequed wrapped in foil with mayonnaise, sour cream, cheese, onions, and Worcestershire sauce. Happy fishing and good luck.

Halibut Fishing the Straights of Juan de Fuca

by Mark White of Port Angeles, WA

GPS -   N 48 24.031, W 123 5.564

I’ve heard it said that the worst fishermen in the world are in Alaska. Anyone can catch fish there! The point is that there are not the numbers of fish here in the Straights of Juan de Fuca like there are in Alaska and you have to either be lucky or good. I’ve often said I’d rather be lucky than good, but when it comes to fishing for halibut, it sure helps to have a few things working for you. Things like having a good chart and figuring where the fish might be hanging out. Most people here fish the reefs between two to three hundred feet deep, but the geoduck beds sometimes are productive at forty to eighty feet. Sometimes four hundred feet is a good depth to try. I’ve caught them in channels between reefs at times too. You generally want to find something that will hold fish. This is where the chart is invaluable. Of course you can always look for where all the other boats are, but you should know why they are there so you can repeat the situation.

Maybe the most important part of halibut fishing is the tides. I have caught one or two when you almost couldn’t stay on the bottom with a 48 oz. sinker because the tide was running so hard, and here in the straights it runs deceptively hard. If you look at a map, you can see that all of Puget Sound and much of the east side of Vancouver Island must come through here for each tide change. Most of the halibut you will catch will coincide with a slack tide. If you are anchored out (no small chore in deep water) it is amazing how many times your fish are caught just as the boat begins to swing around. Slack tide here is usually about fifteen minutes. You can have your bait down all day and pick up the odd fish, but most of your fish will be caught during that fifteen minute window.

Good fishing gear is essential. Halibut fishing will test your reel, pole, and line to its breaking point. My rig is a Shakespeare Ugly Stick Tiger seven foot pole in medium heavy action, with a Penn 330GT reel and Tuffline Plus braided line. Many people prefer a shorter pole for the leverage but I like the action of the seven footer while bouncing my bait across the bottom and the longer pole helps keep my line from tangling with my buddy’s. I buy the one with steel eyes because the braided line is pretty tough on glass eyes. The Penn 330 is about the minimum size reel. Any smaller and the gears will probably only last a year. Spend the money and get a reel that will last. My Tuffline is eighty pound test I think. It lasts several years and I forget for sure. It is so strong that if you get snagged you have to wrap it around a boat cleat to break it. If you were to hook one of the odd two-hundred pounders, it would be nice to be able to trust your line.

I use a spreader bar at the end of my line. They are stainless steel in the shape of an “L” and you hook your line to the corner of the L and hang your cannonball sinker from the short end. Off the long end I use a homemade leader made from two to three hundred pound monofilament about eighteen to twenty-four inches. I use two very sharp 8/0 or 9/0 hooks, one on the end and one up about 5 inches and held in place with a crimped ferule. Our hooks here must have the barbs pinched. You may fish all day for one bite and lose your fish because of barbless hooks, but that’s fishing. Bait can be a variety of things. Herring is always a good bet, but octopus and squid have there place too. I see a lot of people with jigs but choose not to fish them myself.

If you are not too active, it may be a good idea to go to the gym and work out a bit. Halibut fishing is hard work. Your back and your arms really get a work-out. I tell people I lift weights to stay in shape for halibut fishing and they think I’m kidding, but I have a co-worker who caught his first halibut this year and is a believer now. At 230 feet deep with three pounds of lead and a thirty-five pound fish that uses his flat body with a little bit of tide running, my co-worker’s arms were cramping up before we harpooned the fish. Speaking of harpoons, the sweet spot is through the pectoral fin.

If all this seems like too much work and trouble, let me tell you that your first halibut will hook you as much as you hook it. There isn’t another feeling like a big, tough fish on the end of your line, and as for table-fare there are lots of folks for whom halibut is second to none. Here is a photo of me and my buddy from 2009. A seventy-three and a fifty-two pound flatty. I hope to see you out there.