Gearing Up for Halibut Fishing

Halibut are one of the most sought-after saltwater game fish on the West Coast. Known for their flaky, snow-white meat, they can grow to massive sizes, with some reaching over 400lbs.

That said, a halibut of that size is typically a spawning female carrying millions of eggs and wouldn't make good table fare. Be mindful of size restrictions and catch limits, it's crucial to review current fishing regulations before heading out.

What Are Halibut?

Halibut are peculiar fish: both of their eyes are on one side of their head. Interestingly, they aren’t born this way, their eyes migrate to one side as they develop. As mentioned, they can grow very large.

Halibut are strong, powerful swimmers capable of traveling long distances in search of food and spawning grounds far offshore. They frequent a wide range of depths, from deep offshore waters to shallows under 100 feet, feeding on herring, octopus, crab, shrimp, salmon, and sand lance, to name a few.

Their dark topside can vary in colour, making some fish look quite unique, while their underbelly remains a bright white. Halibut abundance varies by location, so doing a bit of research before your trip can pay off. For example, just because halibut season is open in a particular area in October doesn't mean the fishing will still be productive, abundance may have tapered off by late August.

Once again, we emphasize the importance of being familiar with current regulations. Size restrictions can change annually, and the halibut fishery is not open year-round. Even during the open season, closures can occur due to the recreational fishery’s Total Allowable Catch (TAC), which also influences size limits and season duration.

Best Locations for Halibut Fishing 

While it’s possible to catch the odd halibut in Southern BC’s inside waters, they’re not abundant there. The most productive halibut fishing takes place off the southern tip of Vancouver Island (Victoria/Sooke) and along the West Coast in areas like Port Renfrew, Bamfield, Ucluelet, Tofino, Nootka, and Winter Harbour. Excellent fishing continues up to Port Hardy and along the rest of the BC coast, including Haida Gwaii and Prince Rupert.

Your choice of fishing location can depend on travel time, duration of stay, costs, boat size, and available accommodations. Fortunately, there are plenty of online resources to help guide your destination decision. 

Weather and Tides 

Let’s be honest, wind sucks. There’s no greater limiting factor to any type of fishing (ocean, lake, or river) than wind. High winds make it dangerous to reach fishing grounds, difficult to anchor, and nearly impossible to drift effectively. A rocking boat pushed by wind makes for a miserable experience.

Ideally, we want light winds. However, sometimes you have to fish through less-than-perfect conditions. While sunny days make for a more comfortable experience, they make no difference to the halibut, they’re wet no matter the weather.

Barometric changes, however, can influence halibut feeding activity. Significant weather shifts can affect bite patterns. Tides and moon phases also play a role. Full moons can sometimes suppress bites—not always, but it's something worth tracking. Similar to salmon, halibut can become more active around tide changes, particularly from an hour before to an hour after the tide switches.

Current movement is crucial, as halibut rely heavily on their incredible sense of smell to find your bait or lures.

Season (Timing)

Halibut seasons can vary from year to year depending on the TAC. Typically, the season opens between February and November. In many areas, May through September are the most productive months, although good fishing can still occur outside these peak times.

The combination of better weather, longer days, and summer vacations makes July and August especially popular months for halibut fishing.

Angling Methods

Before diving into techniques, it’s important to understand halibut habitat. They prefer sandy or gravel bottoms and are often found at depths ranging from 100 to 300 feet. These are the types of spots where you’ll want to concentrate your efforts.

The most common fishing methods include anchoring, drifting, jigging, and trolling.

Anchoring

Anchoring is a highly productive method, especially for targeting larger fish. Halibut have an incredible sense of smell, capable of detecting scent in parts per million. When anchoring, you rely on current and tide to carry scent from your bait to attract fish.

Sometimes you may drop anchor right on a school, but often it takes time for the fish to find your scent trail. Patience is key, what starts as hours of inactivity can suddenly turn into a frenzy.

Using a bait bag or jar filled with fish scraps can intensify your scent trail. Scented baits or attractants are highly recommended (check out our blog on scent use).

One of the most effective anchoring setups is a spreader bar rig, which we’ll cover in more detail under terminal tackle.

Drifting

Drifting with the current allows you to cover more ground and locate fish-holding areas. Just like anchoring, you’ll lower your gear to the bottom and then reel up a few feet. While halibut hug the bottom, they’ll rise to strike bait. Suspending your offering helps with bite detection and hook sets.

If your bait is dragging on the bottom during swells, a halibut might grab it and be gone before you know it. Keeping it just off the bottom prevents missed opportunities.

Jigging

Halibut can also be caught by jigging with traditional jigs or large swimbaits. We’ll cover specific jig types in the lures and baits section.

Trolling

Halibut can also be caught using salmon trolling gear, sometimes as incidental bycatch while targeting salmon. If you're fishing in an area that has been producing a lot of halibut, trolling with a spoon, plug, or anchovy can be effective. We recommend trolling at a slightly slower speed than you would typically use for salmon.

Halibut Fishing Rods

Halibut can attain large sizes and live close to the bottom. The lures and weights being used are often at least 1lb, so a stout heavy-duty rod is the order of the day. Typically, one-piece rods in 5’11”-7’ in a medium-heavy to extra-heavy power are the norm.  A one-piece rod may not be as convenient to transport as a 2-piece, but they’re more durable.

Popular rods if you’re going to be jigging for halibut are the Shakespeare Tiger Jigging Rod or the Luhr Jensen Legacy Jigging Rod.

If trying to troll for halibut, your standard 10’6” salmon trolling rod would work. Rods such as the Okuma Salish, Shimano Technium, Trophy XL Titan or Trophy QR are all good choices. 

Halibut Fishing Reels

The same type of reel can be used for anchoring, drifting, and jigging, a large conventional big game reel, ideally with a lever drag. These reels allow for controlled free spool, making it easy to get your gear down to the bottom. They feature strong, capable drags and offer generous line capacity, ideal for the heavy line commonly used in this fishery. Additionally, their higher gear ratios provide faster line retrieval, which is especially helpful when fishing in deeper water.

We like to stay away from reels that have the levelwind feature on them. It’s nice to have your line guided onto the reel while you retrieve but this is one of the three parts that could fail and make your reel inoperable. This is much more inconvenient than guiding your line onto the reel yourself. 

Good options for reels that do not have a levelwind mechanism would be the Penn Squall II, Penn Fathom, Shimano Torium and Simano Talica. Reels that have levelwinds that are good would be the Penn Rival and Penn Warfare. 

When trolling, your standard mooching reel works well. Daiwa M-One 400, Shimano 400 GT, Trophy XL QR Mooching Reel R3ef Reels or Islander MR3 and Islander TR3 are all good options.

Mainline and Leaders

When anchored, drifting or jigging for halibut there’s not much of a discussion about which fishing line to use.

Braided line is the only way to go. The small diameter of the line for the breaking strength, no stretch for instant hooks sets and better strike detection are all reasons that there’s no debate on this topic. Braided line is the superior mainline. We usually use 80lb or 100lb. Power Pro, Tuf-Line XP and Suffix 832 braid are the most popular choices. 

Now when trolling, monofilament mainline is still quite popular and acceptable. Braided line with a top shot of mono is also a viable option and is becoming more and more popular when trolling. Maxima Ultragreen in 30lb or Berkley Big Game 30lb are good monofilaments to go with as an entire mainline or as your top shot to a 50lb or 65lb braid. 

Leader material for anchoring, drifting and jigging would be monofilament of 80lb, 100lb or 130lb. You leader length should be 6’-8’.  Maxima Ultragreen or Berkley Big Game are once again the popular choices.  When trolling your standard salmon-sized leader material of 30lb or 40lb mono is sufficient. 

Terminal Tackle Setup

The most common way to set up for halibut fishing when anchoring or drifting is using a spreader bar. A Gibbs Halibut Spreader Bar gives you a place to attach mainline, weight and leader. It helps to give you separation from the leader and mainline, reducing any chance of tangles when lowering gear.

Spreader bars come with a swivel to tie your mainline to, a clip to attach the weight to and a clip for the leader. You will need a swivel off the leader. 

When jigging you would attach a swivel to the mainline and then run a 2’-3’ leader and then you lure.

When trolling, your typical salmon setup would be used. A swivel off the mainline with a quick-change clip, a flasher, a 6’ leader and the lure. The exception to this setup is when using a Tomic Plug. Then the lure gets attached directly to the mainline and no flasher is used.

Lures and Baits

There’s an array of different things to use as a lure or bait on the end of a spreader bar rig. Halibut will take pieces of Octopus, Squid or Herring.

These are all baits that will work on their own, but we really do like to fish these along with an 8” Berkley Power Grub in white or glow or 6” Berkley Gulp Grubs in white, white glow or chartreuse.  These grubs work well by themselves, but adding a little extra flavour is never a bad idea.

One of the advantages of using the grub/bait combo is if a bite occurs and the bait gets pulled off you still have an effective lure in the water. If you were using only a bait then you would have only bare hooks down there, which is highly unsuccessful. When setting up the combo rig we like to use tandem 8/0-10/0 Gamakatsu Octopus Hooks, Owner Cutting Point or the VMC Octopus Hooks.

Another quick way to set up grubs is to thread them onto a Gibbs Bullet Jig Head. This setup only requires a swivel and a short leader, and you’re ready to fish. One comment we would make is that bullet jig head hooks tend to be thicker and generally not as sharp as Gamakatsu, Owner, or VMC hooks, but they still work. Many halibut dinners have been the result of successful catches on bullet jig heads.

Another effective option to use off a spreader bar would be large swim baits. We like the Delta Power Paddle in the 10oz or 16oz size in the Herring Aid, Glow Green or UV Orange Black or Lighthouse Lures Max Shad 6oz in the Bazooka, Garfield White Line or Glowcaine.

The Lighthouse Lures Electronic Flashing Squid 7” or 9” in the Glow Menace or White Monster are also effective. The swim baits and the squid have an incredible action to them. A natural bait could always be added to spice them up a bit. 

When jigging, the Savage Gear Squish Erratic Jig is a great option. These jigs are nice and heavy and will get you right down to the fish. The Mac Deep in the 130 gram size is also very effective.

The Gibbs Bullet Jig Heads with a Berkley Power Grub works very well as does the Delta Tackle Power Paddle in the 16oz. Any of the three previously mentioned colours will work well. 

As mentioned earlier in the article, when trolling for Halibut, they will bite standard salmon gear such as spoons like the Luhr Jensen Coyotes, Gold Star Kingfishers, Gibbs G-Force and Lighthouse Lures Big Eye or bait like anchovies or herring in a Rhys Davis Teaser Head. 

Halibut Fishing Accessories

We’ve already covered most of the essential accessories for halibut fishing, hooks, line, weights, spreader bars, and so on. 

A few additional accessories to consider include: 

• A high-quality hook file, such as the Rapala Hook File or the P-Line Hook File.
• A good fillet knife, such as the Frosts Gutting and Cleaning Knife with Spoon, Rapala Fish'n Fillet Knife, Buck Knives Silver Creek Fillet Knife, or Gamakatsu Fillet Knife. These knives are excellent for filleting your catch and for cutting the gills upon landing, allowing the halibut to bleed out, an important step, as skipping this significantly reduces meat quality.
• Pliers, like the P-Line Aluminum Plier with Side Cutter, P-Line Long Nose Pliers, or Dr. Slick Typhoon Plier with Pouch.
• A solid bonker, such as the Gibbs 18" Aluminum Fish Bat, or the back side of a gaff like the Bron’s Wooden Gaff, either tool will do the job, as halibut can be tough.

Techniques for Fighting and Landing Halibut

When drifting or anchoring for halibut, we always keep the rod in the rod holder, you can pretty much leave it there the whole time. Halibut rods and reels tend to be awkward and heavy, so using a rod holder helps eliminate that hassle.

When you see a halibut bite, don’t struggle to yank the rod out of the holder to set the hook, you’ll likely miss the strike. Instead, just reel down quickly. This motion will set the hook for you, and you can begin fighting the fish with the rod still in the holder.

Make sure your rod holder is well-suited for this style of fishing. Also, ensure your reel’s drag is set tightly enough to drive the hook in, but not so tight that the rod could be pulled from the holder. You should be able to pull line off the reel with some effort, but it shouldn't be too easy.

While fighting the fish, confirm your drag is properly adjusted. You want to be able to bring the fish up without the reel spinning out of control, but the fish should also be able to take line during a run. If your drag is too tight, you risk pulling the hook out or snapping your leader.

Once the fish is at the boat, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, try not to pull the fish’s head out of the water, it won’t like that, and a calm fish can quickly turn violent, increasing the chances of losing it. 

A harpoon is a popular method for harvesting halibut. Halibut harpoons have a detachable point. Aim to harpoon the halibut through the head—through the gills is often a good target. The point should go completely through the head. Once you pull out the handle, the point will toggle to the side, making it nearly impossible for the fish to escape. A rope attached to the harpoon point can be tied to a cleat on your boat, there’s no escape now! 

You can then use a fillet knife to cut the gills and wait for the fish to bleed out and calm down before bringing it aboard.

Alternatively, a Bron's Pacific Stainless Steel Halibut Gaff (12") can be used. Once the fish surfaces, quickly place the gaff through the lips of the halibut and pull the fish into the boat.

Keep in mind that halibut can be big and powerful. Once aboard, they often flop around fast and furiously. This is when a swift, solid bonk is needed.

And don’t forget to bleed your fish, as mentioned earlier, we can’t stress enough how important this is for preserving meat quality.

Caring and Preparing for Your Catch

Once your fish has been bled, you’ll want to get it on ice as quickly as possible to ensure the highest quality of your catch. Once back at the dock, your halibut can be filleted. Filleting a halibut is fairly straightforward—it's almost like they were made to come apart.

Unlike salmon, halibut are not dressed (gutted) before filleting, so you’ll cut around the stomach when removing the fillets. There are many helpful videos on YouTube that show how to properly fillet a halibut.

When processing your fish, make sure you're familiar with the regulations around transporting your catch. You can find the rules here: https://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/finfish-peche-eng.html. Requirements such as leaving the skin and tail attached for transport are often overlooked—but ignorance of the rules won’t get you out of a ticket. It’s your responsibility to know the regulations.

While nothing beats fresh halibut, there are times when you’ll need to freeze your catch. Vacuum sealing is by far the best way to preserve it. If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, dropping the fish off at a commercial processor is your best bet.

We hope this article has been helpful. If you have any questions at all, feel free to call us at 604-931-5044, send us an email at searun2013@gmail.com or stop by the shop at 110-1140 Austin Ave Coquitlam. 

Good luck on the water.

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