Halibut Fishing Near Offshore Tips Needed
 

Is a 6 inch Sardine a good size to drift with say outside of Newport or Dana Point Harbors. I'm thinking of drifting in the 30 ft depth. I will use a 3 oz weight with a 3/0 hook. Going to drag the weight along the bottom. Does this sound good?

Would frozen squid or Sardine be better for dead bait?

Thanks for any tips.

If your looking to catch halibut of any size live sardines are just fine. I wouldn't use dead bait unless that's all you have. Now the correct depth you should be fishing is something you need to find out for your area. That is only known if you have good intel or you just put in the legwork of drifting different areas and or depths.

Now if your trying to concentrate on larger halibut...you need to fish bigger baits, as in 8-10" or larger mackerel. You will catch less fish this way but your resulting catch will be bigger. Another thing...fishing strictly for halibut, it's not unusual for you to go weeks or even months without catching a single one. So sometimes you have to be very patient.

I usually catch mackerel, so that's usually my bait. Greenbacks seem to be more active than Spanish. They both last for a long time until they get raked or snatched by sea lions. It's more rare, but sometimes I catch jack smelt or lizard fish in the bay. Those work well too.

I've caught sardines before, but they seem to die too quickly, especially with a trap hook. I think without mackerels, or something more durable, I prefer to explore other rigs with artificial baits. When I'm making bait, I release sardines and wait for something better.

Maybe sardines are OK for smaller rigs like I might use with anchovies. Anchovies work well, but tend to catch more smaller fish so it broadens the target to include fish that might be too small to keep.

Maybe I haven't learned how to use sardines properly. That's entirely possible.

In the case of halibut, I think the "big bait, big fish" rule applies.

Personally, I try to target the fish I want to eat, in moderation, and I try to avoid collateral damage to fish I don't want to eat. This includes bait and other living creatures. I fish for food, exercise and for enjoying the beauty of nature. Slaying fish for conquest or sport is not my thing.

There’s always the bounce ball method using heavy weight, a flasher and a couple hoochies. Nice to have a hobie for that type of fishing .

Thanks for the info.

I see that a 'kayak' scoop of sardines at the Dana Point bait barge is $20. Seems kind of steep. Is that the rate everywhere?

$10 bucks at Cabrillo.

Why pay? Just make your own.

Never done that. Whats the basic technique.

Tie on a sabiki, find bait schools with fish finder, drop sabiki into bait school, catch bait. Easy as that.

Easy peasy. I bought one last week so that will be my next try.

Anybody going out on an evening fish or Sunday Mornings? I would love to join someone.

Half the time I don’t even mark the bait ball, but start casting the sabiki out along the kelp line. Never tried down at Dana, but I’ve never failed to make bait that way in other spots. I have also heard La Jolla people mention they will troll the thing on the way out.

I like a 3 oz weight on the bottom, and prefer the sabiki that have some red, white, and tinsel to them. Vary the retrieve. I have good luck dropping straight down while abruptly thumbing the spool every few feet, then jigging back up off the bottom. Some days I have found they will only hit it when cast out in front on the fall. Just depends on their mood. Sometimes you can see them chasing it but not hitting it... I have even heard of people bringing cat food to “chum” the water to get them to bite better. Never needed or tried it though.

Can almost bet on bait hanging out near the red can at DP headlands.. if you get desperate just troll the sabiki around outside it and you will catch a few baits.

Before we have some experience catching bait, it might not be so easy as some of the pros here make it sound. "Easy peasy" might be an overstatement. Not having live bait when we want it kind of sucks.

If we do it wrong, it's easy to catch nothing.


SOME MORE TIPS for making bait that I've learned in La Jolla, Mission Bay and San Diego Bay. I am not familiar with Newport or Dana Point.

The size of the sabiki hook makes a difference. Not too big seems to be better, IMO.

Some people use old sabiki's until the hooks break off, but a fresh sabiki is exceptionally "sticky."

I find the cheap no-name sabiki's on sale at Squidco for a couple dollars work just as well as the name brand sabiki's for 3x the price.

I tend to catch bait much easier at first light. It seems to be more abundant and active at that time. For whatever reasons, some areas I pass my kayak through tend to be consistently productive.

Rather than look for bait on my FF or going out of my way to "bait areas" on maps or from surfing for silver bullets on Internet, I prefer to put a small 3 oz iron on the end of my sabiki and drag it behind me as I go directly to my fishing zone destinations. Usually, I'll catch enough bait on the straight line to my destination than fiddling around and wasting precious fishing time trying too hard to specifically "make bait."

With luck at first light, I generally find all the bait I need for the day on my way out. I always carry fresh frozen squid and artificial bait rigs as backup.

I buy stronger size sabiki (25-30#) leaders and mount them on more serious poles I use for my other fishing rigs. I have occasionally caught real fish on my sabiki rig that needs a full size leader. I scrapped my old lake-weight dedicated sabiki pole for ocean fishing. Less gear clutter on a little Outback in favor of better, more multi-purpose gear.

Like everything else: trial, error, practice, experience makes a difference. We often hear "10% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish" .... right? There's a reason for this. The more we fish, the more we learn, and the more we can make our own "luck." There are small differences and nuances involved that make big differences in our productivity.

There are many opinions. Try them all and figure out what works best for you.

Another idea from when I was first fumbling around trying to catch bait:

Butt Juice seems to make a difference on slow days. When catching bait was more iffy for me, adding small squid strips on my sabiki hooks and marinating in Butt Juice helped.

I still have some in my refrigerator but haven't needed to use it for the past few years.

I bought 8oz bottles online. Locally, I've seen 2oz bottles on the shelf at Seaforth Sportfishing tackle shop. It's made by Pro Cure.

Anyone have experience with the Sabikis off of ebay that are like 100 for around $120?

Squid can be the ticket. Cutting off the tentacles is easier than trying to cut small strips in dark/cold.

More sabiki nonsense
 

I use a Ahi sabiki rod but I have cut it down shorter so I can store it in my kayak.

I use these type of sabikis:
https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/f7f...0&odnBg=FFFFFF
Cut them down to four to fit in the shortened rod.

If bait is hard to find I will take wet cat food and chum with it on bait marks to get bait up to the yak.

Live Squid are the best bait and when I meter them I use a squid jig instead of a weight with my sabiki otherwise I use a 4 ounce torpedo, as I want it to drop fast and to be able to see it on my meter. With squid they often grab the bait on the sink, once I have one on I stay at that depth, and I jig the sabiki around to attempt to load it up.

I like squid, greenbacks, sardines, Spanish and smelts in that order.

Spanish are not the best baits but they live the best on the hook and I really like them for dropper loop fishing. I've also caught halibut on brown bait and also small lizard fish. Lings love lizard fish, and sand dabs. Halibut not so much but they will eat lizards as well, but not that often, and they prefer small ones.

I’ve been out in La Jolla a few times where bait was ridiculously hard to make even while it was boiling all around me. What worked for me luckily on one of those days was a steady chum of crushed cheezeits from my lunch.

Drift Speed?
 

What speed is generally considered a good drift speed for halibut drifting?

Today I was doing some drifts down the bay SI Launch area and while going by NBPL area i was easily drifting between 1.2-1.5 knots with the outgoing tide. I had a decent sized mac on a dropper with 4oz torpedo and I could feel that the weight was definitely bouncing along the bottom. Unfortunetely no halibut to show for it.
I reset the drift one time up to Buoy 13 and back down to the sub piers. Had a noticably raked mac after both drifts.

Just curious if the tidal current was just too fast.

Sounds like halibut fishing. I've had days where I got only one bite and it was a quality fish. Others where every bait gets raked and I did not hook a thing. Were you using a trap hook? Next time take pics of the raked macks and we'll tell you what bit them.

In a strong current sometimes fish pile up downhill of structure, always worth a try.:cheers1:

So here’s one-I have seen a ton of guys on how to snell a hook for dead bait but none on live bait.
Where to you like to put the trap hook? Just anywhere near the tail?