Welcome back Steph!

-Eliot

Use a gaff.

X10

Gaff is sooo much better for halibut. Gaff them in the belly side right below their gills and they will freeze up allowing you to get them on the clip and administer the wood shampoo. Also much less likely to snag your hook and lose them this way.

I like a net for salmon but pretty much anything else gets the gaff.

-Eliot

Sharky took the picture. Thanks Sharky! We caught many halibut and rockfish/lingcod with the same bait. The WSB was just bycatch I was actually fishing for lings.

Nothing beats the lively’s! 😀

-Eliot

A good all purpose hook for halibut and stripper fishing with live bait are the owner mosquito hooks. They are designed for freshwater so they don’t last long in the salt but I like them a lot for anchovies and shiners. Thin wire means longer lasting bait and they are plenty strong for any strippers or halibut if your drag isn’t too tight.

For bigger baits like sardines, mackerel or large smelt I will use an owner or gamakatsu octopus hook and a small treble stinger.

Match your hook size to the bait you are using but I will use a #1 mosquito for small anchovies, a 2/0 mosquito for large anchovies and shiner perch on up to a 3/0-5/0 for a large mackerel.

You can set with octopus hooks but it’s good to let the halibut eat a little before you do and don’t yank too hard even then. It’s easy to rip a bait out of their mouths and end up with nothing but a story and a raked bait.

-Eliot

Great read thanks Bchen!

Sounds miserable but amazing at the same time.

-Eliot

Nice fish! Thanks for sharing.

-Eliot

Brown for sure, cute fish with nice colors.

-Eliot