Northernboys Hali Woes Revisited on non-yak SC Hali fishing trip 6-19-10

Went to SC for hali fishing with Rey aka "lapulapu" and brother Dan. Had a very slooooowwww start but things picked up 2 hrs before the pm high tide with the winds and drift dying down a bit also.

Started out at about 10am with half a scoop of Boccie's live bait. The winds and waves were so bad that our bait were being tossed out of the bait well even with the cover on. Was it hard to keep the bait alive for a long time? Yes, it was. By 3pm, they were all curled dead. Who wouldn't be if you're tossed hard in all directions.

We drifted a number of times from the north light house passed the wharf back to the harbor entry in 30 to 40 fow. Managed to land one 25 incher (my first ever) but lost 3 inspite of reading subject post the night before. Rey also got 3 takedowns but lost them also.

Here's some pix of the landed hali and what it turned into:



Turned into:

and


Also, here's the look of the baits spitted out although others were more mangled up:



Landing 1 and losing 6 brings me to repost the Relentless' Hali Woes so Rey and I can reverse our stats to landing 6 and losing 1.

So here's the copy of the post and our comments/questions so we can be told what went wrong:
Fixing Northernboys Halli woes.
« on: June 21, 2009, 12:34:20 pm »
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1) Live bait.
1A) Limber stick.
2) Live bait knot, knot name, "Perfection", if you do not know it, check it out.
3) Lighten up your leader line. I run the same stuff on my spool as my leader material. 17Lb, red Cajun. This stuff is,thin, tough, limp,and invisible.
4) Hook size- match the bait. No old school, thick ass,chrome plated, large hooks. Try some thin Gamagatsue's no bigger than your thumb nail, approx 1/2 In. square.
5) Use a 3 way leader, with between 3-4 feet from 3 way to hook. Go 6-8 in. from sinker to swivel.
Stick with a 2 Oz weight. Use a torpedo shape to minimize spinach collection on your weight.
6) If your "click" on your Halli real is stiff, in other words if it takes a lot of pressure to make it go, don't use it. Try and drag your bait around 20 feet from your boat.
7) Keep your drag so loose that anything more than the weight of your baited rig will cause it to let out line.
As you drift, once you notice your tip loading up more than the pre checked weight of your bait and rig, strip off line without pulling in on your bait, lightly put your thumb on the spool, and click on freespool, strip more line. Wait for line to go tight again, and strip off a few more yards. If you have a fish on, you will notice line stripping off faster than your drift would allow. You have some choices now. I would strip off another 18 ft and watch it go, Then increase the tension on the spool with my thumb to test the resistance, if I load up I click my drag back on and let it pull while I gradually increase the drag so that it still has give but my tip is halfway loaded. I tend not to pull my rod up until well after I am sure I have as good a hook set as I am going to get. From there, if the bait is swallowed, or the hook has drilled it's self nicely somewhere, as long as you keep tension, and take it slow, your Hali woes will be in your rear view window.

Done all 6 but need some fine tuning on #7.
1. When I strip more line, do I keep the tension by stripping slowly or just strip line and let go of a few yards or so until line is loose and just wait for it to go tight again?
2. What would be my sign that the hook is properly set already? Would it be that the rod tip is halfway loaded already after stripping several yards of line? I am guessing I got impatient and reeled in without waiting for the halfway loaded tip. However, I did strip a lot lines before trying to reel in.

Another input from Relentless post was the use of a light leader, single hook and no stinger. So with nothing happening, I resorted to using a 12# red Cajun line which is the only one I had, a single hook and a std. slider set up (no Sea Striker Slider yet) with about 8 inches of line to a 4oz weight. To my suprise, I got all the 4 hits on this setup. I also had another rod on the water with the regular hali rig with the stinger and though I changed the baits several times, nothing happened. Again, I made sure 1~6 was done correctly on the 2nd rod. No RF on the boat yet when using the 2nd rod.

Sorry for the long post.
My thanks to relentless and finaegelin who with their posts guided me to my first hali. Now, I want to go for more hali's which makes me wonder, did I hook a hali or did the hali hook me?

Rey, feel free to post your questions and share of the experience and frustrations.

Danny

Don't beat yourself up too much Danny. That's fishing bro. You'll gain more know how as you spend more time fishing for those halibut. At least you know
that the halis are around and that you can target them with confident on your
next trip. Looking forward to the next hookup. It seems the halibut are bigger
on your side than in the bay. Congrats on your hali and boy, the out come of
the fish looks so delicious. Fried fillet and sinigang, where's the invite ?J\K

Jedmo

Congratulations on your first yak halibut! I'm glad you got lots of practice! Last time I was out in the bay, the tide was movin' everything so fast I didn't get anything resembling a bite.

Be careful going too light on your leader. I was using a 15lb flourocarbon leader with a perfection loop at Paradise recently and lost something big due to massive head shakes as I reeled it up. Whatever it was broke my line as the hook pulled right thru the line within the perfection loop just before the fish would have came to color. 

After that I asked around and found out that thicker leader is a safer bet. Went to 25lb flourocarbon and no p-loop just tied the hook with a palomar knot. Have landed two this way although I actually watched the first fish gnaw thru my leader while it was in the net as I put it on the gameclip.    jim

Great report and it looks delicious!

Interesting read on the hook set up. Last friday I went to a couple of local tackle shops and didnt like the small hooks that were used in the pre-made halibut live bait rigs. So I went to CVS and bought some single hooks about 3/4" shank, dont remember the size? and some tebble's that were about the same size. Then I tied up my own rigs with 20lb mono , about 3' leaders. I like using 3 way swivels and hang the weight about 12" from the swivel while trolling or drifting. I have used sliders and they work good too, but I think I can detect bites Vs my sinker bouncing on the bottom using the 3 way better. Last year I tied some this way, but I used too big of a trebble and missed a lot of strikes.

tight lines, aka-Kimo

Bird turned me on to the #6 owner treble hook. These are way sticky and dont weigh too much at all. I use a 1/0 light wire mutu circle hook also made by owner. i dont use the 3 way. I rig my. weight carolina style with a 1.5oz egg weight or heavier depending on depth, drift rate,line size.I also protect the knot at the swivel with a red bead. 3foot leader in most cases. If I am using a larger bait than a shiner I snell the circle hook onto the leader and tie the end to the treble with a palomar knot.Circle hook in the upper lip of the bait and the treble implaled in the tail just before the fin.When I saw the pics of Kimos halibut the other day I thought that WOW. Thats a fish to be reckoned with. Keep up the good work! I havent caught a halibut on the ocean yet in a kayak. All in the bay. Soon though, soon.

Danny,

We will get them all next time.  Did it taste as good as it looked in the pics?  That sinigang fish head must have been great.  Who got to suck the eye balls?  Keep doing your research so we will be prepared next time.  I think the use of the circle hooks is a good idea from ravensblack.  One thing I would like to know is which way the treble should point.  If the hali do bite the head first then maybe the treble hook should point towards the tail.  Right?

Rey

Nice work Danny!!

GREAT Fish!!!

Glad you and Rey got out there and had a good day fishing together!!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Woes? What woes? 

   I've switched to 25# floro due to several losses on 20#. Sometimes it seems that a halibut will sit with a bait in it's mouth all day.Maybe they are savoring the moment or using it for bait their own self or both.
 Ron Kovach in 1989's "Saltwater fishing in California" suggests teasing the bait gently away from the hali several times,going for a more aggressive bite, before  setting the hook gently as well. Never tried it, no patience, but maybe it works.
  I usually paddle against the wind to stay in place hovering over a takedown for several minutes after a bite and loss hoping for a return.

Hell Yes...Flatttttys...Must be Nice....On the Hunt and can't wait to see my line load up!!!  Great Stuff!!!  Thanks for the report...

Just want to thank y'all for the good inputs. I've added them all to my arsenal hopefully to increase our chances.

• Will try the teaser idea of casey7 however may stay with the lighter leader coz of more hit chances. will just be careful.
• ravensblack 1/0 light mutu circle hook and egg sinker
• aka Kimo's smaller hook and treble setup
• Take Saltydog's careful reminders.

Then finally send jedmo the invite for the fried breaded fillet and sinigang and special for jedmo:patis and siling pasite (hot small red chili).

Thanks for nice comments finaegelin, Big Jim and Sledge.

With this add'l arsenal and encouragements, Rey aka lapulapu and myself may be good as Northern Boy who has no woes.

Danny