Halibut questions

I attended the seminar that covered halibut fishing. They said that halibut come into the bay in the summer when the salinity rises. They thought it will be a good year because the lack of rain will cause higher salinity in the bay. It sounded like the year was off to a good start but I haven't heard anything good lately. What kind of pattern does the halibut bite follow? Does the hot bite move to different areas or just start and stop. Is the lull weather related? What's a good strategy to be successful finding the bite over the course of a season? Where has the high salinity, summer season halibut action gone?

Water temp, salinity and bait affect the timing and presence of halibut in SF Bay.  Target the best tides - smaller tides.  Butts are still being caught in SFB off Berkeley, ARW, deeper water in central Bay and Paradise area.  Just got to put your time in. Party boats are getting butts on every potluck trip, though stripers are dominating the catches now. 

The tides play a huge roll on halibut in the bay. Notice how the past week the new moon with its minus out go tide gets the water muddy. All the party boats have been focusing on stripers during this time. Right now the tides are good for halibut. I would of went today, but couldn't get away from work. My buddy is going Sunday so I'll see how he does. 2 weeks ago he limited out and last week he got skunked.

Best strategy? Get out and fish for 'em and keep yer bait on the bottom. Seriously tho, you need to find them, as opposed to stripers for example, that may find you. Since hali's spend a lot of time laying down and not moving a boat improves chances quite a bit over shore fishing. When I'm out for 'em I usually get really excited any time the tide changes direction as they tend to kick up during that period; it is said they like to face the current and when the direction changes they will reposition and often feed in the meantime. For whatever reason the bay has always had particular hot spots: ARW, Berkeley Flats, Paradise, Crissy Field, Angel Isle, Alcatraz to name some. In terms of patterns to follow, I rely on water temp and tides, warmer and smaller respectively. Although summer is the usual, I would say there can be an odd hali in the bay year-round. For us 'yaks it's all about the saddle time - just got to get out there as much as you can. I think I speak for a few when I say live bait is very helpful. Personally, I get about as obsessed about catching bait and keeping it healthy up to the point of baiting the hook as I do about the actually hali-hunting. When bait-fish are in the bay it's a good sign. Good luck to you sir!

Another halibut tip:

Look for ANY kind of depth variation or structure. These are like an "oasis in the desert" for halibut. Dips, holes, rocks, ledges, pilings, etc, etc, all attract baitfish, and the halibut know this. Halibut like to hang out in the flat areas adjacent to these features. Find something interesting on your sonar and fish the crap out of it. Cast a swimbait or drift bait around all sides of it, from all directions.

Since halibut generally stay put and wait for something to ambush, you really need to present your offering to A LOT of water in the hopes of plopping it down in just the right spot.

Persistence will pay off...

Thanks for all the good tips. I agree, time otw is a good teacher, but when you are trying to learn about fishing for Bass, Stripers, Salmon, Halibut, Rockfish, Crab and Trout it is hard to come up with enough time to dedicate to each species. I am grateful for the advice given by all the people on this forum. Having a basic understanding of the targeted species helps make the time otw more productive. Time otw the water catching fish helps me more than time otw not catching fish. When I catch fish I learn what works. When I don't catch fish there are so many variables that it is hard to know if I'm doing something wrong or is it location or weather or just bad luck. So thanks again for the help.

No prob!

For what it's worth, I have much better luck catching halibut with swimbaits than any other method. I think the biggest factor there is that I can cover A LOT of water. Say I find a rock isolated on a sand flat. Rather than having to paddle around the rock dragging bait, essentially presenting my bait to a single narrow circle around the rock... I can cast my swimbait to the top of the rock and hop it down into that especially fishy band of sand within a few feet of the rock. Do this from all directions, and you will up your chances immensely.

When I catch fish I learn what works. When I don't catch fish there are so many variables that it is hard to know if I'm doing something wrong or is it location or weather or just bad luck.

Boy, I know what you mean! It's easy to think we're not doing it right. Fortunately, you can't fowl it up much as long as you're keeping the bottom. It's not like fly fishing for trout where you may spend more time studying than fishing. These fish like to eat stuff, so when you don't catch 'em it's likely they simply weren't where you were. Really where I was going with the saddle time comment was to say in general a halibut is a challenge to find and skunks are everywhere, but that's also the fun of it. Keeping at it pays off and when you do get one it's likely it was earned more than learned.

The depth-change/depression/structure tip mentioned is quite a good tip, btw. Inside the bay, I've had a lot of my luck fishing the upper edges of the shipping channel drop-offs.

Thanks again. I'm gonna give it another try Sunday.

How do you go about catching bait?

How do you go about catching bait?

Sabiki rigs on a Sabiki rod or (my favorite) trout rod around the edges of eel grass or pilings.

How do you go about catching bait?

Go buy a castnet. Fishermans wearhouse has them as well as Fishery Supply  in San Jose.
Throw the net over piers for shiners and other bait fish.  You can also use a sabiki lure tipped with shrimp to jig up shiners
in summer too by the pilings. Good luck.