Hali bounce ball weight

I have been fishing for halibut lately and was wondering if I am doing things correctly with my gear. I am using a 6’6” med heavy with 50lb braid with a 20-30lbs leader. I am using herring with a sliding two hook rig. My main question is weight. I have been using 8oz and am feeling like that is way to heavy but I do want everything staying on the bottom. What are you guys using?

Too many variables to say it’s one specific weight. 
Your setup (rod, line, leader length, presentation) all matter. 
Tides, current, and water depth also matter. 
Drifting or trolling?  Or just staying stationary?

All those factors matter. 

Example of my setup.
7’ Daiwa Harrier Medium, 50lb braid main line, 3’ 25lb fluoro with a trap rig. 

I typically troll for halibut (or drift when the current can push me between 1-2mph).  Under 15ft, I’ll use 3-4oz.  Deeper than 15ft, I’ll adjust to 5oz up to 8oz. 

If it’s windy and choppy, then I’ll switch to a heavier weight because the chop is making my deck bounce too much when the rod is in its holder.  However, if I’m willing to hold the rod the whole time, then I can get away with light weight by using my arm to make up for the rough conditions. 

Lots of factors to determine using one specific weight.

I am trolling unless the currents are pushing me fast enough to drift. I’m currently using a conventional tiger ugly stick. I am thinking about switching to something lighter. My leader is about 10 ft long

I generally use 10 oz (sometimes 8 and sometimes 12, depending), and I find I can fish that down to 75-80 feet, with a dodger/hootchie setup. So, I'd guess that with straight bait, 8 oz is probably about right. Ideally, you want it to cruise along just above the bottom, and then every once in a while have the weight give a good thud onto the bottom. As I understand it, boaters often use 1-2 lbs of weight, so 8 oz is minimal wrt making a ruckus in the halibut zone.

I am trolling unless the currents are pushing me fast enough to drift. I’m currently using a conventional tiger ugly stick. I am thinking about switching to something lighter. My leader is about 10 ft long

10ft leader?  How do you reach the fish if it’s longer than your rod when you get it to the kayak?

I am trolling unless the currents are pushing me fast enough to drift. I’m currently using a conventional tiger ugly stick. I am thinking about switching to something lighter. My leader is about 10 ft long

I think your leader is too long.  Shorten it down to 5-6ft.  When the water is dirty, I’ve gone down to a 2.5’  leader with straight bait.  3’ if using a flasher in dirty water.

Sorry my braided line is tipped with 10ft of mono. I have it set up like that for rock fishing. The Hali leader line is 3-4ft mono. I wonder if I’m getting too much stretch out of all of that mono.

I think you got it.  I just newly topshotted 25ft, 30lb mono, leader 3-3.5ft 30lb mono, generally 3-8 oz cannonball on a slider no dropper on the cannonball.  Put in the hours, drag not super tight but just enough to hang himself I say.  Side note, I rarely troll, I’m a live or dead bait drifter…

Totally dependant on depth, kind of gear you're running, size of line you're running, size of bait you're running and how heavy a current is running.  Trolling I run 8-16oz and have everything in between close at hand to snap on when I need to change.   The gear needs to run pretty vertical to be most effective.

Watch the party boats and commercial boats, learn from them. They are both ALWAYS trolling 1.5-2.5 knots and dragging a lot of lead.

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What Johnz says, also, that 6.6 mh sounds a lil’ stiff but maybe all dat mono provides stretch, don’t mind stretch…

i run 19 to 30 oz. depend what you like, but i find I get better results when my lines right under me. if 8oz keeps you on the bottom, then that's all you need. sometimes if you add flashers or more draggy setups, you'll have to up weight to compensate, even though current, depth, and speed are the same.  I run a 760 MH 1(5-40) PSW Black Diamond. its stiff but it fishes great with weight.  if i ran less weight i would want a 12-30 or 10-25 rod around 7'6 or 8'0

i run 19 to 30 oz. ...

I'm impressed that you can handle that much weight on a kayak. My arm would fall off if I had to reel that in more than a couple of times.

Under the right conditions, I like to use my downrigger, with the ball running close to the bottom. I don't try to actually bounce the DR ball, but instead count on the dodger to skim across/near the bottom.

Switched from a Medium to Medium Light rod and got way more hook ups. Sensitive tips help a lot with keeping the hali on the hook. I have 7ft Shimano Trevela and using 3 way swivel with a flasher on a 12 oz weight. Herring has been the ticket for me lately after not getting much action.

i run 19 to 30 oz. ...

I'm impressed that you can handle that much weight on a kayak. My arm would fall off if I had to reel that in more than a couple of times.

Under the right conditions, I like to use my downrigger, with the ball running close to the bottom. I don't try to actually bounce the DR ball, but instead count on the dodger to skim across/near the bottom.

Im used to trolling 2.5lb balls from the yak (starting with my paddle yak days) so it's no worse than that, especially with pedals. the Hali don't really fight most of the time if you keep em under the water.

i get really nice bottom contact, and can even mark my weight on the Garmin Striker 4. loads up my rod really nicely too.

As for DR, i have thought about it, but I've snagged on something in 3 of the spots i frequent, and its not moving, so it seems like a big flip risk especially if there is afternoon chop or big tidal coefficient. I like using a dropper loop of 20# line for my weights, and i use 40# for my leaders so i can always break off weight first, then leader if i need to.

For trolling I get away with either 8 or 12 oz. I prefer 8 when I can get away with it because it's lighter, but if I'm going against the current and it's a big tidal swing, I need 12 sometimes. I hold my rod in my hand often and prefer the lighter stuff. But as others have said, vertical or near vertical, and always being able to tap bottom, is most important.