Halibut Fishing Near Offshore Tips Needed

[Mr. NiceGuy]

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.