Homer halibut trip 3/10-3/14

After researching and preparing gear and things for the past 3 weeks I'm itching to get out. I'm planning on a trial run to whittier this weekend to get my bearings on the new boat. The following week I was hoping to try my first attempt fishing for halibut out of homer. Maybe deep creek or the spit. Has anyone fished them this early? I've literally never targeted halibut in my life (avatar was an incidental catch) so I'm looking for pointers. Should I troll or just bounce the bottom with a spreader bar. I'll likely be fishing herring and jigs. Well again I'm super green with halibut fishing, although well experienced at kayak fishing. Anyone interested in joining feel free to contact me. I'll likely stay down there a course nights and hit it hard. May even troll for so me salmon

  Hi Ferns,
 When you 1st joined NWKA , you were blasting a lot of "newbie" questions. That's all fine and a good thing to do. I thought for awhile that you were asking some of the simplest of questions-- but after thinking about it...... there are a lot of people that are very new to this activity that don't have the balls to ask what some "old timers" consider basic knowledge. So I think your barrage of questions has been a help to many others that have only thought the same questions.
  That said----you have done your diligent homework , got your kayak rigged and ready (though I know there will be some tweaking)(there  always is) , and are now going to test the water. I'm sure you are incredibly excited to get out there. And due to your carefully considering most aspects of fishing Alaska it is time for you to go get wet. Do it---- and have a great time.
  As for targeting halibut in March--- go for it. The earliest I kayaked in my 10 years up there was March. And I didn't have a Hobie while up there. A sit-in-side homemade fiberglass 14' er and a Native Watercraft 12' that was more canoe than kayak.(no scuppers). I don't know if you plan to fish the Homer King Derby--- but you might consider that event this or next year. I know that is not for halibut, but you can use the same tactics for both species of fish. I have caught more halibut while trolling Cook Inlet than any other way. You should give it a try.
  One of the easiest places to launch and be fishing immediately is Whisky Gulch. Launching off the Spit at Land's End is gravy too. But there will be a few  get-togethers at Whisky Gulch so I strongly urge  you to give it a shot there. You are in fishy water 50 foot from shore. And there is a little beach that you can camp out on. Plus you will not have to deal with all the charter boats wakes.
  I hope you have a great time in Whitteer with soft winds and a warm sky. Let your adventure begin.

 One other thing then I'll shut up--- try to make all the tournaments up there that you can. Not only are they fun as far fishing with others... but you can learn a lot from the other folks that attend.

Mark,
Yea I know I've been blasting this forum a lot and I feel a little bad about that. I've had a lot of free time lately and have been obsessing a bit. Less talk more fishing..... I really appreciate your response and I am leaning towards participating in the tournament but can't commit yet. I'll make it down there in the next ten days and post a real report. Looks terrible in whittier so I'll likely forego that and try the spit for the maiden voyage. After that if all goes well I'll try your recommendation at whiskey gulch. Until then... More homework..

 Don't feel bad Ferns-------- life is too short for that kind of crap. Like I said--- you did good asking sensible questions. And I do think that you have helped others.... even if that will never be acknowledged.
 When you go down to Homer--- you drive right by Whisky Gulch--- take the time to poke in there to see how easy the launch is. It will only take a couple of minutes. You might change your mind about launching off the spit.
  As far as tournaments goes---- that can be a good time to check out other people's rigging to give you more ideas about setting up your own kayak. The comradory is always compelling too. So I just suggest going to as many as you can----you won't be sorry. In fact you will be anxiously waiting for the next one.
 Where ever you go for your 1st trip... make it a good one. I like your enthusiasm.

Listen to Mark the old coot knows what he's talking about and if the opportunity ever arises you definitely want to go fishing with him. I have and enjoyed his company as well as his attitude.. Hey Mark, I thought you said you were going to shut up....

Haha.  Mark is good.  Mark is wise.  A few years back as he was showing me the ropes.


Alright Ferns!  Love to see ya ready and willing to go!  I am glad you have some enthusiasm but my biggest fear is simply this is absolutely the slowest time of year for fishing.  As long as you realize that MUCH better days are ahead and you promise not to get discouraged if you don't connect, then I am 100% behind ya! 

My assessment (and its based on very limited experience) is that simply I have NEVER caught a king in March in about 6 tries I think.  I did get a few nice takedowns last year but that's really been it.  I was fortunate to land a king in January and February.  Since January, I have hit a king about every other trip and I feel VERY fortunate.  My guess is you have twice the odds of catching a king than a halibut. 

BUT this year has been different.  Large hooligan and herring schools have been spotted in the bay and int eh stomachs of Kings.  Typically the Kings are trying to scoring out a living picking polychaetes worms of the sea bed.  Charters will run herring deep looking for these kings and occasionally hook up the halibut.  The charters are already hitting a couple of halibut overtime they go out. 

Halibut fishing from a kayak is a little different than powerboats.  Virtually 100% of the charters in the area anchor.  They believe the halibut follow the scent trail and it is the only way to constantly get action for a half dozen rods.  The good news, you only need two.  But I do not recommend anchoring.  I know dudemandude did it last year and had great success.  I am too scared to even anchor a powerboat. 

So what i recommend is using some serious weight to get down.  pound make more.  Rig the herring to spin like you would for salmon behind a flasher.  Conversely you can run a spoon and scent behind a flasher.  I'd try to drag the gear slightly above bottom 5 to 10ft.  You can't drag the bottom, there are a bazillion sea ferns or whatever they are called.  Don't worry, when halibut are feeding, they will come up to the top of the water column.  Most definitely mid depth. 

Vision the bottom and the drift.  I would let you bait down then paddle/pedal slowly against the drift.  Basically this leaves a scent trail versus having your gear and baits just drift down current with the scent field.  You want to maximize the area the scent gets dispersed so zig zag around.

This way you have a shot at both kings and halibut.  The problem you will encounter I think is that without a down rigger you will have to go pretty slow to keep near the bottom.  You are going to catch a million pollock I think.  You can move away from them, but typically they are there because the bait is there and its the same bait the kings feed on. 

Finally, at least for now, your best bet I think is Whiskey Gulch after the spit.  But the road down looked super icy.  Be careful if you try there.  Deep Creek might be ok.  Anchor Point is too shallow for me to recommend.  You can flip in surf a quarter mile off shore.  I'd stick with the spit until you are comfortable.  Lower Cook Inlet presents challenges of currents up to 5knts.  Make sure you understand how current and wind impact your direction.  It isn't what I thought.  Wind can easily overpower current.

Not sure when i am going next.  This weekend is out with 8ft seas.  Maybe go kayak surfing?  But the following week I definitely want to start getting the hours put in prior to the derby!!!

To hell with spreaderbars.....I use banana weights (6-16 oz) tied inline followed by a 1-3 ft leader with 2 circle hooks.   Rig up with some fresh stanky herring.  Drop rig to the bottom and crank up a few times.  Every now and then leave your setup in the water and peddle/paddle a little ways away.  Repeat.  If the fish are biting and near you they'll bite.

Just make sure to watch out for the wind and tide.  It can be a nasty bugger out there

You won't want to use a spreader bar in Homer. I am 100% certain they don't impact halibut fishing. I do think salmon are a different story. In Homer you want to rig for the possibility of both.

You won't want to use a spreader bar in Homer. I am 100% certain they don't impact halibut fishing. I do think salmon are a different story. In Homer you want to rig for the possibility of both.

I think after your guys tips I will run a banana weight. I've got a 10 oz. maybe a flasher, then a whole herring with a hoochie. Hoping the weather will be nice next week.

You won't want to use a spreader bar in Homer. I am 100% certain they don't impact halibut fishing. I do think salmon are a different story. In Homer you want to rig for the possibility of both.

I think after your guys tips I will run a banana weight. I've got a 10 oz. maybe a flasher, then a whole herring with a hoochie. Hoping the weather will be nice next week.

Yup. That's a good plan. I'd run green label herring. Maybe smaller if using larger hoochie.

The bait fish in the area sounds like 4" to 6" herring and full sized hooligan.

You can run just the hoochie but if you do, make sure you use a dodger that will impart action.

If calm, a good spot to try both is closer to the green buoy at 100ft. Find 80 to 100 ft of water. Kings are in the area and I've seen halibut caught there. I really think you don't have to troll to be effective for salmon. It's just the power boats don't do it since its a pain and harder on the engines to be starting and stopping all day long and you tangle with. Multiple lines.

We don't have that issue on kayaks. More off Whiskey Gulch but an effective method for me was to pedal hard, then stop and let everything drift back down. Repeat. Basically power mooching. Don't do this if cod or pollock are around. That's all you will catch. Keeping decent speed is critical to avoiding pollock. It's not foolproof at all but it helps.

I definitely wNt to be down that way prior to the derby. Maybe we will see Ya down there!!!

Anchoring from a kayak was a pain and it worked if you wanted to fish together with other people. We used fresh bait, legal salmon scraps and heads. We already used up our hooligan as we didn't dip that many last year. Anchoring was also pretty dangerous because of the possibly of flipping, you have to have a way to quickly disconnect your anchor line and we found that we were only fishing high slack or low slack anchoring. I am going to try anchoring in the kelp close to shore at whiskey this summer probably even on a low tide. Good luck and I would stick with going to Whiskey, even at Whiskey you have a chance of hooking into kings. I believe we missed some kings bites by not having the correct set up, a mooching rig not circle hooks for just halibut, we may have gotten a king. Good luck and be safe.

Fern, pending decent weather I'd be willing to drive down there with you sometime. I just registered for the derby on the 21st and I'd like to check out Whiskey Gulch before the event. Kardinal's site and his posts give me some confidence that I can at least fake my way through fishing the spit for kings but, like you, I want a halibut and it seems more than a few are recommending WG as a starting point.

On a side note, I tried spreader bars and circle hooks last year in Seward and out of Whittier. I had some good bites but missed every fish (at least 10) and I think it's because of the circle hooks. I switched to a mooching rig and did much better and have some spots to return to this year.

I rigged my kayak for anchoring and it's adjustable the full length of the craft. I find it best to let out 4-7 times the line as the depth I'm fishing which can be very tiring when retrieving the anchor. I purchased a drift sock that I haven't used yet but plan on trying out instead of simply anchoring. You have to be careful and pay attention to the wind/waves as you can get broadsided and flip from boat wake.

Finally, I agree with what everyone has said about the wind. I didn't know just how much of an impact it has until coming back in from Shotgun Cove. I rounded the corner and was hit with wind that reduced my speed from a steady 3 knots in my Hobie to about 1 knot. It sucked and I'd never been so happy to get back to the port of Whittier and out of my kayak, lol. Wind matters.

Whiskey Gulch might not be accessible.  Looked like a sheet of ice from what I could see but I was glancing at it as I drove by.  No reason Deep Creek wouldn't work but it is early. 

Any southernly or westerly component to the wind makes Whiskey Gulch a bit more dicey.  Anchor Point is just too damn shallow.  If you use the spot forecast, and its under 3ft with a North or easternly component, you can fish the spit. 

But if you are specifically targeting halibut, you might as well give it a try.  There could also be kings up there with the caveat its one per day.  King conservation zones and closures don't kick in till April 1 I think.  Check the regs!!!

Don't anchor..at least until you get the feel for things.  You will freak the first time you snag up with your rod and reel and it whips you around.  You will think you hooked something massive as your reel starts to smoke if its at peak tide.  Haha.

But anchoring is what the guides do...virtually 100% in this area.  So even if you can't anchor, think about trying to keep in one spot, or criss cross depths, while the current carries the scent down current.  If you just drift, the scent field will just drift down with the bait and not cover as large of an area.  Don't mess around, decide quickly if you are going to rebait as the bait comes up.  If you do, get it back in the water ASAP!  Try to intersect any area to "reconnect" with the scent field to the extent you can.  I am also convinced that fish are attracted to the sound of weight thumping the bottom.  Cook Inlet is pretty devoid of snags but there are a few.  Its a matter of snagging/catching crap on your hook vs the attraction power.

When kings are legal like now.  I use a 8 to 12 oz banana sinker to a flasher.  Inline or a dodger with herring mainly.  I have been using silver horde coho killers and hoochies but right now I don't think it is sand lances.  But if you use hoochies you need to use a dodger that imparts action to the flasher.  The guides when trolling for kings us 60 to 100 lbs fluorocarbon or mono leader.  They aren't leader shy.  If you are using hoochies, it actually helps impart more action to them. 

The only problem with trolling/bouncing bottom with a flasher is you will tangle up if you don't perfectly watch your line angle and drift.  But you can learn to avoid it for the most part.  If you get a salmon and are going just for halibut, you can take the flasher off but I rally think it helps to attract them. 

Good luck!  I definitely want to get a few more cracks in before the derby.  I need my March King!!!

Whiskey Gulch might not be accessible.  Looked like a sheet of ice from what I could see but I was glancing at it as I drove by.  No reason Deep Creek wouldn't work but it is early. 

Any southernly or westerly component to the wind makes Whiskey Gulch a bit more dicey.  Anchor Point is just too damn shallow.  If you use the spot forecast, and its under 3ft with a North or easternly component, you can fish the spit. 

But if you are specifically targeting halibut, you might as well give it a try.  There could also be kings up there with the caveat its one per day.  King conservation zones and closures don't kick in till April 1 I think.  Check the regs!!!

Don't anchor..at least until you get the feel for things.  You will freak the first time you snag up with your rod and reel and it whips you around.  You will think you hooked something massive as your reel starts to smoke if its at peak tide.  Haha.

But anchoring is what the guides do...virtually 100% in this area.  So even if you can't anchor, think about trying to keep in one spot, or criss cross depths, while the current carries the scent down current.  If you just drift, the scent field will just drift down with the bait and not cover as large of an area.  Don't mess around, decide quickly if you are going to rebait as the bait comes up.  If you do, get it back in the water ASAP!  Try to intersect any area to "reconnect" with the scent field to the extent you can.  I am also convinced that fish are attracted to the sound of weight thumping the bottom.  Cook Inlet is pretty devoid of snags but there are a few.  Its a matter of snagging/catching crap on your hook vs the attraction power.

When kings are legal like now.  I use a 8 to 12 oz banana sinker to a flasher.  Inline or a dodger with herring mainly.  I have been using silver horde coho killers and hoochies but right now I don't think it is sand lances.  But if you use hoochies you need to use a dodger that imparts action to the flasher.  The guides when trolling for kings us 60 to 100 lbs fluorocarbon or mono leader.  They aren't leader shy.  If you are using hoochies, it actually helps impart more action to them. 

The only problem with trolling/bouncing bottom with a flasher is you will tangle up if you don't perfectly watch your line angle and drift.  But you can learn to avoid it for the most part.  If you get a salmon and are going just for halibut, you can take the flasher off but I rally think it helps to attract them. 

Good luck!  I definitely want to get a few more cracks in before the derby.  I need my March King!!!

So when using a dodger you also typically use a flasher at the same time? I have one large flasher and a few small dodgers. I've never used the dodgers. I'm not quite sure how to space everything out yet. Right now I have 90# braid mainline to 40# mono, 10oz banana,length of 40#mono to flasher,3ft of 40# mono to herring,then 18" to trailer hook. This is for my salmon rod setup.
Are you facing the current while drifting and resisting it a bit by peddling, drifting with it, or peddling against it?
I'm looking at the forecast and mon- Thursday is calling for 15 kt N wind and 2 ft seas. That seems pretty decent to me. I was planning on camping for a couple days but it gonna get cold and I'm whimping out a little bit.

Fern, pending decent weather I'd be willing to drive down there with you sometime. I just registered for the derby on the 21st and I'd like to check out Whiskey Gulch before the event. Kardinal's site and his posts give me some confidence that I can at least fake my way through fishing the spit for kings but, like you, I want a halibut and it seems more than a few are recommending WG as a starting point.

On a side note, I tried spreader bars and circle hooks last year in Seward and out of Whittier. I had some good bites but missed every fish (at least 10) and I think it's because of the circle hooks. I switched to a mooching rig and did much better and have some spots to return to this year.

I rigged my kayak for anchoring and it's adjustable the full length of the craft. I find it best to let out 4-7 times the line as the depth I'm fishing which can be very tiring when retrieving the anchor. I purchased a drift sock that I haven't used yet but plan on trying out instead of simply anchoring. You have to be careful and pay attention to the wind/waves as you can get broadsided and flip from boat wake.

Finally, I agree with what everyone has said about the wind. I didn't know just how much of an impact it has until coming back in from Shotgun Cove. I rounded the corner and was hit with wind that reduced my speed from a steady 3 knots in my Hobie to about 1 knot. It sucked and I'd never been so happy to get back to the port of Whittier and out of my kayak, lol. Wind matters.

Sounds like we are on the same page. I don't have experience with circle hooks bc I like to set my hooks. Missing those fish must of been a heart breaker.  At this point mon- third looks do able. I'll let you know if I head down.