June 18th WHiskey Gulch halibut info for newcomers.

Halibut fishing in Cook Inlet on June 18th


Ok.  I probably shouldn’t give out any hints till after the derby, but its more important that I maximize the probability of a monster fish being pulled up AND I would prefer everyone had a good time so I thought I would write up a little bit on how I plan to fish this derby.

other folks do things quite differently from drift fishing or anchoring (though I do NOT recommend that unless you know what you are doing).    This is NOT a definitive guideline and frankly should be ignored by anyone who has fished Cook Inlet more than a few times. 

So after the start time, the first slack tide 3 miles offshore from Anchor Pt (closest prediction location) is at around 9:15 am.  the previous slack current is at 3:30am.  So the derby starts at pretty much slack high tide as the current starts to move south.  That should be good.  I always catch more fish drifting south than north. 



BUT that means if you launch at 4:30am and just drift, it is going to make for a super long day.  5 hours of drifting south, than an hour of slack or so, then 5 hours back.  I would NOT recommend that for novices or even for the veterans if the weather is marginal. 

For those that don’t want to be on the water that long, I would recommend pedaling North while the current is heading south but still slow enough that you can make head way.  Because I have my kid with me, that’s my plan…I think.  If the weather is good, we may going a LOT farther in search of halibut.  You will be able to hold North of the launch or at the launch for a couple of hours unless you hook a big fish.  That way I have the option of taking a short break at the launch after a few hours of fishing or more importantly head back to the vehicle if I forgot something. 

While in the conservation zone, I plan to hit the shallow waters hard because eventually you won’t be able to hold and get forced a mile offshore as you enter the king conservation zone.  They are typically marked by red markers on the shoreline.  Hard to see and for novices, look for the boats.  they help a lot.    YOU MUST KNOW WHERE THE LINE IS!!!! NO TICKETS!!!!! 
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/applications/web/nocache/regulations/fishregulations/PDFs/southcentral/2016SCSFcookinletsaltwaters.pdf778F7760439B99A345B85A10F588F9E6/2016SCSFcookinletsaltwaters.pdf


Hooligan and herring are done. but the sockeyes should be making their way up the inlet and that could draw the halibut in closer.  But unlike kings, reds also travel the middle of the inlet so its a crap shoot on depth.  I guess if I was a triathlete and weather is good, I would head 5 to 6 miles offshore…but I am not going to with my kid. 

My preferred technique is to slow troll/power mooch.  I think it better distributes the scent field and it also keeps the small halibut from swallowing my J-hooks.  I try and troll cross current or upcurrent to maximize the scent field. 

Others have different opinions but I despise circle hooks.  Use them if you like, but be warned that the bigger the fish.  The harder they clamp on to the bait and an easily moveable kayak won’t have enough pressure to move the hook into the lip hooking zone.  Then as you pump the fish up and its vertical in the water column directly under you, if it opens its mouth, you aren’t going to hook it.  One way to mitigate this if you insist on using a circle hook is to bridle the fish to the hook. 

here’s one example:




Also it makes a big difference on how you tie on the circle hooks.  See: http://www.iphc.int/research/biology/hook.html

So I rig my big herring to spin since action is key from my experience.  Run the hook through they eye of the fish, then turn the hook and insert into the body.  try and get the body penetration as far back as you can, so the end result is a sightly bent fish.  Make sure your leader is attached by a high quality swivel so it will not twist the line. 

I use 10 to 16 oz of weight.  The heavier the better as long as you and the rod can deal with it.  Deploy line while moving forward (MUCH easier with a pedal kayak).  Find the bottom.  then either speed up a little bit or crank up a turn or two to get it off the bottom.  I hold the rod in my hand and consistently try to find the bottom while moving forward for at least a minute or two.  Once I am satisfied that I am close to the bottom, I put the rod in the rod holder. 

Watching my son, the hardest thing about this method is strike detection.  The bigger the halibut, the subtler the strike.  I think its because a big halibut will just engulf the bait and keep swimming with it.  Small rapid hits are typically an indication of smaller halibut shaking its head with the herring in its mouth.

At the slightest indication of a something different, stop.  Pick up your rod, and feed the halibut some slack by dropping your rod trip to the back.  A halibut will often swim with a bait half way in its mouth.  But as soon as the pressure is relieved, it will make another attempt to swallow the bait.  Slowly reel in the slack line and if you feel weight, hit it hard….if you are using a J-hook.  If I was using a circle hook I think I would veer towards the line and try to get the hook pulling in any direction other than the way it was headed.

I am torn between using a hoochie and not using one.  With a hoochie, if it severs the bait in half, you still have a full size  bait with plenty of scent and they will strike it. You get a second chance.  I think you hook more fish without the hoochie.  50/50 on this one.  My son does’t like the hoochies for whatever reason. 

Recently I have had good results trolling a kwikfish or magwart for the halibut.  You need too beef up the hooks on a magwart though.  And dealing with a thrashing halibut, even if its a 5 pounder on a kayak with multiple treble hooks is a tad scary.  I may switch them out to a single hook if I try them.

A few other observations.  I am a diehard bait guy.  But watching predatory fish under the ice and fishing off of powerboats, I can tell you that the bigger the fish, the more likely they are to hit the bait that has action.  BUT I know the halibut will follow a scent line from a LONG ways off.  Charter captains get pissed if someone anchors down current for them a half mile off. 

SO I think generally speaking with a single rod, bait is more effective.  Once the halibut is in the area, the artificial have the edge in my opinion.  I plan to use that line of thought this time out. 

But after this long essay on how I plan to fish, really the most important part of halibut fishing is making sure you can deal with the fish once its hooked safely. 

My experience an A2 buoy is too large and rips huge gashes into the fish meaning the harpoon head might come out.  I prefer A0 and A1 buoys.  Also carry multiple harpoon heads and if possible buoys. We have three heads and two buoys between the two of us.  That way you can unclip the wire leader off the buoy and clip it onto a rope or another buoy once subdued and bled for a few minutes.  I hit the belly.  Lots of different opinions on that.  I think its the skin that holds the head so in the belly, you have four different layers of skin and the belly is very flexible.  Plus if you hit a vital organ, it really slows the fish down. 

Until I am certain its dead, I do NOT attache the line to the kayak.  I hold it in my hand while trolling.  Most often I have a buoy attached to it.  You can get a 60 pound halibut into an outback pretty easily.  But if you catch one 100 or more, you are likely gong to have to tow it in.  If you are a stud and man handle a 100 pound halibut into the back of the kayak, be aware that when I put a 100 pound halibut in the back of my outback (on a beach) and then pedaled another two miles back to the launch, I had taken on considerable water through the rudder line holes. 

Ok..sorry if this \seems dysfunctional.  Did it between last night and lunch.  I will note if I edit or add anything...

You took the words right out of my mouth! Just kidding of course. Listen to what Rudy says he knows what the hell he's talking about. However, I am going to try circle hooks this time. I just have to see it for myself. I gut hook too many fish with J hooks for whatever reason. I plan on setting the drag tight and using the sharpest circles I can find. Probably bad timing to be experimenting....see you all out there. Btw, what channel will we be on Rudy?


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You took the words right out of my mouth! Just kidding of course. Listen to what Rudy says he knows what the hell he's talking about. However, I am going to try circle hooks this time. I just have to see it for myself. I gut hook too many fish with J hooks for whatever reason. I plan on setting the drag tight and using the sharpest circles I can find. Probably bad timing to be experimenting....see you all out there. Btw, what channel will we be on Rudy?


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I rarely gut hook halibut...as long as the bait is moving.  But whenever we are just drifting or anchored, or you wait too long after the trolling strike, it will happen.  If you watch my underwater video of the halibut, you notice they just swim along with the bait.  Striking or "reeling in" like that I think seriously reduces the chances of a hook up.  So I think if you just angle off to one side or the other or have the fish swimming away from you, it should be ok.  Keep in mind, the fish will spit the hook and bait out at some point.  If I was using a circle hook, I would use one of those sinker sliders.  As soon as I got a good tap, I would freespool it until the halibut started swimming off away from you.  Then engage the reel.  I know you aren't supposed to strike, but nonce the fish was on, I would likely tug once or twice (not necessarily a full strike) just in case the fish is just clamped down on the hook.  I do have a coulple of rigs I am hoping to try out on Sunday where the stinger trailing hook is a circle hook (8/0).  Problem with the nsmaller circle hooks is I couldn't snell it.  So unlike the diagram and report, its just on a loop. Stingers are great, they hook everything.  But it has forced me to keep fish I didn't want to or cut the leader which I hate doing.  Hopefull a trailing bare stinger circle will be liked the bridled baits and without anything covering the hook, it will find the corner. 

I don't have nearly as much experience targeting 'buts as Rudy does, but what worked for me on Memorial Day weekend was trolling purple label herring w/hoochie behind a triangle flasher on my downrigger. I rigged the herring with tandem hooks (J-hook with a trailing circle hook), and used a rubber band to hook my main line into my downrigger release. I caught smaller fish jigging, and my two bigger (~20#) fish on the trolling rig.


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I don't have nearly as much experience targeting 'buts as Rudy does, but what worked for me on Memorial Day weekend was trolling purple label herring w/hoochie behind a triangle flasher on my downrigger. I rigged the herring with tandem hooks (J-hook with a trailing circle hook), and used a rubber band to hook my main line into my downrigger release. I caught smaller fish jigging, and my two bigger (~20#) fish on the trolling rig.


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I will be using a downrigger as well I think.  Not necessarily the same way as Low_sky though part of the time I may.  but I will say the one of the main reasons is that I also have my kids kayak to pack a 100 pound halibut.  My downrigger takes up too much room for "normal" halibut fishing.  I plan to be abnormal and pull out a few extra tricks.

I think for those trying to plan a strategy other than "get lucky" which frankly is the most effective strategy I have had, is to decide whether its better to catch 20 fish and hope one is huge, or the "Hero or zero" technique where you put down a whole salmon or cod and sit all day with probably zero bites but that one bite is a 100 pounder.    In all reality, I will likely use a combination depending on what stage of current we are fishing under.

This is my first year fishing for halibut so I'm still working on my fishing tactics. I would be interested in hearing what folks used to catch their halibut during the tournament if you are willing to share. My past few trips I had used herring and caught some nice fish between 20-30 pounds. I had caught some sockeye the last couple of weekends so I saved the heads and bellies to try. I started fishing by trolling/drifting a salmon head as I headed south. That didn't produce anything. When I started heading north I switched out the salmon head for a belly hoping to catch something to bring back. Caught one small chicken that I let go. I had a good time fishing even though it wasn't very productive for me and thanks to everyone that helped with the tournament.

Mike

Hey Rudy! What's that app you're using pictured in the first post?


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Hey Rudy! What's that app you're using pictured in the first post?


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Navionics Boating app. Pricey for the full version and all the add ons but worth every penny.   

They don't have the currents and tides I don't think, but you can get a preview and I use it for planning at:  https://webapp.navionics.com

This is my first year fishing for halibut so I'm still working on my fishing tactics. I would be interested in hearing what folks used to catch their halibut during the tournament if you are willing to share. My past few trips I had used herring and caught some nice fish between 20-30 pounds. I had caught some sockeye the last couple of weekends so I saved the heads and bellies to try. I started fishing by trolling/drifting a salmon head as I headed south. That didn't produce anything. When I started heading north I switched out the salmon head for a belly hoping to catch something to bring back. Caught one small chicken that I let go. I had a good time fishing even though it wasn't very productive for me and thanks to everyone that helped with the tournament.

Mike

Mike!  Thanks for coming!  The fishing was pretty spotty for sure on Saturday and the weather didn't help.  We caught most of our fish (7 or so) trolling about 1.5 miles out in front of Anchor Point trolling large horse herring in the sport packs with 12 oz of weight.  We just rig them to spin.  Even when I say we troll, much of time, I try to emulate anchoring.  Basically pedaling against the current to stay as close to one spot as possible.  That makes the "chumming' or scent field disperse into a greater area and I think helps the halibut find the bait.   We got a lot of our hits when I put a chum bag down onto my down rigger line.  That worked pretty well until it started to slack and I got tangled on the down rigger line twice with fish on. 

You May have heard the discussion but AKFishonJohn's winning fish came while anchored off shore.  Unless you have some experience, I would never recommend anchoring.  But there is a reason every charter in Cook inlet Anchor's as well.  Dudemandude (Jon's Son) on the forums anchors quite a bit and is VERY successful.  If that is a system that interests you, I would look up on these forums how folks Anchor for sturgeon in a river since Cook Inlet is basically a river.  If you do, my recommendation is to only anchor very close to slack tide.  I would also tether myself to the kayak somehow, the battle with a big halibut would be a LOT harder Anchored.  And for some reason you fell off, there would be no recovery...so keep that in mind.,  I Know John said he used a three to one scope for his anchor line which is what you need.  But that also means carrying 100ft of rope to fish 33 ft deep.  I have had the set up to anchor for several years now and still have yet to use it.  But you can't deny the success the anchored folks have. 

Kayak fishing for halibut is in its infancy in Alaska.  There is always room for improvement.  I am curious if others tried something different that worked...or didn't work and would share the experience. 

My trolling set-up described above got me 5 fish on Saturday, with one fish picked up on a white 8" Gulp grub on a 14oz jig head.

Next time I go out I'll likely try Rudy's fake anchoring method once I get out to deep water.


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First time replying to a post and from my iPhone. Yes tge weather was a factor on my decision to start fishing and timing with the high tide time in the afternoon. Plus I wouldn't have to carry my kayak as far to get to the water. It was my first time fishing for halibut from a kayak so was very concerned about this derby participation but told myself to go for it. I used my sons kayak and gear an ocean kayak Malibu 2XL a very stable kayak. I asked my son many questions about the whole process especially anchoring. 10 lb anchor, 6 ft chain and about 120 ft line to a bouy then 10 ft of line to where I put that line through the back handle of kayak and used a quick release knot at my seat. I paddle straight out from the parking lot about 3/4 of a mile and let out the anchor and by the time the anchor caught and held the current had pushed me about 1/2 mike more north. I now had 2 hours before slack high. I had brought with me two gallons of fresh salmon heads, collors, and guts and Hooked these pieces to my circle hook with a hoochie and 20 oz weight. Let this down to the bottom and jerk my pole to release chum at bottom. Did this several times till one gallon of chum was on the bottom. I was in 40 ft of water and not a bite for an hour and a half. Decided to pull anchor and go out deeper. That worked just fine. I went out another 1/2 mile in 59 ft water and anchored again. Water was just starting to go slack so I decided this might be good to send Dow the last gallon of chum. I sliced a few holes in the ziplock bag, hooked the bag to my circle hook three times and sent it to the bottom. Jerked hard to release chum and reeled up the empty plastic bag. Took bag and stuffed in pocket to put in trash Bach at parking lot. I had a bag of large salter herring 12" herring. I tore one of those herring in half and put both pieces on hook and a piece of salmon gut. Dropped to bottom and waited 10 minutes when I felt for the first time a small bite the a little more pull. Like Rudy said about a bigger fish bite. So I moved my pole tip towards the back of the boat and when I felt more pressure set the hook and it took off a lot of line. I set the drag a little tighter and set the hook one more time and it really pulled hard north and turned the kayak north too !!! I said this is no little halibut! Just before I had felt the bite a seal had popped up close to me and I was thinking the seal had bit my bait! I caught a seal ion last summer while halibut fishing off a Mokai jet kayak but that's a different story. Seriously it happened. Now back to this fish story. It took many runs and I did debt see what I was fighting for at least 10 minutes. When I finally saw it to me it was 80 to 100 lbs! You know how tge water magnifies. I grabbed my brand new harpoon line and bouy. Brought the fish up close, loosened drag a little held poke in left hand and thrust the harpoon hard trying to hit through gill head area and tge head of tge harpoon didn't release from the handle and the but went crazy and busted the handle! But did separate from point head. Fish took off and bulled bouy under for 10 seconds. I reeled it back to me and could see the harpoon head hadn't entered the butt all the way. It was bleeding good but grabbed the gaff and sunk it in the head and it didn't kick that at all and about tipped me over. I let the gaff out and it took off again. Reeled it back now I could see tge harpoon had entered the head but my circle hook was about to fall out of a quarter size hole in its lip. So I grabbed the gaff again sunk it in the white side of the head and pull it up on deck between my legs brown side up and bam bam bam it was beating the kayak deck with its tail and body. I grabbed the broken harpoon handle and cracked its skull a few times. Then it flipped my paddle oar in tge water with its tail and I retrieved it back with the harpoon handle. Now grabbed my knife hanging around my neck and stabbed it multiple times in the head and gills! I looked up and yelled thank you Lord for this excitement!!!  Can relax a bit and looked for my fishing pole and NO POLE saw the hook in its mouth followed the line over edge of boat and pulled up 6 ft of line then the pole. Two other kayakers were hooting for me about a hundred yards away. Ok now what. This butt was 54 inches long ! I'm done fishing and pulled in bouy and set on top of butt put 120 feet of line between my legs and set chain and anchor on top butt too and paddled Tge Mike and a quarter back to shore with no problems. This was a great battle with a fish and praise the lord no serious problems and getting me back home with a great story. Again that was my first halibut I caught by myself from a kayak. Thanks  dudemandude for tge use of your gear and Rudy for putting this derby together and for the first place trophy for my 54.4 lb halibut!

That's one heck of a story.  Thanks for sharing, John!

That's one heck of a story.  Thanks for sharing, John!

A great story!  I'm glad you survived to tell the tale and win the derby!  Let's do it again!!!!!!

++++ Epic!


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This is my dads 3rd halibut from a kayak but first "solo" halibut by himself. He got a nice 31 pounder last year whiskey gulch and another one Bout 10 pounds the year before that. So first solo halibut. Good job dad!