Halibut or ling fishing in the sound?

Hey:  No More Ice Fishin,

I don't know if you consider it to be the sound or not, but the best, fairly local, area for halibut fishing (from a kayak, of course) that I'm aware of is off of the tip of the Dungeoness Spit.  I like it quite a bit because I can leave the north sound area one evening, find a spot to stay the night near Sequim, be in position to fish at dawn, get back to the car in the mid-afternoon, and still get back to the house by early that second evening.  It makes it a very doable 24 hour trip from my house.  If I can find employment in the Wa. area this spring and not have to go back out of state again, then I'll surely be making one or two of these trips this year and I'll certainly post pre-trip in the Washington forum for anybody at all that wants to join in.

If you do go, you need to know a few things that are involved...
1. It's right at about a 3 mile paddle from the water park where we park the cars out to the tip of the spit and you likely won't get into the good halibut water until you are all the way out to that tip.
2.  You need to plan such that you are not paddling back to the car when the tide is going OUT!  There is a HUGE volume of water behind that spit that goes back OUT when the tide is going down and you'll work harder and harder against it as you try to get back to the cars,  AND that water is really really SHALLOW for literally MILES across the bay.  At some point, you won't likely be paddling against the tide any more, but instead you'll be SLOGGING knee deep in mud across one or two HUNDRED yards to get back to solid ground.  So you can either wait for the tide to come back in again, or you can make serious haste that 3 miles across the flats once the tide peaks.  Confer with Polepole or Zee for comfirmation of this information.

Okay, yeah, it's a little bit of a hassle to time the tide and stuff, but since when did anything good ever come easy?


Fishin-T

Hey Tom, welcome back !!

http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,2526.0.html

i think its possible to catch ling and halibut (any bottom fish) from your kayak
 

read link above....
 

BTW i caught a 36" ling on a 10wt flyrod this past summer...that was a hoot!...i used straight dacron backer and a small jig in about 40' water...felt like it had snagged the bottom until the monster started shaking its head for my entertainment!

Thanks Fishin-T, that is really helpful.

What tackle/techniques do you recommend for halibut?  Also, if I give halibut/lings a shot, what other specialty gear do I need to think about?  What size halibut would you realistically expect to land?

I'm already planning on picking up a wet suit.

Thanks.

What tackle/techniques do you recommend for halibut?  Also, if I give halibut/lings a shot, what other specialty gear do I need to think about?  What size halibut would you realistically expect to land?

Probably any old mooching rod will be fine for nearly any ling cod that you'd be likely to catch in the sound or most of the straight.  But for halibut, I'd absolutely prefer something a lot more stout.  Again, in the sound or the east end of the straight you'll see most of the halibuts weigh in at 20 to 25 lbs, with a few guys getting lucky enough to hook a 45 to 60.  You might hook one as small as 5 lb, but I don't think I'd feel right keeping anything less than maybe 15.  Oddly enough, the little ones don't seem to be that common, probably because most people are using bait that's big enough to cull them out.  If you google "halibut" you can see that they can easily get bigger than 100 and I know that Howard McKim in Ketchikan once caought one from his kayak that came in at 163 or 173.  But in the Washington marine areas #6 and up, anything over about 75 lb would be pretty uncommon.

My personal choice of gear is influenced by the fact that I do sometimes make that trip to the Dungeoness Spit where I'm ususally fishing in at least 300' of water in a little bit of current.  That means that I have to use at least 8oz of weight and maybe up to16, otherwise I can't hold the bottom. For that much weight that deep, I want about a 5'6" to 6' really stout pole.  For the fish that we see in the waters I've described above, I personally think that the poles with the little roller at the tip are totally unneccessary.  I use Proline because its small diameter catches a lot less drag in that much water, and so again helps me stay near the bottom.  My Proline for halibut is 40# because that's the heaviest that I think that I can safely break off if I get hung up.  More than that and I worry about rolling my kayak.  I think I remember Howard telling me that he usually uses as little as 30#, even for those monsters that he sees up by Ketchikan.

Fishin-T

Strictly speaking, Dungeness spit is Strait of Juan de Fuca, not Puget Sound, and different rules apply!!  The Strait can be dangerous, in terms of currents on the ebb, and an east wind can come up and turn a 1 foot chop into breaking 4 foot waves in short time.  You need to have good coldwater protection, dry suit best, 5mm wet suit OK here, but VHF in the PFD is more than a good idea, see the various threads about water safety----be equipped!  And have a knife handy in case your line gets hung up----I couldn't break 40# Power Pro by hand, it would cut to the bone without neoprene gloves. 
   There's safety in numbers, don't fish the Strait alone until you have some experience. Great camping spot at Salt Creek, just a short drive to Freshwater Bay from there.

 Caution aside, the Strait  is a beautiful and exciting place to fish, I especially like Freshwater Bay for summer kings as it's pretty well protected from the usual westerlies, and you don't have to paddle more than 2-300 yards to find fish.  And Sekiu also has close-in fishing for kings and lings and hallies (but lots of powerboats).  Discovery Bay is a nice place to cut your teeth, very well protected from wind, nice beach at Port Gardiner.`Sequim Salty has lots of experience up there.

... And have a knife handy in case your line gets hung up----I couldn't break 40# Power Pro by hand, it would cut to the bone without neoprene gloves....

I have a knife on my PFD, so one is always handy, but you can break line without handling it or stressing your reel.  Loop it once, twice, or thrice, around the rod above the lower eyelet, and hook it over the lowest eyelet on the rod, point the rod at the water entry of the line, and back up.  The line will snap somewhere.  Wrapping the line around the rod a few times reduces the stress on the eye. 

There are also gadgets designed for line breaking:
http://jtackle.info/line/Fishing_Line_Breaker_Rubber_Type.shtml

You can also wrap the line around the handle of your knife and back away. 

Your fish thumper is my personal choice or if I am wearing gloves that works too. I find 30# PP and less to be the really nasty stuff. That line will cut you if you look at it wrong.

... And have a knife handy in case your line gets hung up----I couldn't break 40# Power Pro by hand, it would cut to the bone without neoprene gloves....

I have a knife on my PFD, so one is always handy, but you can break line without handling it or stressing your reel.  Loop it once, twice, or thrice, around the rod above the lower eyelet, and hook it over the lowest eyelet on the rod, point the rod at the water entry of the line, and back up.  The line will snap somewhere.  Wrapping the line around the rod a few times reduces the stress on the eye. 

There are also gadgets designed for line breaking:
http://jtackle.info/line/Fishing_Line_Breaker_Rubber_Type.shtml

You can also wrap the line around the handle of your knife and back away.

If you're running heavy line in a place with any kind of swell, don't do this.  #30 is about my limit for locking down the line.  Anything above that will put you in the water in short order and I've come close with 30.  The Strait is no place to F' around. 

-Spot-

I wonder what is the max pressure you can put against a line straight off your hip. Leaning the opposite direction and using the flotation of the 'yak works pretty well in mild swells. You just have be VERY mindful of your position and don't over commit. I have bent hooks and broken snaps with 65 and broken 50 but it is not fun! I have also had 30 bust off like 10 mono on the rocks after a big ling dove back in it's whole. For me 50 is the highest I feel comfortable running in snaggy areas.

The most important think is to know your personal limits. That goes for you, your boat and the weather.

For me 50 is the highest I feel comfortable running in snaggy areas.

For me, it's 30#.  30# line routinely tests into the 40's.  I've had situations on a boat where I couldn't even break that.  I find it usually breaks off either at the spectra-to-mono knot, or the leader saws through.

-Allen

This would be a fun one to test in a lake. Secure the line to some type of bottom structure and see what people can break in a controlled safe environment.

In a controlled environment, it's going to boil down to who can get the best leverage and/or has the strongest arm.

It will give you a base line. Plus it would be fun to watch people flip themselves trying to break line