Super size! .. new halibut technique

[Pilar]

I feel like I have to share a technique that I have been developing with all of you. This applies to shallow fish in less than 300 feet but I bet it would work deeper too.

I'm talking about drift mooching. This is nothing new but I have refined it a bit and might be on to something. Drift mooching is using an inline trolling sinker, mooching 2 hook rig and a whole herring for bait. Although the technique is for Salmon primarily I find it effective for four types of fish on the reefs off Newport. Salmon, Halibut, Lings and Sebastes or rockfish. You never know which one you will catch and that adds to the charm.

The modifications to this tried and true technique are
1) Heavy mono leader of 80# or a minimum of 60#.
2) Circle hooks, Gamakatsu 9/0 or 8/0.
3) Rotary salmon killer baitholder.

Make a standard salmon leader in all respects but substitute the circle hooks for 5/0 and 4/0 like you usually use and go with the heavy leader. 4 foot long seems to work pretty good. When you rig your bait, jam the head of the baitfish into the baitholder and push the top hook into the back of the fish in front of the top fin (dorsal), go around the backbone with the point exiting behind the dorsal. Push the trailing hook through the wrist of the tail, pull it through and let it hang free.

Use a heavy sinker, 16 oz for 200 ft of water. I am going to try this rig at the ranch with a spreader and ball instead of a trolling sinker. Do they make trolling sinkers bigger than 16oz?

If you use the trolling sinker then let the line out slowwwwwwwwly or it will tangle on the way down. A moving boat makes deployment easier. Hit the bottom and hold the rod. Bounce a couple of times and keep feeding line out to stay on the bottom. Once you get bounced back crank up 5 turns on your reel. Set the clicker on, the drag pretty loose and put the rod in a rod holder. Then just adjust by letting out till bottomed and crank up whenever the depth changes.

When they hit it feed line. When you feel the rod surging and a headshake start reeling.

DO NOT SET THE HOOK!!!!

When you get heavy pressure and a big bend reel faster to get your fish off the bottom. The bend is your friend at this point and the fish is yours if you can play him to the boat.

*HINT* do not let me gaff your fish or it will go back down when I miss. Doh!

Have fun!

[ 05-12-2003, 11:06 PM: Message edited by: Pilar ]

[jet]

Maybe it should be named the "Pilar drift fishing method"???

Jet~~~

[Orca]

I like it, and know it will work since I tried something similar last year. I'll make some mods like you suggest, and let you know how it goes.

[fishwhenican]

Pilar: I've had pretty good luck by casting up-drift from the boat when mooching and not getting tangled, although not with 16oz of lead.

The modifications to this tried and true technique are
1) Heavy mono leader of 80# or a minimum of 60#.
2) Circle hooks, Gamakatsu 9/0 or 8/0.
3) Rotary salmon killer baitholder

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">#1. I would suggest 100# mono. Halibut teeth have cut 60 on me and they aren't leader shy.
#2. In shallower water 2 #10/0 salmon hooks work good.

[Fishplay]

Dacron should work fine at that depth and would be a hell of a lot easier to tie.

John, did you find the RSK's to out-produce the half hitched nose?

[Pilar]

Greg, I like the half hitched nose for powered mooching or trolling. That is because the line stays tight and the 1/2 hitched nose sticks better. The 1/2 hitched herring is a more natural presentation and you can get a really effective erratic spin if you work at it.

When there is no tension on the line because you are drifting slowly the 1/2 hitch pops off and the bait stops working and spinning at all. It does not fish after that until you fix it. You could be dragging a broken bait for a long time if you are lazy and don't check your rig.

With the RSK you put an extra $1 on your rig but the bait always works no matter how fast or slow you go. Slack or tight does not matter. It also gives a more constant spin that just drives salmon crazy. Summer kings and RSKs just go together.

I don't know yet if spin matters to halibut. But the RSK keeps the hooks in the right spot on the bait. That is important, I think.

[Sensei-san]

Pilar, you might try modifying the sinker setup. In the SF Bay Area they mooch for salmon with a sliding sinker like sturgeon fishing. You could use your two hook mooching circle hook leader and a slider with any size cannonball sinker to get the rig straight down. An added advantage might be that your weight would be less likely to hang up as it is moving freely on the mainline. Who knows. You might catch some salmon on the way down.

You can get inline sinkers with an eye on each end that are torpedo style in any weight. But they would not have any action like a banana sinker.

[Chum King]

Oh boy, another good technique to work on. Thanks John always good to have another tool to work with.

Sensei, like the added touch of the slider. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

Now off to R&D.