Rock Pile / A different question

[Blue Water 23]

I have fished out of tillamook for halibut. The way that we fished was with a weight on a slider and a hook. (basically) For bait we used big strips of fish, which were bigger than a whole herring. My questions are; why don't people fish like this at the rock pile; or do they

You would think that this would work so why does everyone use herring? Is it so you can catch salmon to?

What is your favorite way to rig up and your favorite coordiantes at the rock pile? You can PM me if you want. Thanks for any help/advice you can give me.

[Mark Mc]

Grasshopper, everyone does not use herring. If you do a search on this subject you'll see some different techniques. Over the course of a season I'll use octopus, mackerel, herring, and lures (swimbaits).

Also, I don't use spreader bars. More trouble than they're worth.

- Mark

[Blue Water 23]

If you don't use spreader bars what do you use?

[Threemuch]

At the rockfpile, I would mooch herring because of the chinook. You can wind up with a nice limit of kings and lings to go with your flatties.

[Mark Mc]

BW, I tie a leader with 150 or 200 lb mono with a swivel at each end. It has a smaller ( 8 to 12 inch) leader coming off to the side, that the hook goes on. At the bottom swivel I tie on a short piece of 40 lb mono as a break-away, for the sinker. No tangles, no snagging of the spectra to the bottom. MM

By the way, this heavy rig is for the chicken ranch. At the rockpile I use light tackle (whether with lures, herring, or octopus).

Ditto what Kurt just said.

[ 01-28-2004, 03:24 PM: Message edited by: Mark Mc ]

[blubeast]

One way to rig is to use a large inline bananna weight then an RSK on a dual hook mooching rig. Some like to make the mooching rig out of circle hooks. This setup was effective for me last summer.

Good luck.

[elkman]

spreader bars work like a dream. just make it so the leader with the hooks isnt to long...hate to get tangled up down there

[WildHawg]

The Rockpile area is from around 150-260 feet deep in my experience. On any given drop, you could catch a 'but, ling, salmon grouper, yellow eye, canary rockfish, vermillion rockfish, silver, pink, chinook, blue-black rockfish, etc, etc...
As such, I use a mooching bannana sinker in 6-16 ounce with a bead chain attached to 50# Trilene Big game or, if I can find it, Maxima brown.
I typically use as light as I can get away with, but I have been bulldogged (go ahead Brad :tongue: ) by a few I wished I'd had stouter stuff for.
You can have alot of fun with an 7'-8.5' mooching rod in 15=40# line class, but there will be days when it doesn't matter what you have--I've hooked into freakin' SEA MONSTERS out there on occasion :shocked: :shocked: [img]graemlins/eek13.gif[/img]
6/0-8/0 hooks rigged on a dacron slider, with the patented "Heroin Chinook Roll" that was taught to me by an 86 year old Native Alaskan--and you've got a winning combo.
No RSK necessary. If I were talented enough I'd do a pictorial--but I have shown enough Dog's how to do it, that it's getting around. Pull me aside if ya see me at the ramp, or invite me on a ride. Teach you what I know.

[Pilar]

Halibut gear is pretty varied. Some guys use things like chinook salmon heads or the belly strip (anus to gill rakers 2" to 3" wide) of a black cod, rockfish or salmon with a big circle hook. One such person boated a 117# flattie last year. Other rigs include the wire spreader, big lead or a ling jig for the lead and a short leader, hook and bait. There is the 'No excuse' rig that I have posted with a 170# coated stranded wire, 16/0 circle hook and lead slider. A friend was just banging fish last year with a spreader, a lead and a Manistee spoon clipped right to the short arm of the spreader. No bait just a spoon.

Last but not least is the salmon/Halibut rig. Many times I have had Halibut take down a downrigged King setup with big Abe and Al flasher, Mooching leader, RSK and herring. A hundred feet off the bottom in Rockpile Salmon water. Many halibut come to the boat on mooching gear when the target is deep Kings. So use heavy leader, 60# or even 100# and big J hooks 5/0 - 6/0 or even circle hooks. 40# leader will break on a big fish. Any more this is my favorite method 2 - 8/0 circles on 4' of 100# leader, an RSK for a bait holder and a 12 or 16oz banana sinker.

Herring is a good bait. Fresh herring is the best bait. You can get it for free in Yaquina bay all summer. Everything eats herring. Other baits work too. Halibut are pretty high on the food web .... they eat anything. If you use herring in deep water use bait thread too and I use 2 or 3 herring on the rig. That way you don't lose your bait on the first bite and do the 600' bait check.

Large sardines work good too.

[skein]

I'm also going to be trying small shad this year. I'll ice 'em just like I do fresh-caught herring, with a rock salt and ice layer, then into the shrinkwrap. I plan to rig 'em just like I do herring with big circle hooks. No RSK though.

Listen for my screams.

Skein

[edsr]

While fishing the pile and the ranch this year we broke-off some big fish. Then we changed to a wire mooching rig. The result a butt about 53" they could bite through the 40lb maxima but not the wire. Yeah, you do change hooks after each fish. My .02.
edsr