Halibut/Lingcod tips for Capitola

[ihasacookie]

I've got a fishing trip this coming friday and would like some pointers from the more experienced fisherman on this board. I've been to Capitola about 5 times last year during the summer and caught tons of rockfish and the occasional octopus and starfish. This year I want to focus more on the halibut and lingcod that seem to be biting right now.

Is there an area where I should focus more on? Depth? Bait? Rigs?

[bigboarstopper]

I've fished monterey bay my entire life. For lings I would either use a large diamond jig and hook a medium sized sandab onto it or hook a few sandabs on a shrimp jig. Lings are at the same depths and areas as other rockfish you can also find lings on a sandy bottom although in my experience they tend to be undersized.

For halibut I use a standard salmon style mooching rig with a sliding sinker. The leader is about 3-4 feet. I use a 3 or 4 OT barbed hook with a medium sized treble hook trailer. I use only fresh bait for halibut so get some sabiki jigs and see if you can jig up some squid. I usually start my drift (on a sandy bottom) with my lead bouncing off the bottom somewhere around 100 to 125 feet of water. I will drift from that depth and pick up as close to shore as I can get. As I drift into shallower water I will pick up the slack so I can see a constant "thump" on my rod tip from the lead hitting the bottom. Don't drag it. It will pick up too much kelp or get snagged. Halibut hookups feel much like a snag on the bottom. They tend to eat slow so when your rod bends over don't set the hook right away. As soon as your rod bends strip line off your reel at the same speed as your drift. You don't want to pull the bait out of the fishes mouth. Give it a moment or so for it to get the bait down then set.

That's what I do.

[deckhandmike]

Boat or shore fishing? If fishing from shore rent a kayak and quit wasting your time on land. Halibut/ling combo fishing is actually really easy. Use a three way swivel rigged with fluorocarbon. The make premade halibut rigs which have the small trailer treble hook. These work insanely well with live bait. Don't go heavier than 20lb test, they are line shy. Get over sandy areas that have some small spots of kelp. The thin strands of kelp will indicate rock structure. Fish the edges of the structure and the open areas slowly drifting off a yak or small boat. The Monterey/capitola area holds great halis around 60-80 feet deep and maybe out to 120'. While halibut fishing you will unavoidably pick up rockfish and lings. This is actually a PITA since they swallow the halibut rigs whole and take forever to unhook. But it's also a nice bonus for when the halibut fishing is slow. Use a rod holder with the live bait and just leave the damn thing alone. When you get a bite halibut fishing don't do a thing. Do not set the frigging hook. Give a solid 10-30 count and then slowly start winding.

One thing I've noticed diving is that when you see a halibut there is almost always another or more in a 50' area. Use live bait for the best success or if you absolutely can't get it a 3-4oz white swim bait or small 4oz light colored or reflective jig. If working a jig cast up drift and slowly bounce the jig back to till it's underneath you then wind up and cast again. Don't drag it behind you. Avoid large lures. Small lures catch big fish. The only time to use large jigs is when the rockfish are so thick that you have to race your gear to the bottom in attempt to avoid the smaller fish higher up or if the current is insanely strong. Small live octopus are crack to most fish if you happen to catch one. It's one of the most common things I would find in big lings when filleting.

Get a bigger net than you could imagine needing for a yak and use a nice gaff from a boat. Watch out for teeth, both species have big ones. Everything I said about halibut works well with lings too. If you own a small boat or go with buddies ask me about bounce balling. It's the most effective method for halibut but requires a personal boat and some speciality gear that's not cheap.

[ihasacookie]

Many thanks for both of your inputs! I'll be renting one of the motorized skiffs at the boat and bait shop. Ill definitely try my hand at catching some live bait. All I have been using is the frozen ones you get at the supermarket. I have always thought halibut takes the bait and runs with it. Now that I think about it, those "snags" I've run into in the past might've been a halibut bite haha. I'll post up some pictures when I get back from the trip. Any other advice would be greatly appreciated!

[bigboarstopper]

Look for diving birds. Birds that swim under water or flying birds that dive into the water. If you can find birds working you will find the bait fish under them. You can find the fish your trying to catch under and around the bait fish.


Look into a party boat. The skiff may be fun but the party boat will yeild more fish.

[Darklyte27]

Friend and his uncle went there a few times, always came back with 5 or more fish. I went with them 2 weeks ago and they caught 2 small cod and a small octopus.
Other than that it was a dead day. We boated around plenty of spots and didnt get much bites. guess it was just a bad day.

Started to feel sick too after a while of our 6 hour trip, didnt yack though.

They rent boats there, either reserve or arrive 630 when they open. was 100$ for the day but its now 125$

[CaptnCaveman]

Have a net ready when the ling starts to come to the surface. Sometimes they are "hitchhikers" that have tried eating a smaller rockfish that was hooked.

Ask Ed, the rental guy for some tips too. You might get GPS #'s to some of the reefs.

[sugi942]

I don't fish for halibut from the shore so I can't offer an opinion there. But for fishing from a boat (drift fishing on a sportfisher) I use a 4 foot leader with 8 - 10 oz of lead on the bottom. I make a "tag line" towards the top of the leader and tie a 4/0 to 6/0 circle hook to it. The tag line is about 18" long. Some guys use a spider hitch to tie the tag line on, but I have been using a Seaguar knot for about 2 years and I love it. The Seaguar knot is usually used to join two similar weight lines together like fluoro or mono. What I started doing is leaving an extra long tag at the bottom and using it to tie hooks to instead of a dropper loop or spider hitch. It's super easy to tie and supposedly you retain 90+ percent of line strength. So my leader (from top to bottom) looks like this: Barrel swivel at the top, 8 - 10 inches of space, Seaguar knot and 18" of line hanging out and a circle hook. The other line that you've joined should be about 3 feet long and then I tie a snap swivel to it and then clip in the sinker. I should note that I use 40lb fluoro from the barrel swivel to the hook and 30lb fluoro from the Seaguar knot to the bottom swivel. This rig recently caught me a 40lb halibut, a 25lb+ white seabass and a ling.

Anyways, good luck and tight lines!

[glockman19]

I fish for halibut. My best success has been to set up just outside a kelp bed with a sandy bottom. I use squid for bait. Live or frozen.
Have fun. Good luck.

[chiselchst]

I don't normally refer somebody to a different forum, however...

Log on to Coastside fishing club forum. They charge $25 for annual access to the forum member fishing reports, but it's worth it, IMHO. Keeps the riff-rat out, LOL.

[ihasacookie]

Well it was definitely a slow day out there yesterday. Started off fishing for rockfish out towards Surfer's reef and only caught 3. Then we moved on over towards the SC3 and Mile buoys, nothing there. I threw out a sabiki rig and hit a school of macks, pulled in about 10 decent sized ones before the school moved away. Towards the end I used one of the smaller macks as live bait and hit a 3-3.5ft shark.



Thanks again for all your advice!

PS: Ed from the shop did pull in 2 20+ lb sea bass that same day

[ihasacookie]

Thank you for the referral Chiselchst! I'll be sure to take a look.

[deckhandmike]

Looks like a Spiny dogfish. I think they are actually decent to eat. Europe eats those things for fish and chips.

[ihasacookie]

Looked up online and it definitely was a dogfish. It was probably a good thing I let it go since I probably would not have bled it properly and it would've tasted like piss as a result haha.

[deckhandmike]

Yeah, I've never kept them either. Too much work for marginal quality meat.