Circle hooks for halibut fishing is my preferred method to catch trophy halibut. Using circle hooks is an art, once you figure it out properly you will likely agree. Take your halibut rod in hand and lower the spreader bar rig into the water slowly. Disengage the free-spool button on the reel, but, do not let it go down full speed in a race to beat your partner to the bottom, this is how you get a snarled leader. Instead you want to slowly go down 50 feet, then pause briefly. The current will cause your leader to drift and trail out behind, thus avoiding wrapping around the mainline. Repeat this process with occasional brief pauses until you reach the bottom. Before you get your rig into the water you can also swing and lob it a short distance behind the boat, this will get it further behind the boat and on its descent, the weight will migrate towards directly underneath you, thus causing the leader trail out extended and away from the mainline, avoiding snarls as well. Once on the bottom, reel in slightly so that your weight and leader is just above the bottom. You actually do not want excessive pounding of the bottom you want to be just above it. If your gear is touching the bottom then crabs will start eating your bait and not halibut.
Once at the perfect depth you can set your rod in the rod holder. Turn on the reel clicker function and set your drag almost as loose as it will go. Now its time to sit back and wait for the halibut. While you are waiting, focus on sharpening up some of the other circle hooks in your tackle box.
As you start getting nibbles resist the temptation to grab the rod and do a monster hookset. Just let the halibut chew on it, even feed out a bit of line. You will hear your reel start to give out line clicks and your buddies will think you are nuts for not setting the hook. After the fish has had a chance to swallow your bait then you want to slowly increase tension on the drag. The fish will be swimming away unsuspecting until the increasing tension on the line causes the bait to drag out of their stomach. Eventually it will lodge perfectly in the corner of the halibut mouth and voila you are onto your target fish! After you have hooked some fish with this method you will really start to enjoy it. A solid hookup with a circle hook spreader bar rig will never come free. If you find that infact you are losing some fish then try sharpening the hook and also check if you are using too large salmon heads you might want to switch to belly strips or a more flexible bait.
Anchoring while Halibut Fishing
Anchoring is one of the fundamental halibut fishing techniques. You need a good anchor setup to stick to the bottom with a heavy boat, be sure to ask your marine shop for recommendations. Once you’ve anchored you gain benefits of not drifting, reducing the chances of snagging the bottom, and you also get the benefit of creating a large scent slick from your baits that will draw in halibut from a wide area. If you are anchoring near a pinnacle or drop-off, anchor just on the shallow side of the drop-off so that the current or wind and waves will cause your scent trail to drift from shallow to deeper waters.
Reeling Technique
Reeling in heavy halibut gear can be time consuming and can wear on the body. I recommend the use of a scotty rod holder designed for reeling levelwind reels to stabilize the rod and take all the strain off your body. Using the rod holder as demonstrated in the video makes the recovery of 2lb halibut weight or even small halibut and rockfish easy.
We put the following video together to showcase jigging technique for lincod (also works for Halibut), and to feature our reeling technique.
Landing Halibut
Halibut is a powerful fish so you need to be careful. If you are going to release a large fish then you can bring it alongside, take some pictures, and then cut the hook free. If you have a skirt on there then try and drag the skirt up the leader before you cut the line this way you can save the skirt. If you cut off a circle hook that is in the corner of the halibut’s mouth this will have little impact on the fish, it is similar to an earring or other piercing.
If your halibut is small enough then you can easily grab the spreader bar and the 200lb leader and lift the fish into the boat. Be careful not to wrap the line around your hands though. Depending on your regulations if you can keep larger fish then you should also invest in a halibut spear. Spear the fish and allow it to remain outside the boat for a while.
Cut the gills on your halibut and this will quickly bleed the fish and ensure the highest quality meat.