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There’s a new state record for shortraker rockfish in Alaska, and at one point in time the fish in question was probably a world record. The catch was about as big as the species gets, and likely much older than the man who caught it. And as often happens, the angler who caught it was trying to catch a different species.

Keith DeGraff was fishing on July 28 with his fiancée Betsey Wilson and three friends in Prince William Sound, about 42 miles from Whittier, Alaska. The party fished from the Salmon Shark, a vessel rented from Whittier Marine Charters. On the first drift, two of the five anglers aboard had their fish.

“I decided to hit another bump, and sure enough, I hooked up,” he recalled. “I was immediately disappointed, because the way it was fighting, it felt like a halibut.” Not that there’s anything wrong with halibut, but they are readily available in relatively shallow water. DeGraff was fishing 1,000 feet deep, targeting black cod.

“When we got it to the surface, I saw it was the biggest rockfish I’d ever seen,” he said. “We hooted, we hollered, and then we headed on for other kinds of fishing.”

Typically with rockfish, you’ll see and feel what seem like head shakes from a halibut, DeGraff explained. “With a thousand feet of line out, it can be hard to tell,” he said. “This one pulled drag. I got it up about 75 feet and he took 40 feet. I’m fishing on pretty big gear, so for a fish to pull drag, I knew it was a decent size, which made me think it was a halibut between 30 and 35 pounds.”

One of 33 rockfish species in Alaska, shortraker dwell 500 to 1,500 feet deep among boulders along the state’s continental shelf. The previous state record was 39.1 pounds, caught in 2013, by Henry Liebman of Seattle. That fish was later estimated to be more than 60 years old. According to NOAA Fisheries, rockfish are thought to be the longest-lived fish in the northeast Pacific, maxing out at 120 years.

The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) world record shortraker rockfish weighed 44.1 pounds and was caught by Angelo Sciubba in 2017 near Glacier Bay National Park, several hundred miles southeast of Whittier.

DeGraff’s fish weighed an unofficial 48 pounds at the remote lodge where his party was staying. Because he wouldn’t have access to a certified scale for three days, DeGraff bled the fish. “I wasn’t going to taint the meat for the sake of a record,” he said.    

His rockfish would not have qualified for an IGFA record anyway, because the rod was in a holder, and the IGFA requires rods to be held. But when DeGraff finally weighed it on a certified scale, with an Alaska Department of Fish and Game representative present, he got a reading of 42.4 pounds. Then, he received provisional paperwork establishing his new state record.

DeGraff caught the rockfish on a custom-built rod with an Avet 2-speed 3/0 reel spooled with 80-pound braid. The terminal tackle was three pounds of weight and an 18/0 circle hook tipped with pink salmon and herring. His rig was homemade, but the rest of the party was catching fish on lead jigs with J hooks and skirts from Kodiak Custom Fishing Tackle. That lure has accounted for most of DeGraff’s fish.

DeGraff isn’t an Alaska native, but he comes from a fishy place: Amityville, Long Island, New York. “I grew up on the Great South Bay,” he said. “I had a 13-foot Boston Whaler that caught more fish per inch of boat than most boats out there other than commercials.” DeGraff studied environmental science with concentrations in marine and fisheries biology at Stony Brook University. He moved to Anchorage and has been a for-hire charter captain since 2016.

The post Surprise Rockfish Catch Likely A State Record appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

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While commonly taken by anglers in some regions, many are unfamiliar with the John Dory (Zeus faber). But the distinctive appearance of this strange fish make it tough to confuse with other species.

There are only a few species of dories in the world, by far the most common and important species being the John Dory (and, no, I could find no credible attribution for the odd name). It’s found around the coasts of Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and areas of Europe. John Dorys are laterally compressed — in shape rather like a lookdown — with deep bodies and large heads. Generally brownish, a very large black “eye spot” at the center of each side is a unique characteristic.

Particularly striking is the mouth, at least when fully extended. Then one realizes how huge it is — an oversized, long protrusible tube. That allows it to fin slowly near a fish and vacuum it in, as seen this video — but don’t blink at the wrong times or you’ll miss the moves.

Its super-narrow profile bring its eyes close enough together to give the John Dory the binocular vision that many fish (with broader heads) lack, allowing it to track and judge distance to prey just in front of it.

John Dory can be found from 15 or 20 feet out to several hundred, and while they do hang out at times over smooth bottoms, they tend to prefer the structure of reefs and rocky areas. Here, anglers can target them with small live baits or soft plastics. Just avoid rearing back to set hooks (if not using circle hooks) since their soft mouths tear rather easily.

Why do anglers target these fish? Simply, they’re prized as topnotch table fare. They’re important commercially in areas, as well. A good one is a few pounds; the IGFA all-tackle world record stands at 9 pounds, 1 ounce, from Mercury Bay, New Zealand, in 2016.

The post Fish Facts: A Hoover Vacuum With Fins appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

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“We jigged up this fish from around 270 feet of water,” wrote Capt. Fernando Almada (Catch 22 Fishing), based in San Carlos, Mexico, at the upper end of the Sea of Cortez. “We had been jigging up smaller fish, mostly snappers, and suddenly hooked this grouper. It fought hard at first, then became dead weight.”

Almada said they do encounter these fish, which are called baqueta locally, “but we usually see them smaller than this, often brown, not with the deep red color.”

“What species is it?” Almada asked Salt Water Sportsman.

So we consulted an expert on fishes of California and Baja, Dr. Milton Love.

He said: “That looks like a very large gulf coney (Epinephelus acanthistius), which, as you noted, are usually called baqueta in the Gulf of California and points south. ‘Acanthistius,’ by the way, means ‘sail spine’ in Greek, an apt name for that big dorsal fin.”

They’re seldom caught north of Baja, but are fairly common on both sides of the peninsula. “These are solitary, rocky reef dwellers,” Love said, which probably don’t travel over a large area. “Unfortunately, gulf coneys are very heavily fished wherever they are found and are clearly overfished in the Gulf of California.”

Almada said that they did not weigh the fish, but figured it topped 40 pounds, closer to 45. That, Capt. Alamada, means your anglers ate a likely IGFA all-tackle world record. For the gulf coney, the record stands at 32 pounds, 5 ounces, taken off Huatulco, Mexico, in October, 2012.

The post Fish Facts: A Red Grouper from the Sea of Cortez appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

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QUESTION: What is a jobfish, where can I catch one, and why would I want to?

ANSWER: If at first glance an angler failed to make the connection with the green jobfish (Aprion virescens) as a member of the family of snappers (Lutjanidae), it’s understandable. The green jobfish, the only species in its genus, is a lot longer and more streamlined than other snappers, and it just plain looks mean. It’s always seemed to me to be one of those game fish that just looks like it would be ready to put up its dukes, if it had any. The jobfish does have a large, powerful mouth with large, prominent teeth — the sort of maw a smart angler steers clear of.

Encountering jobbies is pretty easy, as long as you’re in the right neck of the woods. In a hyphenated word, that means the Indo-Pacific, a huge swath of ocean, east as far as Hawaii (where they’re known as uku). Cast stickbaits or poppers around the edges of shallow reefs and if any jobfish are around, you’ll see them chasing down and walloping your lure. That is, they’re as aggressive as they look. They’ve been known to track and attack high-speed marlin lures trolled too close to a reef.

And you’ll definitely know when you’ve hooked a green jobfish: They’re fast and powerful, exciting and challenging on appropriate tackle. While commonly a few pounds to 20 or so, the species grows much larger, to with the 44.5-pound all-tackle world record caught in 2003 around Iriomote Island near Tokyo.

As for edibility, the good news is they’re edible and, like most snappers, delicious. The bad news is that the species has definitely been found to carry ciguatoxin, the odorless and tasteless toxin that can’t be killed by cooking or freezing and that can bring a world of long-term hurt down on anyone who ingests it. It’s likely only a small percentage of green jobfish would present a risk, but many anglers avoid that and just release them.

The post Fish Facts: The Leanest and Meanest Snapper appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

Brent Brauner had dreamed for years of fly fishing the island of Santa Catalina, off the coast of Southern California. On this day in early October, he got his chance, having joined me aboard my 21 1⁄2-foot center-console for the 24-mile crossing from the mainland.

I anchored near a reef, a few hundred yards off the mountainous front side of the island, where a current ran to the east, bending fronds of kelp below the surface. Brauner’s first cast put the fly about 75 feet astern. He let his sinking line descend for a few seconds, and then began to strip. He didn’t get far. A big kelp bass inhaled the streamer. Brauner set the hook, and line whizzed off the deck and through the rod guides as the bass bored deep.

The fish, now into the backing and using the current in its favor, bent the 10-weight fly rod nearly double. Brauner responded with heavy pressure, and the fish gave way a few inches at a time. A moment later, I slipped the net under a beautiful, brassy and chunky kelp bass—known locally as calico bass. We took a few photos and released it quickly to ensure its survival.

Popular Trend

Fly fishing Catalina Island has grown significantly in popularity during the past few years, says Capt. Vaughn Podmore of Saltyfly Charters, who has been fly-fishing off Southern California for 20 years.

“Clear water, magnificent scenery, and a variety of powerful fish make Catalina one of the hottest fly-fishing destinations on the West Coast,” says Podmore, who guides more than 260 days a year. The most common fly targets at Catalina include Pacific barracuda, Pacific bonito and kelp bass, all of which can reach 10 pounds or more. But the biggest prize for fly anglers is the California yellowtail, a species of amberjack that reaches weights in excess of 30 pounds.

This holy grail is tough to entice, but even tougher once hooked, known for sustained runs, and retreating to dense kelp beds and jagged reefs. Fly anglers are lucky to land 50 percent of the yellowtails they hook.

In the Zone

Structure, such as rocky shores, ledges, reefs and kelp beds, provides the most consistent hunting grounds. “I really like rocky points and reefs in 60 to 90 feet of water,” says Glenn Ueda, who has fished Catalina all of his life, but switched almost exclusively to fly-fishing about 13 years ago.

“I apply the lessons I learned as a gear angler to fly-fishing at Catalina,” Ueda explains. “Most of the same factors apply, and that includes keying on structure.”

But there are differences. Fly-fishing scarcely lends itself to party boats with dozens of anglers on board, so it’s a game for small-boat charters and private boats.

Most fly-casters focus on the front (northerly) side of the island, in the lee of the wind and bumpy seas that complicate casting and presentation, often common conditions on the back of the island.

Current Affairs

Current is a critical factor when fishing Catalina Island. “You need the current flowing for good fishing, no matter what the species,” Podmore says. “When the current goes slack, so does the fishing.”

As current washes over and around deep reefs and kelp beds, fish feed higher in the water column, simplifying fly presentation. Current offers yet a third advantage to fly fishermen. “With the current running,” Podmore says, “you can roll out a 30-foot cast, and then strip your line into the water to let the current pull it out.”

Ueda prefers a mild current that lets his 10-weight line sink 30 to 40 feet. “Ideally, you want a 45- degree retrieve angle,” he says. With the rod under his arm, Ueda strips line hand-over-hand to move the fly with a fast, darting action, which is key to catching bass, bonito and yellowtail.

“It’s like working a yo-yo iron,” Ueda says, referencing a popular technique with metal jigs for yellowtail. “You can’t strip the fly too fast.”

Boat Positioning

Positioning the boat properly plays a pivotal role, Podmore says. “You want the boat anchored up-current from the reef or kelp bed. This enables you to fish your fly over or up-current of the structure.”

A growing number of anglers are turning to GPS-guided trolling motors with virtual anchoring to position the boat, Ueda says. “It’s quick and easy to position the boat and, unlike a conventional anchor, you can effectively fish a spot when wind opposes the current.”

Chum It Up

Chumming the fish into a feeding mood is integral. Most anglers use a combination of chunks and live chum. A steady stream of sardine or mackerel chunks attracts schools of bait such as anchovies and topsmelt. Once bait gathers behind the boat, game species are more likely to attack a fly that looks like the forage species.

Fly anglers also carry live chum purchased from bait vendors such as Long Beach Bait Co. in Long Beach Harbor, or San Pedro Bait Co. near Cabrillo Beach. “Small anchovies, about 4 inches long, are the best live chum,” Ueda says. “You can carry a lot of them in the livewell, and fish don’t get full from eating them.”

Sardines also work, but they are usually larger. “We can’t carry as many live sardines, so we wait until we spot bass or yellowtail boiling in the chunk line before we put them out,” he says.

Match the Hatch

Streamer patterns that match small to medium baitfish prove effective at Catalina. Ueda’s go-to is a 4- to 5-inch fly that mimics an anchovy, one of the primary forage species in Southern California. However, he’s always prepared with additional fly patterns resembling topsmelt and pelagic red crabs.

One of Podmore’s favorites is a 5- to 6-inch yak-hair sardine with a white belly, root-beer body, and an olive topside with a hint of black flash. “But don’t add too much flash because it will often put off the yellowtail,” he says.

A critical aspect to these patterns is stability during the retrieve. “They need to track straight without wobbling or yellowtail won’t eat them,” Podmore explains. Heavy, wide-gap hooks help stabilize the fly, but Podmore sometimes adds four loose wraps of lead wire on the bend of the hook to add some extra stability to the fly.

Battle Plan

Landing a big California yellowtail on fly tackle is not easy, but you can stack the odds in your favor with a 6- to 8-foot tippet of 25- to 30-pound-test fluorocarbon, Ueda says. He sets the drag on his reel at around 2 pounds, and also uses the short-pump fighting technique he learned as a gear angler for defeating big yellows, keeping the rod low while making short, quick pumps, and gaining line one turn of the handle at a time.

Ultimately, Santa Catalina Island has a way of captivating fly anglers, calling them to return and challenge the fish that inhabit its clear waters, swaying kelp beds and rocky reefs.

“With the wide variety of willing, hard-fighting species, Catalina Island is a fly-fishing dream,” Brauner says. “I can hardly wait for my next trip.”

Tackle Box

Rods: 9-foot, 8- to 10-weight, such as the Orvis Helios 3, Sage X, 1090-4 or equivalent

Reels: Saltwater class with reliable drag, such as the Galvan Torque or Hatch Finatic

Line: 8- to 10-weight progressive sinker, such as the Scientific Anglers Sonar Titan S3/S5/S7 or equivalent; 6 to 8 feet of 25- to 30-pound-test fluoro leader; 65-pound-test braid backing

Flies: 4- to 6-inch streamers to mimic anchovies, topsmelt and sardines; pelagic red crab patterns, attached with a loop knot

Planner

What: Kelp bass, Pacific barracuda, Pacific bonito, California yellowtail

When: April to November

Where: Santa Catalina Island structure, such as points, ledges, reefs and kelp beds

Who: Anglers with reliable craft from 20 feet up to make the run from the mainland. The following guides can take you to the island to fly-fish:

Saltyfly Charters

Capt. Vaughn Podmore

714-235-7715, saltyflyfishing.com

All Harbors Charter

Capt. Gerry Maheiu

949-279-6013, catchmorebass.com

Fishing with Decker

Capt. Jimmy Decker

949-280-4597, facebook.com/fishingwithdecker

The post Fly-Fishing Santa Catalina Island, California appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

A chrome-blue torpedo of a tuna blows out from under the hull of the 55-foot Rampage, snatches the struggling anchovy, and dissolves into the depths. Monofilament peels off the reel with just enough drag to check backlash and streams into the blue.

I hang on and try to count slowly to 10. It’s almost impossible for a king salmon fanatic to wait for the recommended tuna 10-count while watching line fly off the reel. Count it down, engage the drag, and hang on. No need to set the hook, just hold on tight, raise the rod tip, and the albacore does the rest. But we’re learning, and judging by the upshot of albacore’s popularity in Oregon and Washington, Northwest anglers are loving what we’re learning.

It gets crazy when the tuna bite blows up and the boat parks in a massive school of torpedo-shaped eating machines that have evolved to swim continuously at bewildering speeds. As fresh anchovies hit the water, the tuna erupt, rods slam down, anglers collide, gaffs yank fish aboard, and the deck runs red. When skipper Randy Ratliff slips “Bad Moon Rising” into the sound system and cranks it up, it’s crazy on the back deck—almost as crazy as catching hot-blooded subtropical predators in cold North Pacific salmon waters.

The swath of the 60- to 65-degree California Current knifes through 50- to 55-degree Pacific waters off the coasts of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia from mid-July until the storms of October, carrying schools of these pelagic predators with their 80-degree body temperatures on an annual invasion into iconic salmon waters.

Every trip is first a hunt for the meandering California Current. You know when you get there, and then it’s time to locate the migrating tuna.

The edge of the current is marked by a sharp color change; the cold dark green of the North Pacific changes to a warmer aqua blue. You’re likely to spot dolphins, turtles, sunfish, mackerel, and other fish rarely seen north of California, such as opah, dorado, marlin, and various jacks and tunas—mostly albacore and some bluefins. Included are huge schools of saury, the top forage for albacore, along with anchovies. Even the air has a different smell.

Albacore swim some 50 miles a day, and boats move fast, looking for specific water temperatures, watching for leapers, and zeroing in on commercial tuna boats.

We started this hunt the evening before, crossing the bar out of Westport, Washington, on a southeast course, looking for the California Current and the 62.5-degree water that Ratliff calls “perfect for albacore.” We found it in the dark, 32 miles out, slept until pre-dawn, then strung stout 6½-foot, 15- to 40-pound trolling rods, and pulled cedar plugs, skirted hex heads and plastic squid in the wake at 5 to 7 mph.

Tuna can be on the surface or as deep as 1,200 feet, depending on bait and water temperatures. A tuna 70 feet deep will come up for a skittering cedar plug, Ratliff says, and stay to gorge on chum.

We troll until we locate the roaming schools, throw anchovies to hold them at the boat, and then fish live, unweighted anchovies. Lively baits are a must. Dead baits get sharked, and there are plenty of sharks—blues, makos, threshers, and even great whites.

“Don’t lose that fish,” Ratliff barks. “If it gets off and goes down, it’ll take the school with it.” He kicks Rampage into neutral and broaches to a wallowing stop. Anchovies go overboard by the handful to hold the school under the boat. Short-shank No. 2 bait hooks are pushed into live anchovies and free-spooled on the windward side. Baits panic and pull line off the spool. If your bait doesn’t pull out line, shake off the anchovy and get a fresh one.

The first baited rods pound down, and instructions boom off the bridge. “Stay over your fish. If it runs to the side, run with it. Follow it. If it gets out too far, it’ll tangle other lines and fight forever, or it’ll dive under and cut you off on the prop. Stay over it, and it’ll go into those tight tuna turns that will wear it out. Just clamp down and keep it under you. Reel, reel!”

Down in the soft-blue water, on its side with pectoral fins locked in a powerful glide and moving in a tight spiral, my albacore very much resembles a dragonfly. That’s what Japanese fishermen sometimes call them, dragonflies, and I can see why. Their pectorals are half as long as the body, and look more like glider wings than fins.

Ratliff’s two-day trips have averaged around 18 albacore per person. The state average in Washington is more than eight per angler per trip, and with four fillets (two loins and two belly strips) per fish, most anglers are happy with half that. Three of the two-day trips I’ve been on, we’ve stopped fishing after one day because the boat’s 28-degree hold was full of iced albacore. Last year, success rose and plummeted on the whims of changing water temperatures and unseasonable storms. Whether great or so-so, we always come back with tuna, enough for our table, the extended family and good neighbors.

In a typical summer, twice as many albacore are caught off Washington than off Oregon or BC. The most productive albacore port—with the largest charter and private boat fleets in the Northwest—is Westport, Washington. There is also plenty of tuna action off Ilwaco and Neah Bay in Washington, and along the Oregon coast, off Newport, Charleston, Garibaldi, Depoe Bay, Bandon and Port Orford. In BC, late-summer anglers run primarily from Tofino, Ucluelet and Winter Harbor.

Read Next: Albacore Tuna Fishing in the Pacific Northwest

Albacore may never replace iconic salmon in the hearts of Northwest fishermen, but they are filling memory banks and freezers on a 900-mile front from Northern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, through Washington and Oregon, and down to Brookings on the California border.

SWS Planner

What: Albacore. The average weight of a summer albacore ranges from the high teens to 35 pounds, but Washington’s state record is 52 pounds. Washington and British Columbia have no limit on albacore, although Washington does require a fishing license. Oregon allows a generous 25 fish per day, with no license required.

Where: California to British Columbia, more consistent from Oregon to the north.

When: July through October. The action starts in late June or early July off the southern Oregon coast, then moves northward, reaching Winter Harbor at the north end of Vancouver Island in August. Coastwide, August and September always offer the hottest albacore action, but October is when the biggest fish are caught.

Who: Boating anglers aboard seaworthy 22-foot or larger boats (multiple motors highly recommended) capable of 60- to 200-mile round-trip runs.

Washington

Westport

Westport Charterboat Association, charterwestport.com

Deep Sea Charters Inc., 360-268-9300 or 800-562-0151, deepseacharters.net

Ilwaco

Ilwaco Charter Association, visitlongbeachpeninsula.com

Pacific Salmon Charters, 800-831-2695, pacificsalmoncharters@hotmail.com

Coho Charters, 360-642-3333, coho@willapabay.org

Seabreeze Charters, 800-204-9125, washingtoncoastsportfishing.com

Oregon

Newport

Yaquina Bay Charters, 866-465-6801 or 541-265-6800, fishing@yaquinabaycharters.com

Newport Marina Store & Charters, 541-867-4470, nmscharters.com/map-contact

Garibaldi

Oregon Tuna Charters, 360-600-8257, oregontunacharters.com

Garabaldi Charters, garibaldicharters.com

D&D Charters, 503-322-0007, garibaldicharters.com

SWS Tackle Box

Rods: For live-baiting, 6- to 7-foot rated for 20- to 40-pound line; for trolling/jigging, 7- to 7 1⁄2-foot rated for 40-pound braid or mono

Reels: Penn FTH 30, Daiwa Sealine X40SHA or equivalent

Line: 20- to 40-pound pink monofilament

Lures: Cedar plugs, swimbaits, hex-head squid, 4-ounce jigs, 1 1⁄2-ounce leadheads

The post Albacore Tuna Fishing appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

Many anglers associate California halibut fishing with drifting or slow-trolling over mud and sand flats. Yet some of the most consistent fishing takes place adjacent to structure such as wrecks, outcroppings, jetties, breakwaters and artificial reefs. In my early years of fishing, we’d hook one or two halibut while fishing rocky areas and wrecks for calico bass or rockfish, and the fish we caught were often hefty 20- to 30-pounders. Then it dawned on me that California halibut like structure as much as bass and rockfish.

Depth seems irrelevant, as I have caught halibut on structure in 20- to 200-foot depths. One constant is the manner in which these fish orient to structure. California halibut look for horizontal surfaces, usually the seabed next to the structure. However, I have also caught halibut off the decks of wrecks as well as on low-relief rock slabs. Check out these other halibut fishing tips that might help you land more fish.

Work the Edges of Structure for Halibut

If you’re fishing for halibut, work the edges of a wreck, sea wall, kelp bed, or shoreline cobble that melds to sand. And don’t discount inside edges and small sand patches in rocky bottom.

I have caught big halibut using my fish finder to locate smooth patches no more than 20 feet wide dotting a reefy area. Be prepared for a bite as soon as you drop a bait or lure on these patches.

Drift-fishing the edges often proves effective, but consider anchoring to fish an edge, repositioning to work the entire area. Electric trolling motors also help you present baits and lures with pinpoint accuracy.

Current Is Key When Halibut Fishing

While working the edges of shoreline spots and kelp beds, a flood tide generates the best current, transporting forage such as baitfish and squid. On wrecks, rock piles and reefs in open water, the up-current side of the structure often produces best.

Find a point such as the tip of a wreck or the end of a jetty with current flowing around it and you’ve found the alpha position for ambush predators such as halibut. This is where you will often catch the biggest ones, the so-called barn doors.

Don’t hesitate to work all sides of a structure spot, as currents at greater depths sometimes differ from those higher in the water column. If you are fishing an upright wreck that retains portions of its deck, work a bait across it. Halibut like to play king of the mountain on structure.

Fishing Live-Bait for Halibut

Halibut are opportunistic feeders, preying on anchovies, grunion, mackerel, lizardfish, sardines and white croaker, as well as opalescent squid.

Commonly available live baits include anchovies and sardines sold off barges and docks in Southern California harbors at Santa Barbara, Ventura, the Channel Islands, Marina del Rey, King Harbor, San Pedro, Long Beach, Newport Beach, Dana Point, Oceanside, Mission Bay and San Diego. Live squid is sometimes available as well.

Pacific mackerel (known as “greenies”), jack mackerel (known as “Spanish”) and topsmelt are easily caught with Sabiki rigs. Five- to 8-inch baits work best.

Keep Your Lure or Live Bait Moving to Catch Halibut

It’s important to keep any bait moving. California halibut respond to visual cues like a house cat does to yarn. Drift-fishing meets this criterion, but lacking current, bumping the boat in and out of gear or using an electric trolling motor helps keep the bait active.

When fishing an anchor, twitch the bait with the rod to interest a halibut. The principle to keep in mind: Put the bait close to stationary fish to get bit. While live bait is the top producer, halibut also hit lures such as curly-tail grubs and swimbaits fished on lead-heads. Work these along the bottom, but move them faster than you might twitch a livey.

Reel Halibut in Slowly

A big California halibut usually uncorks one run after it’s hooked, but that quickly turns to solid weight with an occasional head shake. The best technique is to simply put slow turns on the reel to ease the fish upward. If you apply too much pressure, the fish responds with a wild fight, which can dislodge the hook or break the leader. Pumping the fish leads to excessive head shaking and teeth sawing through the leader.

As the fish approaches the surface, back off on the drag because the halibut still has plenty of energy and might stage one last run. Often, however, the fish simply planes to the surface and the waiting gaff.

How Big Are California Halibut?

The California halibut (distinct from the Pacific halibut, which exceeds 100 pounds and can reach 500 pounds, in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska) hit trophy size at about 25 pounds. The IGFA all-tackle world record is 67 pounds, 5 ounces, caught at Santa Rosa Island off the Southern California coast.

Sinker-Slider Rig (Top) and Carolina Rig (Bottom)

Best Bait Rigs for Halibut

Sliding-sinker halibut rigs that let halibut run with the bait without sensing any weight are essential for live-baiting success. Use a conventional reel in free-spool or a spinning reel with the bail open to feed line to the fish for five to 10 seconds before setting the hook. Big halibut inhale the bait right away, but smaller ones often grab it by the tail and race away, so give them time to eat the bait fully.

A simple variation on the Carolina rig, an egg sinker on the main line ahead of a small swivel, with a 2- to 3-foot leader connected to a J-hook such as a 1/0 to 3/0 Owner Gorilla Light, is a very effective halibut rig.

And when you need more weight than 3 ounces, opt for the sinker-slider setup. It employs a plastic sinker slider (Eagle Claw Sinker Slide or Sea Striker Quick Slide) on the main line, to which you attach a bank or torpedo sinker of desired weight.This rig works well in deep water and to keep large sardines, mackerel, and other strong, frisky baits on the bottom.

Most anglers use 15- to 25-pound fluorocarbon leader with either rig, since halibut have sharp teeth and tend to shake their heads violently to dislodge the hook.

California Halibut Season

When is the best time for halibut fishing in California? You might be surprised to find that there really isn’t a bad time to go halibut fishing:

• Excellent: April, May, October and November
• Great: January and February Good: March, June, July, August, September and December

California Halibut Fishing Information

• What: California halibut
• Where: Point Conception to the Mexican border, around wrecks, reefs, jetties and hard-bottom areas
• When: Spring and fall
• Who: Boating anglers with reliable craft from 20 feet up. A number of Southern California charters and guide services can show you the tricks to successful halibut fishing.

California Halibut Fishing Tackle

• Rods: 7- to 8-foot rated for 15- to 25-pound line
• Reels: Medium-size star-drag conventional and spinning
• Line: 20- to 30-pound mono or 50- to 65-pound braid
• Terminal Rigs: Carolina rig or sinker-slider setup with 2 to 3 feet of 15- to 25-pound fluorocarbon leader

The post Southern California Halibut Fishing Tips appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

Ilwaco, Washington, sits about as far from everything as you can get at the southwestern tip of Washington state. Yet this small fishing village lies as close as you can get to the mouth of the Columbia River, tucked into the lee of Cape Disappointment. That landmark’s moniker might reflect the sentiments of Lewis and Clark when they ended their epic journey here in 1805, but it hardly reflects the productive fishing that awaits every summer when albacore tuna appear offshore on their annual migratory loop around the North Pacific.Acres of Tuna

Albacore tuna, sometimes referred to as longfin tuna, represent a major forage, commercial and sport fish, in the Pacific. These fish are prolific — perhaps even more so than dolphin.They maintain healthy populations, and when they appear nearshore, anglers count their catch by the ­dozens, and the size of the offshore schools in acres.

I traveled to Ilwaco to rendezvous with these fish during the first leg of the Oregon Tuna Classic, an annual two-tournament series — one out of Ilwaco, on the Washington side of the Columbia, and the second out of Garibaldi, Oregon. After a three-hour drive from Portland, I met up with the Bad to the Bone fishing team, headed by Del ­Stephens, a 25-year albacore veteran and acknowledged expert, to fish the one-day tournament aboard Stephen Seal’s 56-foot Riviera Booyaa.

Morning found us heading out the mouth of the river, over the infamous Columbia River Bar. This 3-mile-wide-by-6-mile-long stretch of river-meets-ocean is one of the most treacherous river mouths in the world. The flat-water transit that morning offered little in the way of excitement, yet everyone routinely buckles on life jackets until safely over the bar. This inlet goes from sedate to lethal in a matter of minutes with a switch of the wind. The OTC schedules for days with incoming tides morning and afternoon, so tournament boats time their crossing to coincide with the flood, the only reasonable time to be on a boat where the 4- to 7-knot river current meets the Pacific swells running onto the shifting shoals at the river mouth. Paying attention to the periodic Coast Guard Bar Report, they’ll scrub the day’s fishing when waves on the bar top 12 feet.

Play the Spread

Once into the open Pacific we headed southwest, and soon Stephens, mate Anthony Warren, and anglers Meagan Waltosz and Weddy Stephens slipped into their bibs, deployed the trolling spread, and took up their ­well-practiced stations in the cockpit.

Strategy on early and midsummer fish, Stephens explained, hinges on ­trolling to locate the bait and the ­albacore. A typical setup employs Archer Spreader Bars on the long riggers with a Zuker Zucchini Broomtail trailing, Eat Me Lures Mexican Flags inside on the short riggers, and pink-and-white Ballyhood Albacore Allstars on the flat lines off the transom corners.

Canyon Run

Astoria Canyon is the key to finding the bait and the fish. This 75-mile-long crack in the Continental Shelf heads up in just over 350 feet of water, 11 miles south of the Columbia Bar, and runs west, dropping into the abyss with a relief of 3,000 feet. This complex underwater topography draws the bait, and the schools of 15- to 30-pound albacore that follow.

Once we arrived in the vicinity of the canyon, we had customers. With a fish peeling line off a long rigger rod, Seal backed straight down toward the fish, leaving the lures in the water to sink for fish holding deep, while the crew chummed off the back with anchovies. Once the lures had time to sink, Stephens dropped a flutter jig, the “iron” as they call it here, looking to pick up fish holding at 20 to 100 feet down, and the rest of the crew retrieved the trolling lures, rigged live anchovies, and free-lined them to drift with the current. And the tuna started picking them off, one by one.

Tuned Team

The well-practiced crew moved in concert, fighting fish, moving around the cockpit, gaffing them boat-side, and depositing them in the bleed barrel fastened to the transom platform. With half a dozen tuna in the barrel, the bite tapered off.

“I was hoping for a conversion to a wide-open bite,” Stephens explained. The conversion is key to putting a lot of fish in the boat in short order. Creating a feeding frenzy in the school, a wide-open bite typically allows the team to boat from 30 to 60 fish before it dissipates. It’s the key to ­winning numbers in a tournament, or simply a great day otherwise.

Once the school moved off and the anchovies drifted unmolested, we went back on the troll, looking to repeat the action. Tuna in the barrel went onto ice, the crew hosed each other down (albacore fishing can be a bloody ­business), and we set out the spread again to find more fish.

Summer Strategy

Early in the season, trolling is the most effective way to connect with the newly arrived albacore schools. Later in the year — and the fish hang around usually through mid-October — they get more selective and more skittish, Stephens explains, and he moves on to late-season tactics. He swaps out the skirted trolling lures for lead-headed plastic swimbaits, trolled at 3 knots about 125 feet back. Or as an ­alternative strategy, he “runs and guns,” looking for jumping fish or birds. With late-season fish, it’s critical to slide the boat in next to the school, shut down, chum lightly, and cast into the school while working the iron deep.

At times like this, when relying on light chum and jigging to convert the wary schools to a wide-open bite, the team often opts to fish from Stephens’ 33-foot center-console Hydra Sport, Tuna Dog. With lower freeboard and no upper structure to catch the wind, the smaller boat drifts slower. Even a light breeze can push a larger boat fast enough to make vertical jigging more difficult and a lot less effective.

Over a couple of days of fishing, we averaged a few dozen fish a day — not as fast and frantic as Team Bad to the Bone had hoped, but for this East Coast-based angler, that’s a lot of tuna action.

Abundant Albacore

Summer school albacore run up to 30 pounds. A big fish is 35 pounds. The fish in this size class, three- to four-year-olds, have not yet reached spawning age. Grown adults can reach 80 pounds. The voracious school-size albacore, lacking swim bladders, must be constantly on the move, and to fuel their high metabolisms, reportedly consume up to 25 percent of their own weight every day in squid, midwater shrimp, saury, blue lanternfish, and anchovies. The schools show up off Oregon and Washington in mid-June; Fourth of July is the customary season kickoff, and some years they’ll remain until Halloween.

About the OTC

The all-volunteer nonprofit Oregon Tuna Classic donates all fish caught to the Oregon Food Bank. Celebrating its 10th year in 2014, the OTC has donated more than a million pounds of albacore to the cause.

This year the Oregon Tuna Classic divided into the Deep Canyon Challenge in Ilwaco, Washington, on Aug. 1 and 2, and the Oregon Tuna Classic on Aug. 22 and 23 in Garibaldi, Oregon. Each event draws up to 900 participants from nearby states. For more information, go to oregontunaclassic.org.

The post Albacore Tuna Fishing in the Pacific Northwest appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

Last season, anglers working the waters off the Channel Islands landed an extraordinary number of immense California halibut, capped by a new International Game Fish Association all-tackle world record for this species: a breathtaking 67.5-pounder caught by Frank Rivera near Santa Rosa Island in July. It smashed the previous all-tackle record by nearly 9 pounds.

Yet that fish was just one among hundreds of halibut over 30 pounds caught off the Channel Islands from May through August last year, says Joe Villareal, captain of the Mirage, based in Channel Islands Harbor, in Oxnard.

“Very seldom did we see halibut less than 20 pounds,” he says. “Last year we caught 135 halibut. Most were over 25, and a lot were over 40 pounds. We are in a good cycle.”

Mike Thompson, manager of Ventura Sportfishing, in Ventura Harbor, is in full agreement. He reports that his landing posted exceptional numbers of California halibut well above the customary size from May through July.

Thompson himself had his best day ever on halibut last June, landing a limit of five fish, none of which were under 30 pounds. There were 67 halibut caught on the boat the same day. Thompson’s personal best was 42 pounds.

“Of course, last year, anglers were scoffing at 40-pounders,” he points out. “Anything less than 50 pounds hardly raised an eyebrow.”

Will lightning strike twice in 2012? Pat Cavanaugh, captain of the Pacific Dawn, says the answer is yes — the big-’but phenomenon has been building for years, and he expects it to continue. He credits it to a perfect storm of two colliding annual migrations: one of halibut and another of market (opalescent) squid.

“There have been so many spawning squid the past few springs,” says Cavanaugh. “The halibut have been showing up at the islands about the same time to spawn, and with so much easy food around, they also take the opportunity to bulk up. They grow bigger each year.
“The best part is that this is taking place off two of the islands at once, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa.”

Finding the Fish

Interestingly, most boats don’t target halibut on the squid grounds, at least not initially. “Most of the early-season halibut we catch are incidental to white seabass fishing,” says Cava-naugh. However, once the halibut fishing becomes consistent, both passenger and private boats begin focusing on them.

“We find halibut feeding in the same areas as white seabass, on the squid grounds, sand- and mud-bottom spawning areas in 70 to 110 feet of water off the islands,” Cavanaugh reveals. Some of the traditional squid spawning areas include Eagles Nest, on the southeast corner of Santa Rosa, and Christys Bay, on the west end of Santa Cruz.

However, the all-time hot spot for big California halibut (not to be confused with the Pacific halibut common to Alaska waters) is definitely the squid grounds at Bechers Bay, on the northeast corner of Santa Rosa Island, says Villareal. “This is where Frank Rivera caught the world record last year,” says the Mirage captain. “And this is where the previous two world records were caught too.”

To find productive squid grounds, skippers like Villareal and Cavanaugh use fish finders to locate “nests” of squid eggs at night. These egg beds tend to show up as light-blue fuzz on the screen. Schools of squid will also show up on fish-finder displays, often in light blue.

Once a skipper is over a productive squid nest, he’ll drop anchor. Turning on bright lights at night will often bring the squid to surface, where the crew can capture them with brail nets and crowder nets.

While fishing often starts before daylight, halibut don’t bite often in the dark. However, as gray light begins to illuminate the surface of the ocean and the landscape of the islands, some of the best halibut fishing can occur, though moving water also plays into the equation. Halibut are definitely tide biters, and the best action happens when there is a decent current sweeping across the squid grounds.

Halibut Techniques

While a fair number of halibut are caught by anglers seeking white seabass in deep water, different tactics are more productive when targeting halibut, says Thompson.

“When the boat is anchored, you can’t cover much ground fishing vertically with a dropper,” he explains. “So I like a white 1½- to 2-ounce Spro or High Tide B-52 bucktail or banana-jig head with a live squid.

“I make long casts around the boat — fan-casting from the corners — and work the jig-and-squid rig back, hopping it along the bottom. Most often, the bite occurs as the squid is falling after you hop it.”

Pacific Dawn skipper Cavanaugh agrees on this technique, which he calls pumping the bait back to the boat, but emphasizes the need to make long casts. He also recommends a slightly different lead-head setup. “Fish with a 2½-ounce lead-head, and pin on two live squid,” he advises.

Drift-Fishing

When the focus switches to halibut, some skippers like to drift-fish to cover more ground. While halibut will aggressively chase prey at times, they more often lie in ambush on the bottom, moving no more than a body length to intercept and inhale a bait. Drifting puts the bait in front of more halibut. At the height of the season, about half of the fish are caught while drift-fishing, says Thompson.

While Cavanaugh often drifts in shallower water — around 24 feet deep — close to the islands, drifting the squid grounds in deeper water usually produces bigger fish. “We will catch fish up to about 25 pounds close to the beach, but we find halibut twice that size out deeper,” he says.

Fighting a Flatty

Most California halibut are hooked over featureless bottom, and the fish themselves don’t make long runs, though they are known to uncork short bursts of speed during a fight.

More characteristically, they may suck themselves into the sand after inhaling the bait or use the current against their broad flanks to resist capture. They can also swim backward and may shake their gaping, toothy maw violently.

Fighting a flatty is a balancing act between maintaining even pressure and not crowding the fish too much, says Cavanaugh. Use a relatively light drag to let the halibut make a run if it wants to. Don’t pump. It will make the fish want to shake its head, and with so many sharp teeth, it can saw through the line.

If you do it right, the fish won’t even realize it is near the surface and may even come up vertically and virtually motionless. Don’t lift the fish above the surface, or it may panic and start to thrash about. This is why a loose drag is critical. As the fish nears the surface, have crew standing by with a gaff to take the fish. Once it’s aboard, laying it white side up will help keep it from getting too wild.

Southern California anglers have their fingers crossed for another record-setting season on halibut in the waters off the Channel Islands. Focus on the squid grounds, and you might be successful on even bigger ’buts this year.

Trip Planner

What: Big California halibut.

When: May through July.

Where: Squid spawning grounds off Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel islands (outside the marine protected areas).

Cavanaugh and Thompson prefer different setups. Thompson likes an 8-foot Calstar 196-8 rod with light monofilament line, 15- to 20-pound-test. Cavanaugh, on the other hand, recommends a 9- to 10-foot rod with 50-pound braided line. A small lever-drag reel such as the Avet SX works well, says Thompson.

Both agree that the bite from a halibut is subtle, and that’s Cavanaugh’s rationale for using braided line. “You can feel the fish slurp down a squid even at the end of a long cast,” he explains. Thompson says experience has taught him to recognize the slight bump of a halibut bite even when he’s fishing with monofilament.

Rods: 8- to 10-foot medium-action rods.

Reels: Lever-drag reels, such as the Avet SX or Okuma Cedros 10S.

Lines: 50-pound-test coated braid or 15- to 20-pound-test monofilament.

Baits and Rigs: Live or fresh-dead opalescent squid, fished one or two at a time on a hook.

Terminal Rigs: Lead-heads, 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 ounces, and dropper loops with 6/0 to 8/0 Owner Aki Twist hooks and 5- to 10-ounce torpedo sinkers.

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