How to catch Pacific halibut

Pacific halibut feed in 38–55°F water and bite best at 42–50°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 5 waters.

70 pts · trophy at 60"Feeds 38–55°FBest 42–50°FIn season nowLedge / hard bottomChannel edgeArtificial reefWreck

About

The barn door: a flatfish that grows past 300 pounds on the gravel banks from northern California to the Bering Sea. Homer and Sitka are built on it. Seasons are quota-driven and set every year.

How to fish it

Anchor or drift the gravel bars and edges at 100–400 ft and fish the slack tide — in Alaska's big tides the current shuts it off between. Keep the bait on the bottom.

What it eats

herring on a circle hookoctopus and salmon belliesbig lead-head jigs

Live bait for it

SquidStrips on a bottom rig for snapper, grunts and porgies; whole on a deep-drop rig.

HerringCut-plug for salmon: head off at an angle, guts out, two hooks in tandem so it spins slow behind a flasher or a banana weight. Whole and live on a circle hook for stripers where the herring run.