Boiler big’un; monsters
lurk among the rocks. PHOTO: PAUL LEBOWITZ
Pinned! A halibut secured
on a diver’s game clip. PHOTO: ALLEN BUSHNELL
The fewer snags in the area, the shorter the dropper can be. A three- to four-foot leader terminating in a rat-trap rig can hold a whole bait, though some anglers prefer using a hoochie lure behind a dodger or small flasher. The trick to this technique is to adjust your line and your speed so the sinker hits the bot- tom once every five to seven dips of the rod. With your reel in gear, keep up your speed and the dips will coincide with your paddle strokes. It works best if the rod is parallel to the water rather than sitting upright in a rod holder. The strike, when it comes, is unmis- takable. To set the hook, paddle a few strokes after the bite. —ALLEN BUSHNELL
LANDING KAYAK HALIBUT
When you reel a California or Pacific halibut yak-side, the fight is only starting. Halibut are infamous for on-deck ballistics. Skippers in the Northwest often dispatch big flatties with a firearm before hoisting them aboard. On a kayak, even a small halibut can wreak havoc and cause injury. Even worse, it might get away. For this reason, halibut pros carry two diver’s game clips: one for holding and trans- porting catches, and the other secures the fish from the gaff. Both are leashed to the boat. Al- ways keep the stringer open and in easy reach.
When a halibut is gaffed, it’s usually stunned for a moment. Hold the fish vertically and quickly clip the stinger through the gill and out the mouth. Grip the stringer to control the fish while removing hooks and the gaff. Then you are clear to dispatch the fish with your bonker or a dive knife. –ALLEN BUSHNELL
BAIT THE HARD WAY
Before you catch that trophy yellowtail or halibut, you need to corral something much humbler: live bait. Greenback mackerel or “greenies,” their plainer cousins the jack mackerel or Spanish, and for halibut hunt- ers, skinny, yellow-chinned smelt are on the menu. Anglers using live bait can expect to hook up five to 10 times more frequently than those stalwarts who put their faith in a trolling plug or iron.
The key is to quickly find and catch all the
live bait you need for your day, so you can get down to the real business. To pull baits in by twos and threes, only a sabiki rig will suffice. Sabikis are nasty, multi-hook buggers prone to tangle and bite. For better control, fish sabikis from a long stick or remove a hook or two to make the rig safer and more manageable. At- tach a torpedo sinker that weighs at least two ounces—enough weight to pull the rig straight
and keep the hooks untangled. Use the small- est hooks possible; match no. 14, 12 or 10 hooks to the size of the bait.
Look for bait schools under pier lights, and key on visual cues such as nervous water. Seek good marks on your fishfinder. If these fail, try bouncing the rig blindly along the kelp line or even troll the sabiki or try casting and retrieving it. In a pinch, kayak anglers have been known to chum with cat food or add tiny bits of squid to their sabiki hooks. Remember, sometimes all it takes to entice a trophy is one golden swimmer. –PAUL LEBOWITZ
2012 SKILLS GUIDE
www.kayakanglermag.com… 47
Sabiki rig bait
catchers, the keys to unlocking a
West Coast trophy. PHOTO: PAUL LEBOWITZ
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