Introduction:

A few years back I began fishing halibut with lures from the surf. Initially my results were pretty poor and I would more often than not leave the beach having caught nothing. My main problem early on was my unwillingness to accept the surf environment for what it is. Usually I found myself throwing large lures with heavy line, the idea being that halibut were out in deeper water and to reach them I needed to cast as far as possible. Often I found myself thinking about my next cast before I had even retrieved the lure half way back to the beach. This inexperience in the surf environment and a lack of observation lead me to believe that consistently catching halibut from the surf was an unlikely prospect. Through trial and error and much observation, my opinion began to change.

Observation came in two forms. First, I needed to build confidence that halibut were in tight to the beach and in good numbers. By wading around in the surf with rod in hand and stirring up countless short and many legal fish with my feet, it quickly became apparent that halibut did love the shallow environment around beaches with calmer surf. I also observed on several occasions halibut getting airborne above the surface of the water while chasing bait no more than 50 feet from the beach. I knew then that halibut were in close to the beach and aggressively feeding. Second, I wanted to observe one of the few fishermen I had heard about who reportedly caught halibut consistently from the beach. Luck was on my side one January morning while fishing the beach around the Santa Barbara Harbor. I ran into a gentleman who already had two legal halibut on his stringer and caught a third while I watched him fish. He was gracious enough to spend a few minutes showing me his tackle and discussing why it works. Not surprising was that he was using swimbaits. What did surprise me, however, was that he was using very small swimbaits with lightweight leadheads on only 6# line. As he explained it, day in and day out, subtlety is the key to catching halibut in the surf. This one phrase was the key that opened the door to productive halibut fishing for me. I have built upon this knowledge with personal experience over the last few years and have outlined below the tackle, techniques, and types of areas I have had success with.

Tackle:

Rods - Graphite rods in the 7'-8' range with a rating from 6-15 pound line have proven best for me. I use both spinning and casting outfits and find they work equally well.

Reels - Whether spinning or bait casting, I look for quality reels. Constant casting and retrieving is not only nicer with smooth tackle, but the quality gear with proper care will hold up much longer than cheaper tackle. Also, quality reels generally have smoother drags than their less expensive counterparts. When a legal halibut decides to make a short, powerful surge on 6# line, not enough can be said about a smooth drag. One note on spinning reels; I generally purchase reels that are larger than most would use with 6# line. An example would be a 4000 size Shimano, or 2500 size Daiwa. The larger line capacity on these reels allows me to strip off line that may get frayed during the course of a fishing day and still have plenty of line to fish with. Larger line capacity is also nice when you hook that unexpected prize from the beach. These reels also throw larger loops preventing overrun, which is a major cause of the mysterious spinning reel "backlash".

Line - I like a low stretch quality line such as Maxima or P-line. 6# is my usual choice, but I will sometime use 8# on my casting outfits when fishing areas with scattered rocks and kelp. If you choose spinning tackle, I would recommend getting your reels spooled up at a tackle store as the line winding machine places line directly onto the spool, preventing twists.

Lures - Swimbaits in the 3" size are my first choice. A small number of manufacturers make quality swimbaits in this size, and I have found that Big Hammer is tops with regards to action and colors. During the summer months when the fish are often more aggressive, I may switch to 4" baits and up to 12# line. In general, however, I find that 3" baits work best for me under the broadest range of conditions. I tend to fish brighter baits in the Pepper Trout, Keylime, Clear Red and Silver Sardine patterns in cleaner water, switching to darker browns and greens such as 'Chovy or Bleeding Olive Herring when the water is off-color or murky. 3" baits are rigged on 1/8, 3/16 or ¼ oz. Assalt Ball or Darter jig heads and the 4" baits on ¼ to 3/8 oz. Hammerhead jig heads. I really like comparatively lightweight heads for 3" and 4" swimbaits as it allows the lure to stay off the bottom during the retrieve. The result is a more natural presentation of the swimbait and I saw my catch improve dramatically when I scaled down on the weight of the jig heads.

Techniques & Locations:

Retrieves - Many days, the type of retrieve doesn't seem to matter much. Some people like the slow, steady retrieve. Others like a crank, crank, crank, pause or a crank, crank, twitch type of retrieve. What I have found is that when fish aren't very aggressive, the slow, steady retrieve produces best. When there is a lot of bait in the water the crank, crank, twitch (a pronounced twitch may work best) does well. It may be that the pronounced twitch makes the lure really stand out from the rest of the bait in the water, or makes the lure dart like a wounded baitfish. When using this retrieve, I have found that spinning gear works better for me. I would advise you to vary your retrieve if you are not catching fish, yet know they are in the area.

Staying Dry or Getting Wet - When fishing in the surf, I split my time between wading out to about my waist and wading to about mid-calf. If I haven't fished a particular beach in awhile or am fishing a new beach, I usually just wear swim trunks and a sweatshirt and wade to mid-calf. I find that this allows me to work a larger section of beach in an effort to locate fish. If I'm familiar with a beach and have fished it (and successfully located fish) recently, I often will wear a light wetsuit and fish out a little deeper. This allows me to fish particular spots from various angles, often casting parallel to the beach. One thing that I have to be careful of when wading out to my waist is to not hastily bypass the 2' deep areas. I have scared away a few of the largest halibut I have ever seen in the surf while quickly walking through the shallows to get out to the 3'-4' depths.

Types of Areas - My favorite type of area to fish is a sandy beach with scattered rocks and eelgrass beds, and a larger kelp bed out off the beach. These areas seem to hold a lot of baitfish, and as the old saying goes, "fish are never to far from the cafeteria". This type of beach also provides halibut with structure to bed down next to and I find that casting swimbaits right next to the structure spots produces some great action. 

My next favorite type of area may have no structure, but is a sandy beach with holes and dropoffs. Any change along the sandy bottom is a potential spot where halibut can ambush bait. Often these spots are hard to locate on high tide. So, it pays to visit the beach on minus tides to get an idea of what the bottom looks like. These spots can change very quickly, and what might have been a hole last week, may be a flat spot today.

If I'm not fishing the two previously mentioned types of areas, I will likely fish around harbors. Harbors are great when the surf is large elsewhere. Harbors also provide areas for baitfish to hide, and any location where there is bait in the water is worth trying for halibut. Remember, you may not see the bait in the water, but if you see birds working just off the beach, try that area.

Tides - For me, tides usually don't influence when I am going to fish. They influence where I'm going to fish. Different beaches fish better at different tides due to the location of structure, debris in the water, and access to holes and dropoffs. I have found that no matter what the tide, I can usually find areas that produce well. 

The Unknown - One of the nicest things about fishing from the surf with swimbaits is that you never know what you may catch. In addition to halibut, my buddies and I have had days where we have found schools of barred surfperch with several fish over two pounds. We have also found small schools of white seabass and have landed legal seabass to 35" in the surf. Calico bass aren't too common, but they are around sometimes near shallow structure.

Final Notes:
			In general, you aren't going to get halibut much above the 30" mark from the surf. There are always exceptions, but most legals will be in the 22"-30" range. So, if you are looking for that trophy fish, you may want to get out on a boat and drift bait in 50+ feet of water.
			Unlikely the majority of your catch will consist of keeper fish. I find that one in about 10 halibut caught in the surf is legal.
			Keep in mind that on any particular day, many different lures in almost all sizes will work for halibut in the surf. What I have outlined is what works most consistently for me.
			A poor day in the surf may be one or two short halibut (or sometimes none). Good days will produce up to about 15 fish in a couple of hours fishing, with one or two legals. Common, is six or seven shorts with maybe one legal.
			Get out and try it as often as possible. There is no substitute for experience gained by being on (or in) the water. This type of fishing has so low overhead that even an hour at the beach can be well worth the effort.

Clipped and used with permission by Pete Wolf