One of the things that makes Steelheaders great is that everyone enjoys fishing along with protecting and making our fisheries better. Often forgotton is the great diversity in talent and skills that many of our volunteers bring to this amazing organization.Are you ready? The Oregon Coast all depth halibut season opens on May 11th. The fishing opportunity will continue into June on most Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays and will close when the quota of 211,194 pounds is reached. This opener includes the ports of Garibaldi, Depoe Bay, Newport, Florence, Winchester and Coos Bay. Newport is the most popular of these ports as it offers a large array of locations for the halibut angler and great facilities. If you have plans to launch here on the first opener, be prepared for an one hour wait to launch and another thirty minutes to find a parking spot and get back to your boat.

Where to Fish

Two of the better-known halibut areas out of Newport are the "Chicken Ranch" and "Rockpile". The Chicken Ranch is 40 miles west, south west of Newport and has the reputation for the most consistent halibut fishing in Oregon. Limits here are the norm, in fact you usually spend more time traveling than you do fishing. The average depth here is between 500 and 550 feet, and as the name implies a majority of the halibut caught here are chicken size. There are occasional fifty to sixty inch halibut prowling the depth, but the average fish is in the twenty-five pound range.

The Rockpile area is about half the distance from Newport, as the north end of the pile is only a sixteen-mile run, whereas the more popular south east and south side of the pile is an eighteen to twenty-five mile run. The average depth on most of these locations is only two hundred and twenty feet. This makes it one easiest halibut fishing spots on the Oregon coast. You cannot fish on the actual Rockpile itself, so be sure and download the GPS numbers posted in the Fishing Regulations booklet on to your GPS system. The primary drawback is that you usually have to put time here to land your halibut as this is a vast area and the halibut are scattered.

Personally I prefer fishing on the Rockpile as you have to use half the weight that you need on at the Chicken Ranch and reeling up 220 feet to check your bait is a whole lot easier that than 550 feet at the Chicken Ranch. I have caught halibut in all size ranges at the Rockpile, with the average fish running between forty and fifty inches. If you are fishing the Rockpile for the first time and you are trying to figure out where to fish, my suggestion is to head to the southeast corner and branch out from there. Believe me, you will see a fleet of boats out there. Watch which ones are catching fish.

Bait Choices

Halibut eat a variety of fish, squid and octopus and every halibut angler has a personal preference when it comes to bait. You can use a chunk of shad, squid, octopus (if you can find some), salmon belly, tuna belly, greenling or herring or a combo. Then just like with your salmon herring brine, there are a variety of brines and marinades you can use to cure your bait. I have been fortunate to have made several halibut trips with Phil Pirone from Pro Cure. If you look at the Pro Cure web site under halibut you will see a picture of myself and a friend holding up a couple of big halibut by the Yaquina Bay bridge. On this particular trip, the three of us had started off fishing by the Rockpile and by noon we did not have a fish in the boat. We pulled up our gear and headed out to the Chicken Ranch. As expected there were a hundred or so boats in the area and the easy fish had already been caught. I reached into Phil's tackle box and pulled out some garlic scent and as soon as my herring hit the bottom I was into a forty-eight inch halibut. Then Phil put on some garlic, same result. Our friend at this point was getting really frustrated so we let him in on our secret and once again, bam, he was into a fifty-two inch halibut and his frustration turned him into a happy camper. My advice is to experiment and be willing to change things up.

Gear Choices

I try to keep my halibut gear as simple as possible: a spreader bar, weight and a circle hook. Some people do not like circle hooks. I have had more hookups with circle hooks than with J hooks. When a halibut hits, give him a few seconds to take the bait and start reeling, it is that simple. A couple of other things I have learned, is never hook your bait through the eye balls, halibut want to see those eyes. My other suggestion is that those blinking lights you see at Fisherman's Marine and on Amazon work. Every halibut we caught last year had a blinking light attached to the spreader bar.

My last comment is, be safe and watch the weather forecast as a twenty to forty mile run on a nasty ocean is no fun, and can be dangerous. There are several halibut days this year, and waiting for a calmer ocean is something your family and fishing buddies will appreciate.

Bill Kremers

President - Association of Northwest Steelheaders