Halibut Fishing

Question
Happy I found you, I am a life long Alaskan who has recently got a good boat and have left the shores & rivers for the Big Butt. But we are having no luck after 5 trips to PWS. We go out of Whittier and down to Main Bay, we are catching limits on all the salmon species this whole summer. But we know Salmon, we dont know Halibut. So we pool up with the other boats in the area & mimik what we see. But I see Jig set ups that they bounce for hours, or I see the Circle hook with bait and wait, I see the big hook - small hook.... 175 feet- 500 feet. Sincerly confused. So what is the best takle and best depth? I use last years salmon with herring and a large circle hook in 250 feet of water in what they say are good spots.... but nothing. We see fish on the finder but cant be sure if they are butt or not. Do you know of any hot spots in the area? Anything would be great, chickens are cool they fill the freezer and from what I have seen have little to no worm as compared with the over 100 lbrs which seam full of worms... is that right?

Thanks, pops of six kiddos.... needs meat!

Michael  

Answer
Its called fishing not catching.  I can tell you that you don't always catch. You sound like you are putting in your time and that is what it takes to find where the fish are, a lot is experience. My suggestion is ask some local fisherman where would be a potential area to try for butts. Some times the ADF&G sport fish can also sugggest areas to try. I do not know PWS but have found that if you check your charts and find areas where the bottom comes up and there is an area of level bottom would be a place I would try to prospect. Some times type of bottom makes a difference but I have caught on all types of bottom gravel-rock has been good.
May I please suggest that you release any fish over 85 pounds as they are female and the 30-40 pound fish are better eating anyway. The 200 pound female has from 2 million to 5 million eggs.  Think if only 1% of thoes   survive how the fish will survive and be there for us to enjoy forever.  
Just to let you know it is not legal to use sport caught bait other than heads or unusable waste parts for halibut bait. You should check that out with you local ADF&G as down in Southeast many folks have been busted using old freezer burned salmon for halibut and crab for bait. I think it has to do with the want & wast law. You may use salmon bait if bought from a commercial fisherman and you get a fish ticket or from some other commerial processor and can prove it is not sport caught.
To let you know I do not belive the depth finder will return an echo from a fish that has no swim bladder such as halibut or other flat fish. I took a course from the electronic instructor for commerercial fish finding gear and he as well said it to be nearly impossible.
I don't now if this is of any help.  Tite lines and keep the red side down