WG: Combo deal

Usually I don’t attempt spring kayak fishing until 3rd week of April.  But due to unusual warm weather, I saw a window this morning for a suicide run. The last minute preparation for kayak fishing is unnerving and frantic...checking all your gear, making sure they’re functioning, and hoping you didn’t forget anything when it’s 10pm at night.  Hardest part is (for me that is) retraining your brain how to fish again after a long hiatus.

Enough with emotional journey and here is my report:

Weather forecast was spot on...no wind and calm sea! The first king was caught 40ft of water during slack tide...around 9ish. It wasn’t a large tide swing so I didn’t expect hard trolling as I began targeting halibut in deeper water 45-65ft.  Nothing for 30 minutes so switched gear and used spreader bar with diy chum bag.  Within 5 minutes, my first 2019 halibut. No action for another 30 minutes so I headed back trolling...second king, this one bigger than the first...40ft again, caught it hugging dirty water/clean water line.  Unfortunately, I forgot proxy so I couldn’t keep it.  Always forgetting something or losing things ( left my 5 gallon water jug by the beach).  I think that’s all I remember...little delusional after 5 hour drive back with 3 hours sleep.  Was it worth it?  I really don’t know anymore.

Great catch! Where were you fishing?

Thanks. Added WG (Whiskey Gulch) in the title.
One more to add, halibut and king were feeding on sandlance... stomach full of them.  I also found couple of partially digested crabs in halibut stomach. Very firm fillets with no signs of chalky texture. King was female with early stage of developing egg sac.

Awesome! Let me know the next time you head out there if you want a fishing partner, I have been itching to give Whiskey Gulch a shot. I can fish literally any afternoon on the weekdays and most weekends.

Was anyone else out there? There were 5-6 kayaks (including a tandem) out in Homer yesterday. My wife took exit polls, as far as we know I was the only one to catch a halibut so the fishing was definitely slow. It sounds like Whiskey Gulch is the place to be right now!


Thanks for the heads up about the sandlance, it sounds like coho killers would have a good shot.

Sure thing.  I’ll post my next trip to WG but more than likely it wil be spontaneous moment where I got the itch and need immediate scratching.  Never had fun in homer due to traffic and getting skunked more than I like to share.  I think I got WG dialed in enough to optimize my trip with higher success rate.

I also forgot to mention that I used green label hearing.  These are common knowledge that I just assume everyone knows from the previous posts but I’ll do my best not to leave out any details( blaming long drive and lack of sleep for incoherent post).

It was just me and two other PB.  PB disappeared to deeper water and I fished close to shore.  There was this dude in blue Chevy truck with loud muffler driving up and down the camp area, stopping with engine off and move to different spot and repeat again.  Made my dog unease enough, he acted as a sentry guard dog for most of the night.

Always running into weirdo and I almost bailed until two other boaters showed up.

Thanks! I'm still learning so that is definitely good info. Any chance you can share a shot of your rig? Trying to understand how you were using the chum bag. Were you using a flasher as well or just the herring?

Maybe I just haven't read enough posts yet . Thanks again for the information.

I’ll try to find my previous post rigs setup.  The diy chum bag is a recent thing and the mileage may vary how effective they are.  The salmon setup that I utilized is simple, 10oz banana weigh followed by 5ft of lead line with double hooks.  This setup has been successfully for both salmon and halibut.  I hardly ever use flasher but I’ve seen others with success usage.

I'll dig through your past posts. Thanks a lot.