When fishing with artificial lures and spoons, it's important to set the hook swiftly as soon as the bite is felt. Since the lure will not taste natural or lively, the fish may drop the plastic lure after holding it in its mouth for an instant. However, while trolling live bait such as sardines or anchovies, it's more effective to allow the fish time to grab the bait and then set the hook after the fish "loads up" on the rod.

During our trolling trip with John Paxson of Dreamcatcher Sportfishing, setting the hook was not necessary, since the fish was already hooked once it had devoured the trolled bait. While aboard Paxson's comfortable 30 foot Chris Craft Sportfisher six pack, powered by a 350 Chevy twin engine, we discussed how all of our previous outings for halibut were live bait drifting trips. This was the first opportunity we had to try the trolling approach.

As deckhand Tony Thomas rigged up the rods and prepared us for our trip, we were all enthusiastic about the new technique we would be trying. Thomas rigged up a 3 way set-up, consisting of a #1 dodger with a 3 foot leader running to a nose hook and treble hook trailer and an 8 ounce weight to put us on the bottom.

We began the day by trolling in about 10 feet of water in the vicinity of Berkeley Flats, where we quickly hooked up two halibut. Nanette Hart was the first to have a shot at landing a keeper flattie. After a hard battle, she pulled in the largest fish of the day, a feisty 29 inch, 10 pound halibut.

Keeping the ball rolling, Brad Schmidt from Reno, Fish Sniffer route driver, was next up as he boated a 26 inch weighing 8 pounds. After Brad put the fish in the boat, we traveled around trying to locate a school of feeding halibut, but were unable to get them to take the bait.

The instant myself, Charlie Myer, and Sheldon Bright were finished with our game of "roe-sham-bo," a fish struck the line. Since Charlie reigned supreme in our game, he got the first crack at the fish and brought in a chunky, 25 inch 8 pounder.

As I laid my head down inside the comfort of the cabin and began to relax, due to the sway of the boat rolling on the bay, the rod slammed down. Sheldon Bright, Fish Sniffer account representative, jumped to the occasion and successfully fought a 6-1/2 pounder.

As the day progressed, the wind started to knock us around and things were looking to turn worse at any moment. With four halibut in the box to 10 pounds for the five anglers, we decided to call it a day and head back into the marina with just enough fish for a good fish fry and awesome fish tacos.