Get your gear ready: fishing for one of Washington’s largest sportfish species begins April 7 across much of Puget Sound as well as the San Juan Islands and eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca! Visit WDFW’s news release for dates and other details. The 2022 halibut season is structured similarly to last year except for an earlier start in the eastern portion of the Puget Sound region (Marine Areas 6 – 10).

Marine Area 7 is typically the best bet for halibut in the North Puget Sound Region, and we’ve recently updated the information available on the webpage for this marine area. Halibut are found on underwater banks and sloping dropoffs, particularly in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Strait of Georgia. Be advised boat launches that access Marine Area 7 can be very busy on halibut openers.

Halibut are also caught in Marine Area 9 at locations such as Midchannel Bank near Port Townsend, Admiralty Bay south of Fort Casey, and Mutiny Bay north of Double Bluff. While halibut may be encountered in Marine Area 10 such as around the outer edges of banks off Jefferson Head or Kingston, finding these big flatfish is more difficult the further south one goes into Puget Sound.

A large plastic squid (hoochie) baited with herring, sardines or squid attached with 100-pound test or thicker leader to a metal spreader bar with a 20- to 40-ounce weight (use more weight when the current is strong) is the most common halibut fishing method, but it’s smart to have at least one rod fishing a metal jig, pipe jig, or leadhead jig with a plastic tail or swimbait, as halibut will often come in attracted by the bait’s scent trail but decide to bite the fluttering jig, especially when they’ve been feeding on smaller baitfish.