Halibut Fishing in Friday Harbor, WA

Halibut fishing out of Friday Harbor puts you on gravel and sand flats spread across the San Juan Islands and the Strait edges nearby. We cover 21 spots that hold these fish, including Hein Bank, Eastern Bank and Alden Bank out in open water, plus Cattle Point on San Juan Island, Eagle Point, Belle Rock, Colville Island in Boundary Pass, and Iceberg Point off Lopez Island. Most of the productive water sits between 100 and 300 feet, and the fish hold tight to the bottom over flats and along channel edges.

Time your trip for April through July. Halibut winter offshore on deep spawning grounds, then push back inshore in spring, with numbers building fast through April and peaking from mid-May into June as adults stack on Hein Bank and the surrounding Strait edges to feed on herring, sand lance and squid. Fishing thins briefly in early summer, then picks up again in July as feeding fish concentrate on the banks. Through late summer and fall the pattern fades as fish drift back toward deeper shelf water.

Current runs your day here. Fish the slack. From dead slack up to about 0.5 knots you can hold bottom and work gear properly, and by roughly 2.5 knots the spot is done. Drift jigging is the main game, with leadhead jigs, metal jigs and swimbaits bounced near bottom. Back it up with herring, salmon bellies, squid or octopus fished on the bottom.