These fish are bottom huggers, so in turn to catch them your gear must be in the bottom feeding zone. Common methods used to catch these big barn doors are jigs tipped with bait, jigs, spreader bars and standard salmon mooching gear. Common baits for halibut are squid, octopus or large herring. Octopus is the toughest of the baits and hardest to find. Squid is readily available and is a tough strong bait on the hook.
Herring is used on the spreader bar to add even more flash to the set up.
A big strong reel is needed to hold enough of the heavy line used to hoist these monsters up from the depths. The rod of choice is usually a Heavy duty rod with a roller tip about 7-8 ft in length. On spreader bars a small flasher in front of the bait will help attract attention. The wire leader is used to help combat the dreaded dog fish bites. The jig is either tipped with a big soft worm body, a piece of octopus, or squid.