howard,<BR> pete pretty much covered everything. i tend to stick with 1/2 oz. leadheads on green sardine colored 4" plastics for halibut most of the time. it's basically rob's and mine go to bait at goleta. rob describes the retrieve in the halibut article. basically just a series of quick handle turns to hop the bait off the bottom will get em. rob and i have a little challenge going with the rebel fastrac minnow vs. green sardine plastics (so far he's winning). one of these days i'm gonna tie a rebel fastrac minnow on a leader with like a 3/4 or 1 oz. egg sinker above a swivel and twitch it along the bottom for halibut. give it a try and let me know how you do. there's got to be some way to beat green sardine... tight lines.<BR> -Brian