Where do you live?
I live near Monterey Bay and occasionally have used topwaters there intending to get Striper. I have caught 2 Halibut on the Topwater. One took a working Excaliber Zara Spook that I was slowly "Walking the Dog" with. I had been fishing for the entire day, mostly with heavy surf-casting stuff and was tired so I couldn't work it at a normal striper fishing speed. Although the strike wasn't vicious it was just amazing to see the fish materialize from what I thought was a clump of weeds, and inhale the back of the bait much like I'd imagine they do when they mouth a bait on the bottom. I set the hook when I saw it's mouth close and had a 26" Hali for dinner.
The other Halibut took one of my homemade surf-casting Poppers (8" and 3oz. with buckshot for weight and rattle) while I was taking a tangle out of my Jigmaster. I got the tangle out and had just started to reel in when I noticed the line moving funny. When it came taught I was hooked to a 30+"er. I don't know if it hit while the lure was dead in the water or after I started to reel in the slack. I did have Anchovie butter on the bucktail trailer, and the fish had the trailer and half the plug in its mouth, with the trailer hook in it's throat and the front hook outside in its nose.
Based on these 2 instances I'd guess a slow "Wounded baitfish" retrieve might catch some halibut under the right conditions. Both of these were on a high tide in low light conditions (Dusk-thirty as a friend calls it). I hope this helps.

Tight lines,
Wade

Tight lines,
Wade