Ling Cod Advise
- Thread starter sir-vivor
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Charter Tofino
Well-Known Member
Fish reefy ledges. Water that drops from 20 to 70 feet is ideal. For baits use big buzz bombs, macdeeps ect work well. Greenling and rockfish also make great bait but try not to kill to many for bait if you do use them. Fish em live and just let the ling hold on. Reel up slowly then gaff them right before they break the surface.
trendsetter
Active Member
Use your leftover anchovies. Drop them down with a treble hook on a steel leader until you hit bottom them reel up a few feet. Jig lightly and if there's a ling around he will bite.
At thrasher, drift over the reef from shallow to deep lightly jigging your bait 2-5' above bottom. sometimes it's hard to do if the tide is moving quickly. You will find you can drift from 30' to 300' in only a few minutes. If you don't catch anything by the time you hit 300' pull up your line and drive back over the reef and drift again.
If you drag the bottom with your line you will lose lots of gear to snags. Also the rockfish tend to bit on the bottom so try to avoid that though I believe you can keep one per day.
Cheers
Live shiners, or herring if you can find it, with a treble through the nose. Drop it down and then bring it up 5' or so. No need to jig you can use your rod holders. When a ling takes it I like to back off a bit. When it starts pulling steady, set the hook.
Like mentioned, ledges and drops.
Like mentioned, ledges and drops.
Owen Drysdale
Member
if you want big lings go over 180 feet ive caught 3 over 40 pounds
Charter Tofino
Well-Known Member
Brings up a point i forgot to mention. It's best to release the big female breeders over 20 lbs. 10-15 lbers are the best eating anyway.
sir-vivor
Well-Known Member
Are you using any weight and if so does the weight tie ahead of the trebel or ???
trendsetter
Active Member
Yep you need a weight; I usually use 6oz or 8oz slip weights clipped on about 1 foot above the leader. You can do it the other way too with the weight below the hook.
Presentation is not that important with lings. If it smells and looks like it's good to eat they'll bite it. Just keep your bait near bottom, bounce bottom every now and then to make sure you're not too far above. Someone mentioned above to use herring, that's even better than anchovy. And live bait works even better than that but unless you're going to spend an hour fishing for shiners between the pilings at your local dock, whole herring or whole anchovy work fine.
Last year I kept two lings around 8-10lbs i think from thrasher. I was there last week and caught one while trolling for salmon on the south face of the reef in about 90' if I remember correctly.
Dave S
Active Member
x2 big ones are full of toxins too. forget those bigger females. this species can use all the help it can get in our heavily populated coastlines.
Seafever
Well-Known Member
I use a jigging rod with a M-1plus daiwa reel. 30lb Tuffline with a 6ft leader of 20lb test connected by a bead chain swivel. Withthe tuffline you get better "Bite feedback".
Fishy rocky reefs and ledges. 80 feet to 120 basically.
I use hardware. which is a big Spinnow......and...I've found that Lings prefer black and white color combo.
Lower jig to bottom....come up about 2 feet and work the jig. Don't go up and down too fast or they will give up because they can't catch it.
Smother the jig with Herring oil or similar.
two scenarios work best for me for Ling.
One:- an incoming flood tide....
Ans also:- one of those days where you get a high tide sequence that the tide hardly drops at all.
Drift speed can be fast on certain tides...which doesn't give you much of a window of opportunity if you are trying to nail a certain spot. So you have to get your lead down quick .
Be ready when you first lower your jig......I've had lots of hits while the jig was on it's way down from Ling.
Ling are generally relaxed about things when you wind them in.......that is until you lift their head out of the water.
Fishy rocky reefs and ledges. 80 feet to 120 basically.
I use hardware. which is a big Spinnow......and...I've found that Lings prefer black and white color combo.
Lower jig to bottom....come up about 2 feet and work the jig. Don't go up and down too fast or they will give up because they can't catch it.
Smother the jig with Herring oil or similar.
two scenarios work best for me for Ling.
One:- an incoming flood tide....
Ans also:- one of those days where you get a high tide sequence that the tide hardly drops at all.
Drift speed can be fast on certain tides...which doesn't give you much of a window of opportunity if you are trying to nail a certain spot. So you have to get your lead down quick .
Be ready when you first lower your jig......I've had lots of hits while the jig was on it's way down from Ling.
Ling are generally relaxed about things when you wind them in.......that is until you lift their head out of the water.
Last edited by a moderator:
What Seafever said..........
Steelhead S2
Active Member
Big buzz bombs etc. are great. Also caught lots on big rubber jigs tipped with herring. Live bait (shiners, herring, green lings) is best. I agree with the locations listed. I have also had good success fishing steeply sloping heavy-rock beaches.
fishhunter327
Member
What do you guys consider a good "jigging" rod for ling would be - fast action , slow action ,line weight ....etc
I've been moving away from the traditional west coast style jigs and have been going towards the more japanese style jigs. Here is one that I like a lot:
I just set it up with one assist hook at the top. This really reduces your snags on bottom, but still get great hookup rates with the fish!
Cheers!
I just set it up with one assist hook at the top. This really reduces your snags on bottom, but still get great hookup rates with the fish!
Cheers!
Time
Well-Known Member
"Assist Hook"? Do you mean you add a second hook at the eyelet at the head, or do you just run with one hook at the head and none at the 'tail'?
Cuba Libre
Well-Known Member
One hook at the head and none at the tail . I used that kind of setup in NZ and found it worked nicely for kingfish and snapper. No reason it wont work for lings and rockfish here.
adanac
Well-Known Member
We spanked the lings yesterday off Gabriola. had to realese 4 that we deemed to large to keep ( 20+) and had limits of 9 - 15 lbers. All caught on XL herring with 6 ounce slip weights or spinnows, great fun on light tackle. Another note is that all fish were caught in less than 35 feet of water so rockfish realse was a non issue.
Cuba Libre
Well-Known Member
Very nice!
