jayinsurrey
Member
I am heading to Nootka next week and I am going to try out trolling those rubber swim baits near the bottom for lings. Do I use a flasher ahead of the swimbait? How long of a leader between the flasher and the swimbait? Thanks
Swimbait rigging question?
- Thread starter jayinsurrey
- Start date
N2013
Well-Known Member
The lighter stuff, like 4-7oz. Heavier ones for jigging.
Srthomas75
Active Member
I’m similar to the others’ setups here. I use a 3-4’ leader of 80lb mono. Clipped maybe 10’ from the downrigger ball trolled slow and keep adjusting depth so that you don’t hang up.
Do you mean 10 feet above the ball? If so why not closer to the ball?
Srthomas75
Active Member
No. My release clip is attached right at the ball
Rain City
Crew Member
Loosen your brake
tubber
Well-Known Member
They're good. Still can get sketchy. I don't fish for lings inside. I prefer to ferry past them, drive across, spend a bunch of money, and fish where I shouldn't. Be well, RC.
PEETZcanada
Well-Known Member
I just use my own. My son painted these heads for his guide season. We are running lighter and lighter all the time as when you are trolling on DR's there is no need for heavy heads. We're actually building our own harness now that utilize a small counter weight to keep the bait stability consistent.
For connections, either a clip or snap or as simple as a loop knot.
We use all profiles from 5 inch to 12 inch paddle tails to 7 inch sandeels to 12 inch grubs to a 10 inch Mermaid. Yup. A Mermaid. We primarily use our own stuff, but it doesn't matter what brand you use, they all work. It's more about size, colour and profile depending on the terrain. Speed can vary. It's actually easier to accomplish than one might think.
Pictured are just a few of what we use.
Attachments
I think the trend of trolling Ling is from guides who want to put meat on the deck, but can't get their guests to jig. Like the break from trolling and the hit on a jig is the drug. Reeling in a parachute has little appeal to me.
PEETZcanada
Well-Known Member
The action of trolling for lingcod actually originated with Commercial Fisherman throughout our beautiful coastal communities. With anglers on the banks it was hoochies and flashers as an optimal dual target senario, then dift jigging with swimbaits started, then trolling after a few guys were trolling Rapala hardbaits. The first major introduction to swimbaits in BC was by Berkley & Rapala. As usual they both do a lot of trail blazing and were really early to the game. Anglers did not pick up on jigging with swimbaits in a big way until after Berkley & Rapala deemed it an adoption failure. Both sold off all of their inventory that started to gain ground to a few places. Peter from Lighthouse lures was looking for ideas and I was looking for replacement inventory of the popular Rapala model that really went off for us as we had introduced them to the commercial fleet. So I gave Peter a sample and he copied it and called it Mega Bite It wasn't until then that trolling with swimbaits truly gained legs and began to run. Savage, Westin, Berkley, Rapala, Gibbs, LIghthouse all entered the race in a big way here in BC. My son Nathan helped it along quite nicely by teaming up with key brands to get baits that were not available in this market yet...then creating a demand for those lures. He'll never tell you what's coming next because he is already fishing these items a year in advance of them hitting the BC market. If you ever want to have a good discussion on trolling baits and techniques, tips or tricks...try him. Just like the start of jigging with swimbaits shifted, so is the trolling game. It's truley one of the simplest most effective ways to get a quality catch.
Last edited:
jayinsurrey
Member
WOW thanks everyone.!
Similar threads
