Non-Fly Puget Sound Lingcod

[speedbird]

Giving my first serious attempt at Puget Sound Lingcod this year. Is there a benefit to going after them at the crack of dawn like with salmon? Trying to get the GF to come with and it will be easier if she doesn't need to be up at 3. I am also curious if any of you have tried fishing for them on the fly rod

 

[Paige]

Giving my first serious attempt at Puget Sound Lingcod this year. Is there a benefit to going after them at the crack of dawn like with salmon? Trying to get the GF to come with and it will be easier if she doesn't need to be up at 3. I am also curious if any of you have tried fishing for them on the fly rod

Simple answer is no, its all about tidal movement, yes caught them on fly gear, even had them chase flies right up to the surface before.

 

[Chucker]

Giving my first serious attempt at Puget Sound Lingcod this year. Is there a benefit to going after them at the crack of dawn like with salmon? Trying to get the GF to come with and it will be easier if she doesn't need to be up at 3. I am also curious if any of you have tried fishing for them on the fly rod

What Paige says is correct, but if you are in the sound you might want to get out there at the crack of dawn anyway, to avoid the crush of boats fishing the productive spots.

 

[SurfnFish]

Giving my first serious attempt at Puget Sound Lingcod this year. Is there a benefit to going after them at the crack of dawn like with salmon? Trying to get the GF to come with and it will be easier if she doesn't need to be up at 3. I am also curious if any of you have tried fishing for them on the fly rod

mid 20's, captain on a charter boat, brother-in-law had given me my first fly rod, a well used white Shakespeare with a scratched up Medalist reel. Summer day with a fun group of 25 or so college students from UC Davis out for an organized lark, had them catching Blacks and Blues that were schooling just under the boat in 20' of water.
For grins put together the fly rod which had a white shad fly attached to it, flailing casts at the bow by the anchor roller, began picking up fish, donating them to the students gunny sacks (15 rockcod limit back then plus 5 lings).
Anyhoo....reeling one in, see a sudden streak, rods bends in half, instantly knew it was a hitchiker, a ling having grabbed a hooked rockfish, happened all the time. As long as you don't lift their head out of the water they will refuse to let go of the seized fish.
So a cute gal got a 10# Ling added to her bag, and that was my first and last ling ever 'caught' with a fly rod.

 

[J Watrous]

Giving my first serious attempt at Puget Sound Lingcod this year. Is there a benefit to going after them at the crack of dawn like with salmon? Trying to get the GF to come with and it will be easier if she doesn't need to be up at 3. I am also curious if any of you have tried fishing for them on the fly rod

Yes. The most successful method on the Sound I found on the fly is to launch the boat in Anacortes, find a big rock (there seems to be at lest one ling per rock), cast a very fast sinking line (I used T-20) with a big floofy fly, and let it sink before jigging/twitching it and a few strips with pauses. Re-cast when it feels like the fly is out of range as they are largely ambush predators.

Have had limited success at the Shilshole breakwater.

Time of day doesn't seem to matter a lot.

 

[speedbird]

First attempt at lingcod fishing donated some jigs and line to the Kehloken, Ended the trip wrapping the port prop in line and limping home.

Any advice for breaking off snagged jigs would me very appreciated, was tough to break 30lb mono and 40lb leader. Might just switch to live baiting next time. Are the cheap $30 aerators any good?

 

[Paige]

First attempt at lingcod fishing donated some jigs and line to the Kehloken, Ended the trip wrapping the port prop in line and limping home.

Any advice for breaking off snagged jigs would me very appreciated, was tough to break 30lb mono and 40lb leader. Might just switch to live baiting next time. Are the cheap $30 aerators any good?

Yes, make sure to change out the water every hr or so as the temperature will kill em as fast as low oxygen

 

[SurfnFish]

Any advice for breaking off snagged jigs would me very appreciated, was tough to break 30lb mono and 40lb leader. Might just switch to live baiting next time. Are the cheap $30 aerators any good?

I always fished ling bouncing chrome bars on the bottom, using large, soft thin bronze treble hooks...so when hooking bottom on the drift would wrap the line around the reel a few times, point the rod and hold on...99% of the time the bar tugged free when the hook snagging bottom straightened out

 

[Kfish]

@jasmillo and I went to to search for lings this morning and it was super slow. We visited a bunch of spots fishing both flies and gear. I lost one fly and one jig, they break off ok if you use 20lb in the middle as the weak point. A short section of 20lb flouro breaks off easier than 20lb mono due to stretch.
Got one 20” ling on a white/chartreuse jig.

 

[Chucker]

First attempt at lingcod fishing donated some jigs and line to the Kehloken, Ended the trip wrapping the port prop in line and limping home.

Any advice for breaking off snagged jigs would me very appreciated, was tough to break 30lb mono and 40lb leader. Might just switch to live baiting next time. Are the cheap $30 aerators any good?

I don’t use mono mainline for anything, but especially not for jigging. 50 braid with 30 pound mono leader on my lingcod rig. It’s still a bitch if you ever need to break off, but way easier than full mono would be. Surfnfish’s advice about using sacrificial hooks is good if you are using that style of jig and can find a suitable single hook to use in the sound.

As far as fishing goes, first two days were pretty slow. Got fish each day, but it took some work. Also, no undersized fish at all, which is a worrying sign for the future.

 

[wanderingrichard]

8wt minimum recommended?

 

[Kfish]

8wt minimum recommended?

8wt and above is good, to get the bigger/heavier flies out there on fast sink lines.

 

[Smalma]

An 8 weight would be more than adequate. Do need a get down line. I used a homemade line with 28 feet of T14 quite successfully for years. Landed fish from as deep as 55 feet. It also has been my experience that weighted flies are not necessary and, in some cases unweighted flies fish far better.

Curt

 

[the_chemist]

Tried my luck at lings on the fly Friday. Needed to be close to slack tide to get down to them. Pretty snappy fish. Didn't seem to matter what was chucked as long as it was bright and big. Definitely going to have to get out a few more times while the season is open.

 

[DimeBrite]

Tried my luck at lings on the fly Friday. Needed to be close to slack tide to get down to them. Pretty snappy fish. Didn't seem to matter what was chucked as long as it was bright and big. Definitely going to have to get out a few more times while the season is open. View attachment 152124

View attachment 152125

Is that a side of tater tots?

 

[the_chemist]

Is that a side of tater tots?

Fish n tots. Didn't have any fries.

 

[speedbird]

Live bait did the trick at slack tide today



Sketchy as hell catching it though

 

[speedbird]

Anyone have success with dead bait for Lings in the sound? Tbh live bait makes me a little sad haha. I know cut plug purple label slays in WCVI

 

[the_chemist]

Anyone have success with dead bait for Lings in the sound? Tbh live bait makes me a little sad haha. I know cut plug purple label slays in WCVI

Had a buddy who did pretty well on herring under a float. Not exactly cut plug since the head was on. Double hooked and rotated in the current.

 

[Pink Nighty]

Had a buddy who did pretty well on herring under a float. Not exactly cut plug since the head was on. Double hooked and rotated in the current.

Bobber fishing for lingcod??? Paging @Irafly