I agree with juggernaut about getting familiar with each locale. It really can help you catch fish if you know what sort of bait is available. You could talk to divers and see what they tell you swims in lingcod habitat. Bigger is better. With small baits you get small lings. In my opinion it's all about energy extraction efficiency. Baby octopus is the primo bait in California. Since we can't get them here I prefer to use squid tentacles hooked through the eyes. Another way to rig them up is with a bullet head jig. Insert the hook at the top and have it come out either eye. Yet another idea i have yet to try is rigging a hoochie on a bullet head jig with a grub. I think that with either technique you can expect a savage strike. Pssst everyone uses plastic worms, grubs but don't overlook plastic shads/minnows. Was out at keystone one time and accidentally snagged a smolt. Put it back in the water, but somehow managed to fall into a crevice head first, so i pulled it out by the tail and let it go on it's way. Just in front of me was rock with a ledge on the front face and when that smolt swam past the ledge I saw a fish(presumably a ling) nab that sucker. Luckily I had some shiners with me that I'd caught out at Mukilteo and used them for bait. Ended up giving up two of them to the ling before heading home empty handed.