Well the last time i fished for Lings r Butts was 18 years ago in AK. Im gonna hit possession tomorrow afternoon and any advice is welcome. I really don't care if I get one but I want my son to get one. He will be 8 on Monday the 20th and has caught more salmon( and more species of salmon) by the time i was 20!

I'm far from an expert but try the area east of the green can @ scatchet head and the sunken ferry (on many maps) further east of that

Thanks I was told to fish around the ferry or the horseshoe in about 70 feet of water

Just remember to fish in less than 120 feet of water, pinch the barbs, and release anything outside the slot limit. From recent personal experience there is one out there on Possession Bar that is 36.5 inches long.....it liked a live sand dab!

I would recommend catching some sand dab/flounder on your way to the lingcod areas. Live bait(sand dab) are the best bait to use for lings, they can't seem to resist them. I have been out 7 times so far this season and have got one every trip. Remember to only keep if between 26 inches and 36 inches. Jigs work but I feel you spend more time catching and releasing rock fish rather then catching lings. Live bait helps cut down on the number of rock fish hooked, but you still catch the huge ones. Another reason I prefer live bait over jigs is that when fishing for lings, you want to fish structure and that means your going to lose gear....I would rather lose a couple 5/0 hooks then an expensive jig. Good luck hope you catch some.

I second the livebait recommendation! Also, remember these suckers don't have swim bladders... so they will be resting on the bottom. While 5/0 can be money, I personally use a little bigger like 7/0 to 8/0... (not trying to be nit-picky and definitely not trying to be be a one-upper... but that's what we've had luck with... although I must say that the only reason I posted this was due to goodtimesfishing offering up some stellar advice and wanted to pile on a little more

New to lingcod too here. Where and how are the best way to catch sandabs around possession?

Suggestion is to catch dabs in the more protected areas (rather than out on Possession itself) and particularly the flats. Very small pieces of bait (herring, etc.) or small grub type artificials work. Again, even for making bait you need to pinch the barbs!

I catch sandabs on herring/sabiki jigs... sandy bar/flats in 40-70'.

Dont let officer friendly see you land and retain sanddabs on sabiki rigs, unless of course your only fishing 2 hooks on them, and they are barbless.

Huh? Can you substantiate this?

-S

Sabiki/herring jigs/etc are only legal for "forage fish" which include herring, smelt, and candlefish. Flounder, sanddabs, etc are "food fish" in which standard marine area rules are in effect. In Puget Sound, that means no more than two hooks on your line and they must be barbless. I am not a lawyer and take this advice/interpretation for what you paid for it, just trying to save folks from a "surprise"

fishculture is correct....it is not a hard one to interpet. However with a drop shot set up and 2 barbless hooks(small) it takes no time what so ever to catch your bait. Another one to remember is not to have more bait fish then your quota for bottom fish. In other words you don't want to have a bucket of more then 14 bait fish(sand dab/flounder) as you are fishing by yourself. More then that and you are limited and should not be fishing for lings. Although you should not need that many to catch a ling if you are in the right area. Also if you don't have an airaetor(spelling?) to keep bait oxygenated then it is best to only get a few at a time so they are fresh. When they have been in bucket for a while they lose their fight/action, and that is what catches the lings. When your bait is half dead it does not appeal to the lings as much.....not that they won't eat a dead one, but they can't resist one that is tugging on your line trying to get away!

Another very successful live bait is shiner perch and the limit of 15 does not count against your bottom fish limit.

Larry B
I was not to sure about what you said about the shiner perch NOT counting toward bottom fish limit of 15....Sure enough though under the definitions of bottom fish, very last line states"excluding shiner perch"

So my question is, is there a limit on shiner perch???

When it comes to the regs there is always something to learn.

Thanks for the input Larry B

Ok I see the limit of shiner perch there under surf perch.....your allowed 15 shiner perch and that would NOT count towards your bottom fish.

Funny thing is, I google shiner perch and surf perch comes up. Then when reading through information, under other common names it lists surf perch, shiner perch, and silver perch all as the same thing.
Yet there is a limit of 10 surfperch and 15 shiner perch??? How do you tell the difference between the 2??? I don't really care but it is another one of those reg things that seem open to interpetation and those kinda deals can really get you in trouble. Good to know the anwser to things like that as to prevent any problems with gw's. We all know that ignorance is no excuse for the law.....so we must all be legal experts. haha lol

Without going to my "Ichy" book we have pile perch which are fairly large and a basic silver color and up to 17 inches. Then there are striped perch which are a bit smaller at 15 inches and have - yes - blue lines. Pictures of those two species are on page 113 of the 2012/2013 regs. Shiner perch (AKA poggies) are fairly small (4-5 inches) as adults and have gold bars on their sides and are commonly found schooled up under docks. Then on the coast there are red tailed surf perch. Others????

So, to answer your question, I am not sure. If they only referred to surf perch in ocean MAs it would be fairly clear but since they refer to them in all MAs maybe all other perch (besides shiner) are covered by that generic term of surf perch. I looked under "Definitions" in the old regs and there was nothing on surf perch or perch. Seems the only issue is whether all perch (except shiner) are limited to an aggregate of 10 as part of the daily bottom fish limit of 15 which is how I would approach it until someone in authority says differently.

FYI, the limit for shiner perch was on the verge of being reduced to just a few a couple of years ago when fishermen became aware of the proposed change and made an issue out of it because of the loss of live bait and the fact that there was no evidence of a conservation issue. They settled on 15. In short, the Commission was being led down the garden path.....kind of like the current cab issue.

Edit:

Here is a link to a dive site with pictures: http://emeralddiving.com/id_perch.html

See the "Bottomfish" definition in the regs. The definition identifies "surfperch" as excluding "shinerperch" .

Thanks for pointing in that direction. There was no question that shiner perch were not included in the bottomfish limit of 15 (aggregate). The unresolved issue is whether the bottomfish sub-category of "surfperch" included all other species of perch.

Under Definitions the term bottomfish includes a number of fishes to include "surf perches" (plural) which would further support that the Bottomfish sub-category of "Surf Perch" as set forth in each MA's regs is generic for all perch species except shiner perch. In short, your 15 bottomfish limit may include up to 10 perch of any species with the exception that shiner perch have a separate limit of 15.

It would have made it clearer had they included under Definitions the term Surf Perch with further explanatory information.

Thanks for the info Larry B
Always good to hear others interpetations of regs.