Thinking of heading out for lings when it opens, but I've only done it once before and have some noob questions.

Are lings early morning biters like salmonids? Is it worth it to be on the water by daybreak or not much of a difference if you sleep in a couple extra hours?

Be there when the tide is running slow enough to make sure you aren't getting hung up every 15 or 20 seconds The more up and down you can fish the better.

Otherwise...good to go.

Fish on...

Todd

Is that true for jig fishing as well, or mostly for live bait presentations?

That would be true for both bait and jig. Keep it as vertical as possible. Too much angle on your line and you will just start drgging and loosing gear. Sundays tides look good.

I'll piggy back on this topic since I'm also new to chasing lings. How do you guys keep your sand dabs alive without a live bait well?

Buy a battery-op aerator and clip it on a bucket, if you don't have a live well. . .that'd be the quick and dirty fix. Gotta keep the live bait lively.

As for early morning or middle of the day, I have never found any difference in their activity patterns in terms of ambient light. I've screwed around with scents too, and haven't noticed a difference either. It seems to be mostly tide dependent. . .some movement, but not too much. Whenever I fish at slack, I have found lings to be really sluggish. I think if they get to stare at something long enough, they get disinterested. I'm no authority on the subject, just my observations. I hope to do gather more data soon!

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Leave the sand dabs at home. jig up a nice 8-10" kelp greenling usually found near good lingcod spots, hookup send down and hang on.

Probably depends where you're fishing. I fish the san juans and a live greenling is the ticket for BIG fish. But I heard at possession a sand dab works better.

Recent years I have gotten lazy about using live bait and use a black or purple label herring on a very large mooching-style setup (zip-tying the herring's head to the top hook). Seems to work just as well.

The lowest amount of work and highest amount of fish (though smaller) come on a berkley 6" gulp grub (I like new penny color). I start with a 6oz jig head but go up or down depending on the current.

Lings like moving water.

Personally we are generally less successful around slack tide. I think the fish like some movement. We fish in the islands a lot and I like to get in areas with a pretty fast drift. flip the ass end of the boat into the current and use the kicker to back down and keep my gear at a "reasonable" angle. Many times you will be flying over a spot and just freespooling line on the drop and WAM they grab it on the drop.

I would say that MOST of the fish we catch are when the water is moving.

Same goes for Possession, I like a little water movement to help cover ground. Otherwise your just drowning a sand dab in one spot. You're really looking for rogue fish that are cruising the flats. So drifting and covering water is effective. Same deal, we ass into it and control our drift with the kicker.

Dabs will stay alive in a cooler filled with water. They are hardy SOBs. Just change out 2/3 of the cooler water periodically to keep it clean.

MPM, I don't question the effectiveness of live bait or herring. I've caught plenty of fish on each and it is how I prefer to fish if I'm taking inexperienced people out. That said, I consider it a downgrade on the "fun" meter compare to swim baits or light jigs. I almost never fish more than 3 ounces. With swimbaits, braid, a decent rod, you can feel the inhale of the bite. I fish the giant (expensive ) 9" swimbaits vertically and fish 4 to 6 inch versions when casting. I tend not to cast fish if the water is much over 40 or 50 feet because they drop way slower than a heavy jig (but they also look absolutely alive as they swim on the drop). I've caught countless keeper lings in less than 30 feet of water so don't assume that you have to fish deep with uncomfortably heavy gear.

And if you are fishing live bait or herring, just remember to keep you lead off the bottom a couple feet so your bait doesn't get hung. If you are fishing areas where you can regularly grind the bottom and not lose gear, you're probably in the wrong spot.

Im also big on wire leaders or at least VERY heavy mono.

5 inch swimbaits along with contents puked up by keeper ling:


One of my favorite ling pics from years ago when the upper end of the slot limit was 40":

I like using 4-6oz butterfly jigs. Crippled herring type of a thing. They're easy to fish and work. Second is a large orange or rootbeer worm with a 3-8oz jig head (depending on what weight you need). Herring an live greenling work, but I'll second that it's more fun jigging them up.

I've had the best luck when current is moving. You can find them at slack tide, but not near as common. They're predators waiting in the rocks for something to come by. They'll tend to hang on the down-current side of structure.

I like casting slightly ahead on the drift and pounding the bottom a couple times. It's a dangerous game, but I think the commotion helps bring them out to see what's going on.

Thanks for all the tips. I'm set up with some weights/leaders for live bait (although I've also got some frozen herring in the freezer) as well as some various metal jigs, swimbaits, and Gulp! grubs of different sizes.

Now I just hope they aren't going to shut down the ling season due to a chance encounter with chinook.