36 July 6 - 20 , 2018 VOL . 37 • ISS . 15

SALTWATER REPORTS :

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31

HALF MOON BAY cont .

Moon Bay Sport Fishing said , “ We put in 19 limits of a mixed grade of salmon to 22 pounds on Saturday , June 23rd with Dave Maddox of Pleasanton taking the jackpot salmon , and followed this up with 19 more limits on Sunday fishing farther south as the commercial fishermen are loading up locally . The weather has been less than stellar , and we had to hug the coast with the southerly breeze . Earlier in the week , Bob Ingles of the Queen of Hearts found a school of salmon 5 miles south of the harbor where there have been whales and birds working for the past few days , and he put in 20-plus limits . There is a trickling of silver salmon starting to show up , and we released one on both Wednesday and Thursday . They are not a nuisance yet , but you have to know

the difference between a king and a silver . There are salmon all over the place as there are still fish offshore , up near Thornton Beach in 60 feet of water , and also off of Mussel Rock .”

Sherry Ingles of Half Moon Bay Sport Fishing said , “ Captain Smitty on the Riptide posted 16 limits of salmon on Sunday with the Que Sera Sera coming in with 10 fish for 6 anglers , and the two that didn ’ t limit chose not to continue fishing . This has been the best salmon season in at least 6 years , and I bet that we have landed more salmon this week than we did on our boats all last year . The hot lures have been Apex or Pro-Troll E Lures in watermelon , flame orange / black dots , or pink haze . The weather has been rough , but the Queen of Hearts went rockfishing on

Big lingcod like these are among the most sought after fish for California coastal anglers .

Photo by CAL KELLOGG , Fish Sniffer Staff . jigs and swimbaits , that ’ s

the iconic way to catch lings and that ’ s how most of us avid ling anglers want to catch our fish . Pitch that sexy jig up drift , let it sink , start yo yoing it along the bottom and when Mr . Ophiodon Elongatus comes knocking he ’ ll do his best to rip the rod from your hands .

There ’ s no doubt about it , nothing in the world of bottom fishing compares to the excitement of jigging for lings , but the problem is that jigs don ’ t always work . If the water temperature has dropped or is too chilly , if there has been a lot of fishing pressure or if you are fishing shallow water hooking lingcod on artificial baits can be an uphill climb .

I recently read a study conducted in British Columbia , where the lingcod get a lot bigger than they do here in Northern California , but they behave in much the same way as our fish do . Using rods and reels and baits and lures teamed with underwater cameras the researchers observed how lingcod react to various fishing methods .

What the researchers found was that lingcod are the most curious fish living on the rocky reefs . When they lowered a bait , lure or even sinker to the bottom one or more lingcod quickly surrounded the alien visitor . Most of time the lings didn ’ t strike , but they gave the offering up close and personal scrutiny .

To coax a strike using an artificial lure even under the best of conditions the lure had to move quickly and erratically . Apparently at times lings like to chase down their prey and at these times a briskly worked jig or swimbait will produce reaction strikes . Yet based on hundreds of observations the researchers concluded that the very best lingcod offering was live bait , followed by dead natural baits , with jigs and swimbaits coming in a distant third .

I ’ m an avid jigger and I ’ ve written about jigging for lings in the pages of the Fish Sniffer numerous times . Most guys that regularly target lings have a solid selection of jigs and have a thorough understanding of how to employ them . This being the case , I ’ m going to steer this discussion to the natural bait side of the isle .

When the going gets tough and it ’ s time to break out the live bait or frozen bait the first thing you want to do is put that light responsive jigging rod in the rack . When fishing natural bait for lings , you want a stout rod that has some play in the tip followed up with lots of backbone . The rod should be topped with a rugged reel spooled with braided line in the 65 to 80 pound class .

These anglers shot outside San Francisco Bay with Captain Hayden Mullins on June 19 and scored easy limits of king salmon .

Photo courtesy of DRAGON SPORTFISHING , Emeryville .

While a lingcod rod intended for fishing bait has to be stout , a sensitive tip is also important . When a ling takes your bait , you don ’ t want to react immediately . The proper procedure is to let the fish take the rod tip down , then work the reel handle to take up any slack and draw the tip down even more . Only then do you want to thumb the reel and cross the fish ’ s eyes .

Before we get into the baits to use , I ’ ll go over the proper rig for fishing the baits . Basically you ’ ll be using the same type of three way set up that you use for live bait drifting inside and outside San Francisco Bay with one important difference .

Rather than running a 30 pound test leader tipped with a single live bait hook , you ’ ll want to employ a “ trap leader ” constructed of 50 pound test monofilament .

To set up a trap leader take a 36 inch piece of 50 pound mono and attach a 4 / 0 octopus hook to it using a sliding snell knot . On the end of the leader tie on a 5 / 0 or 6 / 0 4x strong treble hook via a perfection loop knot . The treble is inserted into the tail end of the bait while the octopus is pinned through the bait ’ s nose . The sliding snell on the octopus hook allows you to adjust the distance between the two hooks to accommodate baits of various sizes .

The best live baits to employ for lings are sardines and mackerel when you can get them . Pretty much any other small live fish that you can legally use as live bait , including kingfish , large bullheads and sanddabs will work .

If you can ’ t get live bait , frozen sardines , mackerel , squid and octopus can be used .

Dead baits , being dead don ’ t

Just because you are targeting big lings , that doesn ’ t mean you won ’ t catch rockfish . The big baits that tempt lingcod are also highly effective for hooking jumbo rockfish too !

Photo by CAL KELLOGG , Fish Sniffer Staff .

When tying bait rigs for lingcod you don ’ t want to skimp in terms of hooks size , leader strength or on the quality of the line and hooks you employ . Photo by CAL KELLOGG , Fish Sniffer Staff .

avoid snags . When fishing them you have to account for the length of the leader and keep them 3 to 4 feet off the bottom . If a dead bait drags , at a minimum the bait will get torn up and as often as not the treble hook will find a snag .

A final piece of advice is to use plenty of weight when bait fishing for lings . You want your line as close to vertical as possible . I never use less than a pound and often 20 to 22 ounces of weight to keep my line going straight down .