How To Catch Any Fish - Lingcod

Description

Lingcod are a gnarly-looking bottom fish with a wicked set of teeth. They have huge mouths and basically hang out in the rocks on the bottom and eat whatever swims by. For this reason they are relatively easy to catch. They don't put up that much of a fight but they are pretty tasty.

Lingcod are found from Northern Baja up to Alaska. They are caught in the same areas as the Rockfish. Their unique and fierce appearance makes them one of my favorite bottom fish to catch. Lingcod do not have a swim bladder, so they do not blow up if reeled up from deep water. This makes them very easy to release if you are not keeping them to eat.

Tackle

Any medium weight conventional set up should work fine. I recommend braided line (at least 30lb) for almost all bottom fishing because it doesn't stretch and so you can make a much more effective hookset. It also decreases the chances you will get stuck in the rocks where Lingcod live. Unfortunately you will inevitably get hung up sometimes (if you don't you are probably not fishing close enough to the bottom) so you may not want to go with super-heavy line as it will be tough to break off. An Accurate BX 400 is a good choice for these.
Techniques

Lingcod are caught on both lures and live or dead bait. Interestingly, they often latch on to smaller Rockfish that you hook and if you don't lift their head out of the water you can sometimes net or gaff them without them even being hooked.

Lures

Many Lingcod are caught on metal jigs. The jigs don't even have to have much action; you can just bounce them up and down near the bottom. Personally I have had more success with shiny silver jigs. You don't need anything that fancy. Once you hook one you have to pull hard initially to get them out of the rocks. I like to use jigs with stinger hooks on the top of the lure rather than treble hooks on the bottom. This helps you snag less.

Lingcod will also eat large plastic grubs or swimbaits. These are harder to keep on the bottom especially when there is strong current.

Baits

Lingcod eat live or dead baits but obviously live usually works better. In So Cal or Baja it's hard to beat a large live mackerel. Just fish a one or two hook dropper loop and put it one crank off the bottom. Most of the time this results in a bite within 5 mins.

Where to get the big ones

In general the farther north you go, the bigger these get. The real monsters can be caught in Alaska. Great action can be had in Northern Baja, but you have no shot at the 70lb+ fish they have in Alaska.

Check out great tips on catching over 70 other species of gamefish, as well as unbiased tackle recommendations and high quality fishing photos at my website: http://www.howtocatchanyfish.com

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