Northwest Reel Life April 2024 Volume 3 Issue 6 - Flipbook - Page 25
hook just under the skin on
the dark side of the fish.
Insert the hook, point
towards the tail, and loop
it back out letting it just
dangle along the back of
the sanddab. Keep a solid
hand on the rod. When a
lingcod sets its sights on
having a sanddab snack,
the takedown can be
ferocious.
My favorite way to fish lings
is with a large curly tail or
paddle-tail type swimbait
on a jig head but any
artificial bait works. I have
caught lings using pipe jigs,
flutter jigs, and a variety
of commercially molded
baits, including molded
sanddabs.
Fished correctly the
artificials drive lingcod nuts.
The picture of the big ling
was caught in Rosario Strait
by James Vermeer using a
home-poured bait.
Actually, a great story; he
used a kid's toy plastic
shark to create a mold and
then poured the lure. After
a few testing modifications,
he ended up with a heavybodied lure that was
balanced in the water and
sent out all kinds of “comeeat-me” vibrations.
More importantly, James
knows how to fish lings.
I was motoring past in the
workboat and noticed a
guy in a small skiff fishing
lingcod. I pulled the throttle
back and watched the
show. He clearly knew how
to properly fish lings on
artificial baits. Not long
after I stop, he goes bendo
and had on what looked
to be a serious lingcod.
10 minutes later he and
the fish were posing for a
picture or two.
”Properly fish lings on
artificial baits”, what the
heck am I talking about?
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