Went out scuba diving down near the Tacoma Narrows this weekend....lots of lings, especially juveniles but some monsters as well.

Looks like the DFW is doing a better ob managing the poplations of these tasty monsters. Should be good fishing for years to come.

Can't wait till hte season opens!

good report!
you going to try a speargun if legal this year while diving? Hawaiian Sling or better yet a euro-speargun-- checkout picasso.com- wow!
I think i'm going to take a couple weekend days and drop some nice cutplugs down there with some heavy weights during slacktide and check out what you're talking about!

Wow what a great report! I'll be out in force this year..

How deep were you diving?

This is definately a fishery i wanna learn, i have always heard that there are lings down there, but you also have a tendency of losing alot of gear. Maybe you are gonna have to tell me the ends and outs of fishing this area for them DR.

It is very important to work around the tides if you are going to fish the Narrows. When the tide is ebbing or flooding, the current going through there is 2-4 MPH, which makes bottomfishing really sporting. There are also rips, crosscurrents, and debris.

When the tide is low or high, you have an hour or two of relatively calm water.

I use 1/2 - 5/8 steel round stock for weight with a small coat hanger spreader bar with a 15 lb test dropper to the weight.

Bounced one while drifting for bottom fish until the bottom 1/3 was bright. Bounces along like pencil lead.

Drill through the edge to get a snap swivel on it.

I will be out there too. Plan your trips around the tide changes for success. There are basically two weekends that have small tide changes. Small tide changes = longer feeding period.

My buddy got a 15# ling out of there last year.

I'll have Mini DR along to catch the bait. She loves catching Sand Dabs... The Lings scare the heck outta her !!

Any one know if they are going to have live herring at Narrows Marina this year?

Yes, I'm hearing that the new tackle store will have herring this year. However, I'm also hearing that they count out each hearing by grabbing them with their hands. This will result in A) getting exactly a dozen and B) getting bald herring! JACK

Just so there is no confusion......The old Narrows Tackle Store that has moved to 5401 6th Avenue will have fresh herring in the mornings on ice.
The new store that is in the old location is the one I am referring to in the previous post. I don't want to bad-mouth the wrong store :p JACK

Don't get too wired up on herring with the Narrow's lings.
They much prefer to take "Other" live bait than herring.

I'll donate my neighbors 2 worthless cats...

Easy...

Hit a shallow sandy area and catch ya some sand dabs with worms... Take a couple 6/0 or 7/0 hooks (depending on the size of the Dab). Hook one through the lips and the other through the back. Hang on!

I am sure the cats would work too!

Thanks DR. Live herring worked pretty well for us last year.

Big Flounder = Ling Potato Chips

Ling tater chips.. LOL

Herring work well Easy but sand dabsand kelp greenling wokk the best.

Anybody care to share their method for rigging a flounder?

Any tips for locations around the Seattle area? I tried (half-hearted I admit) the reef off of Blake Island, and the rocks off West Seattle. No luck. At least the flounder catching was good. Suggestions?

Try over by the Magnolia Marina or around the rocks by the boat launch.

I think DR hit the nail on the head with rigging up a sand dab or flounder, or anything else you plan to fish with that's alive.

Hook through both sides of the jaw so that the hook keeps the mouth closed and then hook the trailer through the skin between the middle of the back and tail.

Sculpins that are about 8-10" work well for lings too.

I have a friend has a favorite shallow water ling spot where he has C&R'd many small to medium size lings over the years on jigs and herring, but never any large ones. Last spring, I tried large live flounder for bait there and on the first drop landed a ling that I guess would have pushed 60 "! This thing was scary..;I swear you could have fit a basketball in her mouth!

This experience leads me to believe that many local spots may have very large lings, you may just need big baits to interest them.

I gotta try for some lings this year!

Tie a two hook rig similar to a salmon mooching leader using 8/0 to 10/0 hooks on forty pound test mono. You need a heavy leader because lings are toothy critters. If you toss jigs, be sure to use a wire leader for the same reason.

Sole are excellent ling cod bait as are kelp geenling fished live. Don't be in a hurry to set the hook, wait until your rodtip is pulled into the water, then reel slowly. Frequently large lings will not be hooked, merely holding the bait fish. Do not raise their head out of the water when netting.

It is illegal to gaff lingcod in Washington State. Any ling over 20 pounds is a female. I'd urge you to practice catch & release on the big mommas.

They tend to be tough and wormy so are not as good a table fare as the smaller ones anyway.

I don't know if you can find it anywhere, perhaps through the regional library system, but if you can find "NewTechniques for Catching Bottom Fish by Doug Wilson and Fred Vander Werff, it covers ling cod and other bottom fishing well. It has been out of print for several years.

Tight Lines,

Sebases AKA Doug Wilson

I don't think the bait issue is that important, you put a piece of meat or a jig in there face, they are more likely then not to bite it. Getting it in there face is the important part and finding proper structure is the key, pinnacles and ledges are where they live, which is pretty obvious info, the important part though is knowing how to read a fish finder to locate the fish once you find the proper structure, learn how to use your bottom lock and bottom zoom and you'll catch more fish. With fish ID off (which it should always be) fish are going to show up as spikes coming right off the bottom, I don't usually drop gear till I see the screen full of big spikes, don't waste time on small spikes as they probably aren't what you want.
1 other tip, don't fish where everybody else does, though there are few "secret" spots left in Puget Sound try to find your own spots and once you do, keep them to yourself.

Fresh shrimp if you can part with them work very well with the lingies and other assorted bottom dwelling denisons!

All this talk about bait....I'm amazed. I used to catch these things commercially and NEVER used bait. There is nothing smart about a Ling. Fish high current areas when the tides slow and fish a six inch chrome pipe jig....no mystery. I very seldom fished deeper than 35 fathoms.

35 fathoms! Now days its forty feet for me. No need to go deeper

Ok heres an "old" picture to get all you ling-aholics going!



Remember its an old picture, before you start flaming!

It's Starsky and Hutch!!

All this talk about baits and rigs and sanddabs and herring...........

1. Scuba gear
2. Spear gun
3. Big huge ling in the freezer

Lings hang out IN the rocks.

They are there in dozens but they only feed once in a while. The rest of the time, baits are cruising right by their hiding places and the fish aren't taking them....they're just getting snagged up in the rocks.

These fosh can go DAYS on end without feeding!!!

They don't have to be hungry to get speared.

What these pesty things... I wish I could figure out how to keep them off...

In all the years I fished the Narrows for critters, the one key to success (other than fishing the slack) was LIVE BAIT. Normally lings will take anything and we CNR them all day long up in SJ mainly using jigs, but at the Narrows where the tide change is very narrow live bait makes ALL the difference. The best tip I got on this fishery though was to forget about buying bait and head out well before the tide change for a bait ball or a back eddy near the point and load up using a herring jig. Another reason for this was because of the size of the bait. Many were easily 9" or larger, some were huge this time of year. We called them bull herring. Lings loved them. Which was a good thing because you might only get 5 or 6 passes over the old bridge debris before the bite was off.
Oh ya, don't forget to aeriate or recycle water to keep the bait active.

Ling'on!

fun5acres

Looks atlittle more like the two guys on "CHIPS"!

It's Starsky and Hutch!!

You've obviously mistaken me for someone who owns a ford

Here's my tip: Try and collect some smallish live forage fish and then impale a few on a big hook(just like maggots or caddis). No need to fish them too close to the rocks though(snag up less). The idea is to swim them within a foot of the rocks so that when your rig passes over the ling's lair the response is immediate.

Someone commented on the fact that lings aren't hungry all the time. My response to this is that if you eat big meals all the time then of course you'll need a longer time to digest, esp if you just gobbled up your 1lb cousin.

I would have to say that the size of your bait is usually a good indicator of what size of ling you're likely to catch. From my experience, the lings will try to get the biggest bang for their buck, thus they will generally ignore a tidbit or morsel and go for something that is just about as big as their mouths. Those pictures of rockfish/greenling tails sticking out of the ling's mouth are a prime example of what I'm talking about. Much the same way with snakes... they take more than they can eat in one swallow, thus increasing their energy extraction to energy consumption ratio.

Think BIG baits.

I find that in general, the female kelp greenling tend to be about the smallest that you can find with only a few topping 1lb or more. They are peppered with brownish spots, have golden yellow flecks scattered on their sides and are generally light colored in comparison to their male companions. Oh and I forgot, they tend to hole up in groups. Generally they seperate out by sex, with one hole being predominantly male and the next being a harem(one male the rest females;)). So if you catch one, you're bound to catch another if you toss your bait into the same hole.

Exactly Rockhopper.
Their mouth and teeth should tell it all.
At West Port the big lings will chase your smaller bait but once they see the bait at close, they just make a quick U turn.
If you got a 9 inch Greenling, you are guarantee to get a ling.
Most of the time, the ling is not even hooked; he just grabbed the greenling and would not let go.

Candle fish, eel, greenling, and small flounder is 10 time more affective than herring.