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.