If you are hooking lots of true cod in an area and you think you have yet another on the line......why not just leave the line down there and see what happens.

You don't know it is a true cod yet, you are probably saving all the others you will hook if you don't unhook this one, and most importantly, I know from experience that a lot of large bottom feeders feckin' love these fish.

Well said and point taken. Even if it is legal to do so. Kinda like bonkin' a 30lb nate just cause one can. But we dont want to beat that dead horse.

i caught on off the alki pier last winter that was about 17" long. i was shocked to say the least. but as the year has went one ive heard of alot.

also there has been alot of black sea bass caught in the des moines area. i seen 8 or 9 caught in one night that were in the 1-2lb range

Used to be thick on possesion and mission bar back when I was a kid - some of them quite large. I've got a picture of my brother kissing about a 15# pacific true cod. Used to be a lot of hake around too - anyone been seeing any of those?

I would believe they migrated in... Let's hope they stay around. I haven't caught a TC since the late 70s or early 80s when this last March I could keep them off the line. They are a pain when you are blackie fishing.

As far as hake, haven't seen one of those for a while either.

Without looking at the regs, I believe it is illegal to retain True Cod in 5-13.

I can vividly remember when blackie fishing was slow mooching or jigging off Point Fosdick for limits of these tasty fish.

My cousin used to fish for hake as a kid. He would ride his bike down to Les Davis pier at night with no fishing gear on hand! He would find some line a hook and some old bait on the dock and many times he would come home with several hake.

I too remember catching lots of true cod and hake while salmon fishing. I also remember catching them from the old Edmonds dock where my brother and I used to fish at night in the late 60's.
My dad used to have an old 30' Bristol Bay double ender sailboat that we would go on with him as long as he made sure we'd get a little fishing time. We used to catch lots of cod between Kingston & Edmonds.
One thing to remember (and I'm no expert) is that hake and true cod do look "similar". Also, there is a seperate fish called a Tom Cod which is a small version of the Pacific Cod, growing to maybe 12"-14" and can be mistaken for a young Pacific Cod. I remember one time catching dozens of them off our dad's sailbot in Quatermaster Harbor one evening and while bringing one up feeling a huge jerk on my rod, then back to normal. When that little Tom Cod came to the surface some kind of 8'+ shark loomed up from the deep following it. You never saw a couple of kids scramble for high ground faster than my brother and I did.

We also caught a lot of what we called "tomcod" but now I know that they were actually "greenling" and mostly the females as the color was almost always brown/gold.

The true tell tale sign between greenling and pacific cod or true cod is a white whisker under the chin, whereas the tomcod had no whisker.

WD.

tomcod
pacific cod (true cod)
hake

and also don't forget the walleye pollock

all look somewhat similar. Not sure if I can tell the difference between a tomcod, true cod, or WP when the fish is less than 12 inches long. At least with hake, they have more readily identifiable features, like bigger teeth and a generally oddball appearance

Pacific Cod (True cod) = Gadus Macroephalus can reach 119 cm (46.9 in)

Pacific Tomcod = microgadus proximus can reach 30.5 cm (12 in)

And, Tomcod do have the whisker. I remember them looking like "minnie me" versions of True cod.

I do remember the unique "google eyes" of the Walleyed Pollack.

Hake were harder to tell apart from True cod, although usually smaller, if memory serves me correct.

I think "Krab" is made from either pollock or hake.

I humbly disagree. I spent my youth on the docks catching Tom Cod. They look just like a small Pacific Cod. There are two types of Tom Cod Microgradus tomcod, and Microgradus proximus.

Greenling, Hexagrammos decagrammus, look like, well ,greenling, or if you have enough imagination perhaps lingcod, but to me they do not look like Tom Cod . Also note the male and female kelp greenling look quite dissimilar

What I had always heard was that they spawned in Agate Pass and that it was the largest run in the world. Then they allowed the commercials to net Agate Pass during the spawn and wipe them out.

Hake are night feeders. Used to be mooching for kings you had to thin out the true cod to get to the kings and in the evening you fished until you caught a hake. Hake will destroy leaders and once you catch one all you are going to catch is more hake.

Vedder, I thought you spent your youth catching crabs?

That was my Navy years.

Here's what the little fellows look like.