Ling cod?

[Parasite]

For you guys targeting ling cod in areas 7 through 10 ... Do you hover over spots to jig for ling cod? Or do you drift with the current? I'm without a trolling motor at the moment due to a national shortage but I'd still like to get out and target ling cod in some new areas.

[fishngamereaper]

Drifting is fine ..lings are ambush feeder's so drift and reset is common practice.

[Limhangerslayer]

One of the best days we’ve ever had we put 7 keeper lings in the two boats we were in.  That was area 7 and we only fished 3 hours and were drifting about 2mph.  And we released 15-20 more lings and dozens of rockfish.

[Stein]

I drift, we are 1/1 this year, need to get out more.  I do try to drift very slow and will back into the current if the wind is blowing so we don't have to use much weight to stay on the bottom.

[carlyoungs]

I've caught lings on the downriggers fishing deep for kings several times using cut plugs. I thing lings will bite anything that moves in front of them.

[Norman89]

I've caught lings on the downriggers fishing deep for kings several times using cut plugs. I thing lings will bite anything that moves in front of them.

If it fits in there mouth they hit it, I had a ling swallow a 5lb seabass once, he spooled me in seconds. Pretty awesome but lost him

[Fidelk]

For you guys targeting ling cod in areas 7 through 10 ... Do you hover over spots to jig for ling cod? Or do you drift with the current?

You should hover over particular spots if you are catching them. You can also drift until you start catching them but when the bite stops, return to the spot where you hooked up and start the drift again. Drifting can help you find the fish.

I was on a lingcod charter out of Bodega Bay, CA......65' boat limited to 20 people, jigs only......the captain had called me to say he had found the mother of all lingcod spots. When we arrived at the spot, I dropped a diamond jig with a rubber shrimp tied about 18" above the jig. When the jig hit bottom, there was instant weight and I pulled up two 20 lb. lings. Dropped again, same result. Boat limited out in an hour or so (limit was 5 lingcod at that time). Captain just kept the boat over the spot. No need to drift. There must have been a fairly large depression that a huge number of lings had moved into. I don't think anyone on board caught a rockfish......that concentration of lings would have wiped them out. It was all going on in that one particular hole.......another nearby party boat was catching lots of rockfish but very few lings. A unique day of targeted fishing.