Lingcod

I would be all for that in Oregon too.  I would see no problem with the max even being 36inches.  I would even support bumping up the lower limit too, maybe 26 or 28..  Anything in that window is a quality sized good eating fish. 

I would be all for that in Oregon too.  I would see no problem with the max even being 36inches.  I would even support bumping up the lower limit too, maybe 26 or 28..  Anything in that window is a quality sized good eating fish. 

You know that will never happen, it makes way too much sense....But we can do it ourselves, I'm gonna CPR all Lings and cabs this weekend and just keep a few blacks. Got way too much fish in my freezer already...

CBY.... I have some freezer space if ya need it. just got to come up here to use it. ..

I raised my personal ling minimum to 26inches  and might just bump that to 28.  Under 26 they just don't seem to have the size (decent filets, I fish because I love to eat fish, and do, at least 3 times a week) to justify killing one. A "jumbo" black has about the same about of meat as a barely legal ling

I would support that slot limit down here too.  Killing big lings is mostly an ego stroke - the smaller ones do eat better, IMO.

Here's a few movies I made with some ling releases.  Hope you don't mind me cluttering the "big fish brag board" with my flicks, Al.   

Just recently caught my best ling at PC. Ended up being 14#, 36".
I too would be for some kind of limit on the high end.

Speaking of throw back ling size....  Where do ya draw the line?
Do you go ahead and keep your first ever 25lb ling, and then release anything that size later?  

My personal thoughts, knowing what I know now...  36" seems the perfect size, so anything larger than 40 will be a CPR only, and perhaps an official length and weight with who ever is fishing with me...  The only other way, would be a World Record.

I prefer to keep smaller fish, they just taste better.  Tastiest Halibut I ever ate was a 12 lber last year on Montague..

That 44" Ling in the pictures Polepole listed above was too tough and stringy, despite not having worms...


Yep, those Golden Lings sure are attractive, but by far, the Blue ones are the best looking of the species.

YotF

I guess I'll have to catch and keep one bigger than 22.25" before I plan to release the 'big' ones 

When going after lingzilla and his friends, would you recommend going barbless or pinching down the barb? I've been struggling lately with removing barbed hooks without taking too much time or overly stressing the fish.

Jay

You guys are aloud to use barbed hooks down there?

When going after lingzilla and his friends, would you recommend going barbless or pinching down the barb? I've been struggling lately with removing barbed hooks without taking too much time or overly stressing the fish.

Jay

It's pretty hard to stress a Ling too much and there good at shaking jigs off. I wouldn't use barbless but you can if you want.

Since I haven't been catching the lings, this has been mostly a problem with the blacks.

I personally don't like barbless hooks on lings.  They just shake their heads too aggressively.  I remember one morning at Slip Point out by Sekiu.   There is a small ledge that comes off the point.  Tom and I were fishing it and I had a number of good hookups, lings for sure by the headshake feeling and surging runs back down to the bottom.  All lost.    The next day we went down the road to Snow Creek where barbs were legal.  No problem keeping lings on the hook that day, and a few blacks to boot.  

We've been talking about golden, orange, and blue lings.  This one is almost black.

-Allen

Maybe I'll just bend the barbs down on the 1-2 oz jigs since these end up on cast/retrieve duty when bringing in rockies. I'll keep the big boys for the bottom barbed.

Now I just need to get home and get rigged for a sunrise launch at PC tomorrow!!!

Thanks,
Jay

Polepole,

  Have you noticed if Circle Hooks help with Lings?  My though is to make some double hook (In line, Head and Stinger...  A rig I use exclusively for Sharks here, with few if any lost fish) rigs with large circles for my next trip to Alaska to try out....

   I going to get that 50" Trophy yet!

YotF