looking for cabezon area 13/11

as the title says im looking for some tips on catching these guys. iv been launching from stilicome park. chambers bay area. there is a ton of little guys, but i havent pulled up any close to legal size.

what depth do the larger ones stay at?

i have been using a 1 oz jig head with pumpkin grub with green flake, black with blue flake, and a pumpkin with cinimon flake. 

would i be better off using real bait? herring or squid?

thanks for any and all advise.

Lots of em are caught on big hammers

I've caught em on metal jigs too. They dont seem too picky. Lots of em on the coast and in the strait, I don't know about 13/11.

There is no minimum size for cabezon in WA. When you are saying there is a ton of little guys do you mean a ton of small cabezons or sculpins? There are a bunch of species of sculpins, with cabezon, being the largest.

When I out at Hobuck at the end of July the cabbies were hitting my 6-8" curly tail grubs (mostly I was using the Berkely Powerbait ones).  Course I was also catch lings and greenlings on the same setup.  I think I managed 4 greenling, 3-4 lings (2 of which were legal size keepers), and 1 cabezon in the space of 3 hours on a single grub.  It was torn all to hell by the end of that, but it was still working! 

A similar setup got me a rockfish and a few cabezon and some lings the previous 2 days.

Im not familiar with that area But my best rigs are irons tiped with squid or rootbeer or white colored scampi tails on a 2 or 3 oz jig head. Ive caught some nice 21-23 in in 20 FOW usually around pinackles or in front of rocks. Ill fish really close to the rocks if the swell and wind waves are not bad Cabbys are the largest sculpin and can be found in tidepools as well so shallow water is the norm.

Wes

Hobuck is at Makah Bay, which is on the ocean side from Neah Bay at the NW tip of the Olympic Peninsula.

Mostly the bottom fishing I was doing out there was 30-60 FOW.  Best cabezon taped at 26".  My best ling that trip was 30".  Lee and Marie caught some around 31.5-32".  I think Pixter or one of the other guys went out quite a bit further and picked up a 38" ling.

i was mis-reading the regs i guess, must have looked at ling minimum size .

wow 2-3 oz jig head? thats pretty large i figured that the hook was to big to get in there mouth. i will have to give it a try next time.

and when fishing these, are you bottom bouncing the jig head? or jigging in suspended water?

id love to get out to the coast to fish for some cleaner fish. seemed all the flounder/sole i pulled up were infested with worms.

i was mis-reading the regs i guess, must have looked at ling minimum size .

wow 2-3 oz jig head? thats pretty large i figured that the hook was to big to get in there mouth. i will have to give it a try next time.

and when fishing these, are you bottom bouncing the jig head? or jigging in suspended water?

id love to get out to the coast to fish for some cleaner fish. seemed all the flounder/sole i pulled up were infested with worms.

Cabs and lings have very large mouths.  Heck, I was catching greenlings with the same setup as the cabs and lings, and that with whatever size hook the put on 4-6oz jig heads.

I usually bounce it along the bottom.  I've gotten strikes on the drop before it is all the way down, but these fish are usually right on the bottom.

Oh, and you won't get away from the worms out on the coast.

There will be fewer worms in Lings, but Cabezon almost always have worms.  Just remove what you see, and cook the rest  ;-)