Lingcod

Ok so you hooked a lingcod but have no gaff or net how do you land this fish with razor sharp needle teeth, spines, and sharp gill rakers this was my dilemma with the two post season lings I caught and released.  Does anyone have any pointers for me to make this easier?  Would "cut-resistant" gloves help at all cause trying to get by the gill rakes on a large one I almost sliced my fingers up trying to grab it...

Fish grips or bogs grips.  I never use a net or gaff.

Gloves work... I just keep my hand towards the front of the gill plates.  I've been poked, but never cut.  If you are releasing them and using that method, be careful not to hurt them.  I have better luck doing it this way than using the fish grips.  I always seem to break their jaws when using fish grips. (so, I am probably doing it wrong)

I use a short gaff, catch the lower jaw and hoist and hold the fish out of the water, they usually stop thrashing at this point and puke on me, remove the hook with me pliers and if keeping the fish, I slip it into me gunny sack.

I see you live in Washington.  Gaffs are illegal to use on lings in Wa.
I really like Boga Grips because the head swivels unlike lip grippers. I have heard good things about Lucid grips too.
90% of the time on medium sized lings, under 34", I just grab the jig head and pull them into the boat. I almost always wear neoprene gloves on the water so I can handle bottom fish without tearing my hands up. You don't need the super fish gloves. Just about any glove will work, alot of guys like the rubber  palmed gardening gloves

Thanks guys I'll try my leather gloves and see how that works on my outing in the morning hopefully there's still some big guns out there

I just use the rubber palm gloves if I use them at all.

I prefer cheap plastic "Fish Grip" type lip grippers, because I'm prone to losing things. They work great for groundfish.

To avoid the broken-jaw problem, put the wrist strap on. When the fish begins a death roll, simply let go of the grip and let it roll. The wrist strap will keep the fish tied to you, and it can't break its jaw this way. I've had zero problems keeping fish on and uninjured with this method.

If I'm going to release it it's in the water anyway, so it's not thrashing around in my lap like this. If I'm going to keep it then all bets are off; whatever puts it on the stringer is what I'm going to do.

If you decide to use grips, be careful with the the cheapo plastic ones. Like Captain Redbeard said, broken jaws are problematic if you don't let them free spin on the wrist sling. That presents its own set of safety concerns though. Boga or  Lucid are the way to go IMO. I'm obviously a little biased, but Lucid are essentially the same thing as Boga for half the cost. Here's a video of them in action.

A little bottom fishing:

My fish gripper are plastic and I added a piece of shock cord I clip on my lady side of it starts rolling I drop it back in the water.

My fish gripper are plastic and I added a piece of shock cord I clip on my lady side of it starts rolling I drop it back in the water.

.... ummm .... i think I speak for than just myself here.

PLEASE do not post pictures of you clipping anything to your "lady side" !!

My fish gripper are plastic and I added a piece of shock cord I clip on my lady side of it starts rolling I drop it back in the water.

.... ummm .... i think I speak for than just myself here.

PLEASE do not post pictures of you clipping anything to your "lady side" !!

That's funny right there! Stupid smart phone auto correcting small keyboard frustration piece of £#!+
My left side it and the bunker at all that's over there rest goes on the right.

You can usually grip a lingcod from the outside of both lip without tearing yourself up.  If you plan on  keeping them, a thumb in the eye socket with with the rest of the hand on the outside of the lower jaw really puts a lock on them.

I find there are too many sharp things when trying to gill them, both on the outside of the cheek plate and the inside of the gill plate.

-Allen

I too have added about 2' of 1/4" shock cord and a brass clip to my plastic lip grips.
Clip the brass to my seat strap, and let the fish fight themselves until they calm down.
Since I started kayak fishing in 2008, this has been my go to method.

Last year at Hobuck, I lost a huge ling (and 6 year old lip grippers) when I clipped it to my anchor trolley and it did a gator roll up the shock cord.  On the last roll it put a loaded twist on the brass clip and forced it off the trolley line.  It slowly sank out of sight with my lip grippers firmly attached to its lower lip. 

My mistake in using a brass clip without a swivel base and a carabiner style keep on that lip grip.  My new ones have the swivel base now, and vertical spring loaded keep, and I don't see how it is going to get the leverage to pop it now. 

Not bad for 6 years and only lost the one fish+grip, but no broken grips, or broken jaws. 

Brass swivel clip on my shopping list and I never thought about the seat strap I use the inner deck bungee cord. To bleed my lings and cabbys I have a cheap pair of loooong needle nose pliers I keep tucked under my seat to reach in rip out the gills , works great with a twist and pull. But come to think of it I don't remember rinsing them off second thing on the yard sale replacement shopping list.