I need a Greenling!

Lets talk Greenling.I am hitting whidbey this thur and my mission is to get my first Greenling.Any tips on tactics?Sorry this may seem very plebian to the more experienced amongst us.Apologies in advance...

Fish with sandshrimp around rocks and structure. I use the eagle claw crappie rigs with size 2 or 4 hooks, 2 ounce weight. If you cant get sandshrimp, you can use Berkley gulp sandworms. Small jigs works also. Ive had the best luck with sand shrimp by far.

Mussels are also effective.

OK I've caught greenling before just bottom fishing off a dock and am curious as to how big Greenling's get?

OK I've caught greenling before just bottom fishing off a dock and am curious as to how big Greenling's get?

When I was a kid we went out in my friend's boat to what is now Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve and dropped kelp worms to the bottom and caught lots of greenling in the 18 - 21" range. Those were the biggest I have seen. There were no limits back then.

Just remember if you haven't caught them before, they are not like lingcod or cabezon. They have a very small mouth size. I've caught them off the jetty with sand shrimp and squid. Also they seem to hand out more towards the bottom where sand meets the rocks so they can grab small bits of food and still have cover. Good luck!!

They are nibblers too; be patient when they start to hit.  They love to steal the tails off of gulp mullets.

You can over think this and fish all kinds of bait that will be picked off by everything that swims, or go buy some 3" gulp mullet, or gulp ghost shrimp to increase your catch and lessen the ass pain of dealing with bait. They're pretty voracious for their size, and not too finicky. They do have small mouths, so a dropshot rig with a #1 hook, or a 1 oz freshwater jig head (due to smaller wire gauge and hook size) along with the gulp will catch them all day. Once they grab the gulp give them some slack, slow count to 3, then put it to them. They won't spit that stuff out like a flavor/odorless plastic.

I have caught more greenling while targeting lingcod. It's weird, they like to snag themselves on my lures. The last one I caught was snagged right in the pooper. It would have gone 17-18 inches but flipped off the hawg trough 

I'll have to try the Gulp ghost shrimp some time. It sounds like a no brainer.

Try 3 inch Pink/Pearl colored Buzz-bomb's near the kelp

I got most of mine off the ORC captains bag lancer jig fishing in the kelp

Just outside of bowman bay there is nice amounts of greenling they do t sit in the kelp though , they are like 100 feet from it. 16 18 inchers all day in the summer time. I don't see why they won't be there in spring. If you feel like going a bit further. The south side of deception island also has a fair number there. I was using 3/8 oz coho twitching jigs on 8 lb test, was a lot of fun.

Ask and ye shall recieve!Bowman bay on thurs.armed with buzz bombs,twitch jigs and some lancers.Sounds like I better throw some sand shrimp and some small shrimp imitators in the kit.Thanks for all the input.

Please be sure to update us on how you did!  What worked and what didn't.....   

You can over think this and fish all kinds of bait that will be picked off by everything that swims, or go buy some 3" gulp mullet, or gulp ghost shrimp to increase your catch and lessen the ass pain of dealing with bait. They're pretty voracious for their size, and not too finicky. They do have small mouths, so a dropshot rig with a #1 hook, or a 1 oz freshwater jig head (due to smaller wire gauge and hook size) along with the gulp will catch them all day. Once they grab the gulp give them some slack, slow count to 3, then put it to them. They won't spit that stuff out like a flavor/odorless plastic.

This is exactly what I would do as well. They seem to love Gulp and don't be afraid to go with bright colors.