Lings on a Fly?

is this even doable? i've been seeing this pop up in Norcal and other locations, but to me , lings are deep water fish... with a weighted streamer and a heavy sinking tip, we might be able to get down, oh, 15 to 30 feet or so, right? lings are usually way deeper. so how would we approach this??

I've caught a 31 inch ling in roughly 30 ft. of water.  I've caught a almost-legal sized ling right on the surface.  Seems like it's totally do-able.  Maybe use a big minnow-like streamer and weight it to reach 30 ft. might be all you'd need.  Just have to find a productive reef.

I've had legal and under size Lings snatch my jig when fishing topwater for blacks. Doesn't happen often but it does happen.
 
So, if you can get 15-30 feet down i recommend fishing in 15-30 FOW...
 

I've never caught a ling on a fly, but have heard about guys catching them while fishing for rockfish, and also targeting them off jettys and breakwaters. Outdoor writer Dave Hughes from Astoria, Oregon had a chapter in his book "An Anglers Astoria" called "Un-landable Ling Cod." They'd fish off the jetty at the Columbia River mouth using disposable shooting heads made from lead-core trolling line and very large flies. The technique was to cast out and let everything sink down as close as possible to the rocks. If they were lucky enough to hook a good-sized fish, they'd muscle the fish in as fast as possible, or else the fish would run into the rocks and break off. 10-12 weight rods were necessary to control the fish.

Do-able from a kayak? You bet!

Tom

check the video in the 2nd frame. yeh this is doable. crazy but doable. looks like i have more toys to buy.oh, and, can anyone recommend a fly tying school in the puyallup area?

oooppsss , would help if i posted the link;  http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2010/05/27/fly-tying-video-captain-nates-lingcod-clouser-minnow/

sooorrry

what about a downrigger?    i have trolled for kokanee on a down rigger with a 6wt seems just bigger scale and minnow imitations 

TomB, thanx for your earlier reply, it' dovetails with what i'm thinking , especially the weight specs on the rods and lines.

'shadow, my idea isnt to troll for them but cast and rapidly sink into their territory then piss 'em off enough with the fly that thay'll inhale it. a 6 wt is a bit light for what i'm looking at. remember these are mean aggressive muscular fish. i'm looking at 10 to 12 weight like TomB said. already have a 14 foot 11 weight i want to use for beach bombing for Rooseters, Jacks, and such in places like Belize and LaPaz when i can afford to make that happen.

meantimes, Albright Tackle has $500.00 heavy weights in the 9 foot range marked down to $99.00. And, like flytyer_396 reminded me,  a 9 footer is much easier to use on a yak than a 14 footer.

been doing a LOT of research and asking around,. Jim Teeney personally answered my email to his CSD regarding line, and seemes like it has his interest too. sevral others want to know when i am going to do this, want documentation and pics etc. right now in planning stage. i had found teeneys new heavyweight sinker tips ( 350-800 grain) at a local shop and it just built the idea a bit more towards going for it.

flies? am thinking wieghted flies, mayb e tube types, using flashabou, uv yarns, and bass rattles. this is one of the reasons i want to learn fly tieing. roll my own find what works. [ also want to tie mice/rats /frogs for large trout and bass]

sounds crazy, but taking lessons learned from many of the old timers here regarding adaptability is also leading me to beleive this is possible.

now to get the hell out of this desert to a plce that actually has water for fish to breathe........
 

o that would probably work a lot better than trolling  anyone anyone ever fish for black bass off the jetty's with fly gear?

If i ever get my hands on a beater fly rod heavy enough to even think about handling black rockfish i would love to try it. When the Blacks are on the topwater bite, you can see their fins breaking the surface of the water and they are extremely aggressive. very fun with a light spinning setup and a small swim shad, should be a kick on a fly rod fished conventionally.

 I've caught lings fishing from a boat at Neah Bay on the bug rod. Even if I'm trolling with downriggers I keep a fly rod rigged and ready to cast to surface feeding silvers and black rockfish. We've caught a bunch of lings fairly shallow near kelp as basically incidental catches. The rig that I normally use is a 9' 10 wt with a fairly large diameter reel. I use 6' to 8' of cheap lead core trolling line that I whip loops on each end. One end is 8' to 10' of 20 lb leader and the other end is attached to hi viz 30 lb mono that I use for both running line and backing. For a fly its anything that looks like a bait fish thats 4" to 7" long. Tied sparse so it casts decently. I don't really try to fool around with backcasts. Basically its just get the lead core barely out of the tip and go into a back cast and let it fly on the forward cast. Its basically just an aim high and let it fly lob shot. Distance casting is not needed. Just get it out there and let it sink and feed running line out to the depth that you want to start the retrieve at. Strip the fly back in keeping the rod tip low to the water. When the lead core gets a foot from the tip rip the line out of the water and into a back cast. Repeat as often as necessary, or until your arm/shoulder wears out! 

think i am going to the jetty this weekend with my dad    going to try using a ten weight with a sink tip and some flies i tie up will post a pic of the fly later.

I would think mixing some scent (anchovy or herring oil) with some gink sink on your fly might increase your odds.

If i ever get my hands on a beater fly rod heavy enough to even think about handling black rockfish i would love to try it. When the Blacks are on the topwater bite, you can see their fins breaking the surface of the water and they are extremely aggressive. very fun with a light spinning setup and a small swim shad, should be a kick on a fly rod fished conventionally.

Anything 6wt or bigger should handle this. The problem comes when something toothier than a rockfish decides to go for a ride!!!!

Anything 6wt or bigger should handle this. The problem comes when something toothier than a rockfish decides to go for a ride!!!!

I'll have to keep my eyes open at the pawn shop and see if anything shows up

OK this late in the discussion but last year I was reeling in my 8 ounce jig and as it came out of the water a 3 ' Ling came straight out of the water after it, must of gone 2 feet straight up.  I quickly tossed the jig back down and he quickly grabbed it.  Leads me to believe it is doable.