Northwest Fishing Magazine July 2025 Volume 4 Issue 9 - Flipbook - Page 35
TACTIC NUMBER ONE:
Live bait rigs. Live bait is the
most natural presentation
to a fish. As the name
implies, you need an actual
prey item connected to
your hook, and this often
elicits the most aggressive
feeding response. The flip
side is that you have to
spend considerable time
catching bait. Additionally, it
can be difficult to keep your
bait alive throughout the
day. I have found that live
bait rigs work best when
targeting ling cod on reefs
that are under 150’ deep.
need to be hooked to
bring them to the boat.
To decide between large
and small bait, know your
area. If you are fishing a
particularly busy reef with
lots of rockfish, and you
are not allowed to keep
them, try to use larger baits
such as greenling or other
sculpin to keep bycatch to
a minimum. The best live
bait rig I have ever seen, I
learned from John Kerrigan
of Seeking Limits Guide
Service out of Everett,
WA. John’s rig is devilishly
simple.
Ling cod will readily take
live bait of nearly any size,
and often do not even
It consists of a sliding
weight system where the
plastic slide is connected
