Who Says It’s Ugly? Give Me That Ling!
By Mark Yuasa, Seattle Times
May 21–WHIDBEY ISLAND — The saying that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder is certainly true when it comes to lingcod.
While the vampire-fanged, buggy-eyed creatures won’t win any beauty contests — in fact, they’re widely considered the ugliest fish in the saltwater kingdom — they certainly put wide smiles on the anglers who get a chance to catch them.
Even a rainy, windy day that slowed the bite didn’t diminish our enthusiasm.
Gary Krein, owner of All-Star Charters, started our recent fishing trip to the south side of Whidbey Island with a short jaunt out of the Everett Marina to fish for one of the lingcod’s favorite meals, the flounder, also commonly referred to as a sand-dab.
Floating in 100 feet of water, we dropped our small pieces of Berkley Power Bait herring strips, scented with a very pungent, licorice-smelling substance on a short leader with a 2/0 hook to the sandy bottom. It didn’t take us long to load up the boat with enough live bait for the day, about 25 flounders along with two small sculpins.
To other smaller fish and marine creatures, the lingcod is like the neighborhood bully, and this intimidator is a cannibal for pretty much anything that comes within reach of its rocky domain.
Lingcod are solitary bottom-dwellers with a voracious appetite that consumes fishes including flounder, sculpin, rockfish and kelp greenling, herring, pollock and even their own babies. Other delights include octopus, crabs and squid.
These predators have gained popularity among anglers each spring during a short-lived fishery that begins May 1 and ends June 15 from Sekiu in the Strait of Juan de Fuca east into Puget Sound. The shorter fishing season in inner-marine waters is one reason for their resurgence in the past two decades.
“We went through a decline in Puget Sound in the 1970s, but since then we have seen them slowly increase from the early 1980s to a point where it is stable enough to have a fishery now,” said Greg Bargmann, a state Fish and Wildlife fish manager. “About every 10 to 15 years we have a strong class where we have lots of fish, and that happened around the late 1990s.
“Those fish are about 6 or 7 years old, and they’re contributing in the fisheries right now.”
Another reason for the rebound in the lingcod population around Puget Sound is the stipulation that only fish between 26 and 40 inches can be kept.
As we headed toward the open water of northern Puget Sound we were greeted with southerly winds blowing up to 20 mph, white-capping seas and rainstorm squalls gushing overhead.
After bucking the waves for 30 minutes and donning rain gear, we arrived at our first spot in 35 to 40 feet of water off Possession Bar’s eastern shore near a spot where rocky pinnacles rise up from the briny depths — the preferred hideout for big, hungry lings.
On my second drop of our first drift, I felt a big tug and waited for a moment to let the lingcod slurp in the live flounder before setting the hook. In a matter of seconds I reeled up but the fish let go of my bait about halfway to the surface.
Sometimes the lingcod will gulp down on the presentation but won’t be hooked and often lets go as it nears the surface.
Such was my fate with my first — and as it turned out, only — hook-up of the day.
We journeyed to a few more spots that held out promise, and on our third stop Tony Floor of Olympia landed our first lingcod of the day, a 15-pounder.
Looking to the south we noticed the dark clouds and more rain squalls moving toward us at good speed, and by noon our fishing time was all but up.
On the ride back we tallied our lost chances and agreed that the five of us could have gotten our one-lingcod daily limit had we not unbuttoned our opportunities to get the fish in the boat.
Note
–For those who want to target lingcod beyond the short Puget Sound season, the coast from Neah Bay to Ilwaco is open through Oct. 13, and the catch limit is a more liberal two per day. Also, the minimum size limit from Ilwaco to La Push is 22 inches, at Neah Bay it is 24 inches, and there is no maximum size limit.
Mark Yuasa: 206-464-8780 or myuasa@seattletimes.com
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Copyright (c) 2007, Seattle Times
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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