Best way to rig for live bait lingcod

My biggest question is how may guys use sliding weights? Who uses fixed weights? What do you find more effective?

Team Sliding weight.
Minimum 4oz sinker, sometime go up to 8oz depending on depth and swell. 3-4’ ft of leader.

The lings are moving in fast. Got limits quick last sat & Sunday in less than couple hrs out of Santa Cruz.

I seem to see more guys using the sliding weight. I just bought a second Trevala so I could have one rigged for bait and a second for jigging. Obviously not at the same time. Lol. I was a proud member of the 1 rod club, but now I see the need for a second.

I seem to see more guys using the sliding weight. I just bought a second Trevala so I could have one rigged for bait and a second for jigging. Obviously not at the same time. Lol. I was a proud member of the 1 rod club, but now I see the need for a second.

Also Team Sliding Weight.  I keep the slider above the swivel on my braid.  I tie either a leader with a Pro Angler Clip or a sliding snell rig on to switch back and forth between jigging and bait.

I seem to see more guys using the sliding weight. I just bought a second Trevala so I could have one rigged for bait and a second for jigging. Obviously not at the same time. Lol. I was a proud member of the 1 rod club, but now I see the need for a second.

I sometimes use my salmon rod for Hali. To add the sinker slider without having to cut line, I tie a loop at the end of my mainline, and then run it through a swivel. The rest of my salmon setup is connected to that swivel. When I want to swap it, I get the loop out, put a sinker slider on, then put back the swivel and the Hali setup.
The other benefit of this approach is you can get the line all the way back to the reel, in case you want to move the reel to another rod or put it away

I used to mostly use a 3 way rig for my sliding snell bait leaders for lings (and other things), but I have been gravitating towards sliding sinker / fish finder rig setups more.  I think they are more sensitive and maybe snag less?  Seems less likely to get line twist too than a 3 way.

Interesting to read about the different ways that people rig to make swapping out terminal tackle easy.  For both my kayak setups and my surf fishing setups, I tie a snap swivel onto the end of my braid main line.  Then I can clip on whatever I need.  For sliding sinker rigs, I tie a swivel or loop (to clip to the snap at the end of my braid), then a 12" to 18" piece of mono with the slider on it, then another swivel, then the leader to the hook or hooks.  I find that having a 12" to 18" length of line between two swivels for the slider to move on is just fine, it doesn't need to be able to run up my main line infinitely.  And it allows me to snap the sliding sinker rig on and off like anything else.

Works great in the surf too, so I can swap to plugs with no tying or hassle.

I’m thinking I will run my slider on my braid/mainline, then a swivel and mono down to my bait. On my weight I am thinking of a small mono loop or rubber band to connect the weight to the slider. Kinda like a fuse incase my weight gets snagged.

One of the benefits of running a slider is if you go to net the fish, and get the weight instead. With the fixed weight the fish can’t run, and there’s a chance of losing the fish.

I carry a M/L rod for jigs, and a M/H for weights but I like the idea of using a loop to attach to the swivel for easy changes.

Ya the loop idea is nice. I just bought another rod and reel so will set them up accordingly.

I’m thinking I will run my slider on my braid/mainline, then a swivel and mono down to my bait. On my weight I am thinking of a small mono loop or rubber band to connect the weight to the slider. Kinda like a fuse incase my weight gets snagged.

The mono loop for the weight is also a good way to move the rig further from the bottom.  You can tie any length of line with a loop on each end.  Not as important with ling, but good for converting the same rig for trolling for hali.