For Newbies: simple rigs for several species

I was talking to a new fishing kayak owner at the MBK fest today and although he's been fishing a lot, he didn't know much about ocean/bay fishing.  He's going to register with this site and should learn a lot, but I thought it might be helpful to him and others to explain one simple technique to catch each target species in MBay.  And I'm not much more than a rookie myself, but these have worked:

Halibut: Sandy areas, 35-75 ft, especially those near rocky areas, which are usually shown by kelp(where they scarf up the little rockfish and jacksmelt): Put an egg sinker (one that looks like an egg with a hole through it lengthwise), start with 3 oz, may go up for more current, down for calm water, on your mainline , 20-30lb test, tie on a snap swivel (one that looks like a safety pin), clip that to a leader that starts with a 1" loop, goes 4-5 feet  of 30 test line to a single small hook (#1?- maybe 1" long x 1/2 wide), then 4-6" below that, a treble hook (#4).  Bait with frozen squid- Safeway or bait shops with single hook through the pointy end of the squid and the treble through the eyes.  Drop this to the BOTTOM, and drift, but not too fast, with just thumb just lightly on the spool, not in gear, wait for light tugs, wait more, set hook, go for sliegh ride,  and reel'm in with as light a drag as possible, cause they'll take a run on you and you want them tired.  Gaff (legal sized), put on stringer or dive clip,  and beat to death on edge of head or cut spinal column and put someplace where if they come to life again, it'll be safe.

Salmon trolling:  get an 8 oz mooching sinker (banana shaped thing with a swivel or swivel beads on both ends), tie a snap swivel to your 20-25 test monofiliment main line (spectra is more advanced and expensive), clip on the sinker, tie a 4 ft mono leader 20-25 test, to a Silver or Watermelon (red/ green/ white) Apex lure (looks like a Nike Swoosh curved piece of plastic).  Troll this a long ways out in deep 50-1000 ft water, you'll be lucky to get it down 100 ft, at about 2mph, which is  pretty slow paddling speed.  You can test what speed is the slowest that still makes the lure wobble by trolling it next tothe boat. It's best to get some speed up before messing with lowering the rig, so it doesn't get tangled. Make sure the hook is barbless- file it down or crimp it flat with pliers-real flat.  You can put your pole in a pole holder or hold it across your lap and out to the side in front of you, set the drag real light, and watch tip carefully or put the clicker on, then when you get a fish, let the pole - 8 ft light action best- be the shock absorber while keeping the line tight, net it, check for black gums (legal, white are illegal) measure it, this year 20" and hit it in the head just behind the eyes and then keep it as cool as posssible, and get that rig back in the water before that school goes by you, or vice versa.

Salmon Mooching:  2- 10 oz mooching sinker, maybe start with a 3 oz, leader 3-4 ft of 20-25 lb test on similiar main line, so you have main line, sinker, leader and a single barbless CIRCLE hook.  Hook an anchovy, dead or alive throght the lips, tail or midsection, drop it to the depth the fish are holding (the big issue) and slowly move pole tip up and down or just let the motion of the yak give the bait some motion.  Try different depths.  Nice springy pole tip with some backbone in the base, 8 ft or so.  Don't try to set the hook, circle hooks tend to set themselves.  If you use two circle hooks, they must be hard tied within 5" of each other.  You can also get a bait needle (even Longs has them) to thread the leader from eye socket to near end of tail through the fish, tie a half-hitch or two around the tail, and tie leader to mooching sinker.  That way the anchovy tends to float head down and more like a wounded fish.

Rockfish/Lingcod:  Easiest of all: mainline, swivel, leader with no more than 2 big  (1 1/2 " long, 3/4" wide, heavy)hooks tied with short 2-6" lines to leader, then sinker at bottom- 3-7 oz, just a flat round sinker.   Put cut or whole squid onto hooks, drop to bottom, pull up 2 ft, move pole tip up and down, move to new depth.  Need to be near kelp or over rocky bottom, tho they can be found over sandy areas, too.  All lines heavy-20-30lb.  You can get fancy by tieing a diamond jig bar (like a heavy 6" silver exclamation point with a hook at the end) instead of a sinker, and a single "shrimp fly"(a hook with red/yellow/green or combo twine and feathers tied to it) above that, at least a couple feet up.  Bang the jig on the bottom, up and down motion.  Make sure you know your species well before keeping any rockfish.  Cabezons can look like lings, but they have eyebrows (little tufts of tissue) and are legal shorter than lings.  Lots of special rules apply to rockfishing-depths, reserves, species, lengths, different numbers allowed to be kept.  On top of that, several of the illegal ones look a lot like legal ones.   Most of these grow very slowly, so don't take more than you can eat, and leave some for tomorrow.  Bigger lure/bait gets bigger fish, and a lot of these things could swallow your hand whole, and some have nasty teeth or poisoness spines on their fins, don't use bare hands to bring them into yak.

Now, read the more sophisticated methods in these forums, and don't be afraid to ask anglers what they're using.
   

Thanks.  This newbie appreciates the detailed introduction.

Oh, I meant to mention that the guide services are money well spent especially about the wheres and whens of fishing and for practical safe yak fishing habits.   

Thanks for the info! The only it could have been better was if there were photo's....(hint hint).



CHEERS!

Thanks for the info! I just got my first kayak yesterday and plan on doing alot of ocean fishing. Pictures would be nice if possible.

Printed. Thank you for the info!

Thank you for the great information.

Thanks Tom.  All the info I can read is good stuff.  Double hooking a squid or anchovies is a skill I have yet to master.  I know there are a few ways to do this and best to fish with someone who can show me first hand but ,any chance of a "how to" video on doing this from someone?  I have also heard of guys angle cutting their chovies to create spin.
With butt season in the bay approaching I would love to learn how to be successful.

Thanks for taking the time to post for us "newbies" 
Chris

Tom, thanks for the read, i'll take all the help I can get.

Crawfish, check out Pro Cure's website, they make a "Plug Cutter"

Pete

Thanks,

You answered several questions that I had.

Hi Yakers:

     Good Intel from Tom. There are some good Pics. in the first Link. Thanks to JonesI would add a Three-way to your Tackle Box. Works great between Kelp Fronds.
     
                                                                                                                  Regards
                                                                                                                  Ernie
This LInk has some good Illustrations!
http://www.combat-fishing.com/basicusefulrigs.html
                                                                                         

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPage?mode=article&objectID=30287&storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1