The lowly pacific staghorn sculpin...aka bullheads....

Hi guys,

I remember as a kid when it was almost impossible to keep bullheads off the hook when fishing the Berkeley Pier. We used to keep them alive and sell them to the old marina bait shop for 25 cents apiece. They made great bait for stripers and sturgeon. Anyone still use bullheads? I haven't fished the piers much nowadays, but I'm thinking about keeping a private live bait tank in my house. Bullheads would be perfect as a starter live bait, as they are so hardy.

And then I read this:
" In my graduate research, I found that sculpins were one of the most common diet items for lingcod, a large toothy predator living in kelp forests of the North Pacific."
https://annebeaudreau.com/2017/09/05/why-i-love-sculpins/

 

Why hasn't anyone said anything about this before?!?! I've gone thru several dozen lingcod stomachs and I can't recall seeing one of these buggers! Squid, octopus, anchovies, the odd jacksmelt and rockfish, and a rock one time. No bullheads.

I'm thinking that I might plan a trip with the kids to the nearest pier this weekend and do some reconnaissance, stock up on some primo lingcod bait.

yay for the pacific stag horn sculpin 

Bullheads were the definite go to bait for large strippers, but I haven't seen them for many years.

They used to be pretty easy pickings if you needed some quick striper bait. Not so much anymore. The last time I caught one was while I was perch fishing at Dillon Beach actually.

Hi guys,

This was actually the real reason for my post, as I too have seen a decline in pacific staghorn sculpins as bycatch. It's good to know that I'm not the only one who is noticing this.

I've been looking online to find out if anyone has done any research on this and I'm coming up blank. I know that there was an invasion of lizardfish (more commonly found in LA and SD than in Central CA) back in 2015-16, maybe that contributed to the decline of sculpins? But I haven't seen many lizardfish either.

Anyone have any ideas?

Also, I think I'll move this thread to the FishID forum....

Okay, how the heck do I move a thread I started?

I fish quite a bit from the shore around the Bay and haven't caught many in the last few years. I know they are a great bait for big stripers and seem like they would get the job done for nearly any predator fish