Rigging for rockfish

Even though the halibuts only hit me up on a random basis, these riggings almost always get a nice bag of rockfish/lings. The gameplan is 2 rods (only fish one at a time, of course), one with a high-low rig baited with Gulp swimming mullet (5-inch and/or 4-inch) and the other with whole squid on a trap rig. I bring a ton of pre-tied rigs and each rod gets a nice big swivel clip tied to the end of the main line for easy replacement of rigs on the water.

Since 2 rods is kinda my limit on the ‘yak and I prefer to have both rigs at the ready, this kinda keeps me away from sabiki rigging for live baits. We each make our choices.

First pic is the hi-low, which has a big barrel swivel tied on with a palomar knot and 3 dropper loops; 2 for the hooks and one for the weight at the end. Use a slightly too-long piece of mono, tie on the swivel and then evenly space out 3 dropper loops and trim off the extra. With 30-lb mono, which is a little thick to fit through some hook eyes and glow beads, you might need a length of 8 lb or 10 lb mono to thread through the loops, then through your eyes/beads, to pull the leader through. The hooks aren't actually tied on; the loop passes through the eye and then around the hook. You can use a shrimp fly for one of the hooks and substitute squid strips or whatever you've got. Pliers help for tightening knots. When this one snags, you can usually back it out since it’s the weight at the bottom that catches the rocks.

The trap rig is simple. 40 lb mono with a palomar-knotted swivel, a bead, a J hook, and a treble; all palomar knots. The trick with this is to use a slider (AKA fishfinder rig) to attach your weight to the main line above the swivel clip. Left a pic of the slider setup. Since the weight ends up above the hooks/bait  in the water, you need to make sure and crank it up from the bottom 3 or 4 times. When this one snags, it’s usually the hooks that catch, and 40 lb mono is tough to break off. Always check it and/or replace it after a snag as it’ll ruin the points of the hooks.

Both rigs work while drifting or when moving around, but the hi-low (6 oz weight) gets more consistent results on the troll for olive/blue/black rockfish. Find the bottom and then let out a bit of extra line as you get moving for trolling. Along with GPS points and visual navigation, trolling the hi-low has replaced my electronic fishfinder when it comes to locating schools of willing rockfish in the reef areas. Gulps are kept in an empty peanut butter jar, and I keep the stock supply in a cooler to prevent leakage. You do not want that juice getting all over your car or garage.

The trap rig (8 oz weight) baited with the biggest whole squid you can get is the ticket for random rockfish, jumbo vermillions and browns,  and lingcod. I like to take the frozen squid out of the freezer the afternoon before fishing and douse it with Gulp juice before setting it in the fridge to thaw overnight so I don’t get on the water with a squid brick. Slightly inferior to live baits, but it works pretty consistently. It’ll get doubles of schooling rockfish on it from time to time, one on the J hook and one on the treble. It’s satisfying for some reason when lings or big rockfish get hooked with the J hook rather than the treble.

Always keep both rods rigged ready, and any time you catch a fish on one rod, get the fish on deck and get your other line in the water before messing with dehooking, bleeding, bonking, getting hooks out of your net, etc. That way, no time on the water is wasted. Bringing lots of extra rigs and weights in case of snagging also helps cut down F-around time. I use my kid's hair ties to color code bundles of rigs in sammich bags.

Hope this is helpful. Rockfish are my and my kiddo’s favorite. She swears by browns, but I’ll take an olive or vermillion first. 

Awesome guide, I just bought the smaller gulps to tip my shrimp flys, Much easier then tying up flys (but I had fun making them). Those bigger ones look killer.

I also like the fly, jig combo on the slow pitch setup these days but the high low for heavy current and trolling sounds super effective. Lots of leaders and flys in my tackle bag and I make sure to replenish after heavy gear loss trips. I tend to bounce bottom pretty hard on the troll and catch starfish, I need to remind myself to give it a couple extra cranks!

I also just finished tying a 300' roll of dropper loops so I'm ready to start a charter I think 

thanks for the info.  I like to tie my own, but get lazy and just buy them sometimes also. How did you tie that fly on the rig?  I've tied smaller flys (fly fishing lakes/streams) but haven't tied any larger saltwater flies.

Thanks for the description and the tip on the PB jar. The gulp juice is stinky and sticky after it spills. I run similar rigs but never put a bead on the dropper loops - do you do this just for some added color/attraction or some other purpose?

Cheers,
Brad

Thanks for the description and the tip on the PB jar. The gulp juice is stinky and sticky after it spills. I run similar rigs but never put a bead on the dropper loops - do you do this just for some added color/attraction or some other purpose?

Cheers,
Brad

The beads glow in the dark, which seems good for visibility in the inky depths where fish hang out.

When I first moved to Cali, captain Wallace (first mate at the time) of the Queen of Hearts in Half Moon Bay waxed eloquent on me one morning about the benefits of glow beads. I was rigging up with my home-tied shrimp flies before I started using glow thread, and he was taken aback by my lack of glow beads such as those on the store-bought shrimp fly rigs he was giving out. Even though I slayed that day (including a limit of 3 fat cabbies) with my glowless rigs, his words on glow beads stuck and I've included something glowing ever since.

thanks for the info.  I like to tie my own, but get lazy and just buy them sometimes also. How did you tie that fly on the rig?  I've tied smaller flys (fly fishing lakes/streams) but haven't tied any larger saltwater flies.

Shrimp flies are super easy to tie, kinda just big streamers with tinsel for flash and glow thread for the heads. I used to stay up late a’drinkin and a’smokin and tie tons of them, but now it’s mainly Gulps on bare hooks with a glow bead on the line. Less work, less hangover, and possibly more effective.

Those shrimp flies look so much better than anything I've bought!  I need to learn to make them!  Thanks for your detailed explanation on your rockfish setups.  The Gulp swimming mullets are now on my to try list, and trolling them as you describe.  I'm all about moving these days to catch fish, they seem to be better quality when i'm on the move.

here is try #1, just using supplied on hand

Looks good to me! I’ve done them with just tinsel like a blingy hoochie look. Maybe I’ll tie a few and take pics of the process

Looks good to me! I’ve done them with just tinsel like a blingy hoochie look. Maybe I’ll tie a few and take pics of the process

Thanks, I need to get some stronger material - yours have, what I'll call 'Synthetic Horse Hair' for lack of a better name.  I'll check and see what they have a FW Warehouse. 

or, maybe I could just cut an old polypropylene yellow rope and use the strands from that

Nice writeup! I use both of your methods, depending on what bait and method I intend to use. 

I've never trolled a Hi-Lo rig - I usually opt for a sliding sinker or 3-way spreader bar for trolling. I don't often use shrimp flies, and when I do I usually only use one as a teaser above a jig or big swimbait.

I also tend to limit myself to 2 rods, each with different setups to switch between and find what the fish want that day.

I bought a bunch of the gulp baits a while ago, haven't used them yet. I keep forgetting to bring them, haha.

and on that day...the Harbor Freight Shrimp fly was born

stopped at harbor freight on the way to an appointment, picked up some threads...added two glow bead eyeballs

can't wait to try it.

ok, gonna stop for a while

Those turned out pretty good! Hope they catch you some fish!

I like the glowing googlie eyes on those flies!