First lingcod

My friend invited me down south to Monterrey to rockfish on Sunday. It was my first real experience out in the ocean and I must say I enjoyed it a lot. There was a 7ft swell at 10 seconds but it wasnt too bad. There was about 8 of us and we all caught fish. I ended with about 5 lings and 3 or 4 rockfish. I hooked many more than I boated though. I kept hooking into very decent lings and they kept popping off my jigs/swimbaits. I had 65lb braid to 25ln mono. How do you guys prevent break offs with lings? Overall the trip was a lot of fun and I cant wait for the opener up here

Awesome!!!

I saw you out there!

I was the big guy paddling in at the end.   

Beautiful day for sure, and great group of folks!!

Congrats on your first Lings, and thanks for sharing!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Congrats!

You're getting broken off on 25lb mono? Is it old line?

I've been fishing 12-17lb mono topshots for RF for the last 14 years and I've only been broken off by a fish once.

If your drag is set right I can't imagine repeatedly getting broken off w/25lb line unless it's old or somehow faulty.

Where were you breaking off? At the jig, at the braid/mono connection?

If your drag is set right I can't imagine repeatedly getting broken off w/25lb line unless it's old or somehow faulty.

+1

 

nice haul!  i was there on thursday for a bit, the wind picked up and got nasty.  looks like a great day otw for you guys.

are you tieing your leader directly to the jigs?  i made that rookie mistake the first few times out.  the jig pivots and wear out the line when jigging as it rubs against the hook eye.  these days i use snaps to remedy that, and makes it easier to switch out on the water, so no tying.  and i also do not re-use mono leaders on different trips.  25 lb mono is pretty hard to break.

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Thanks for the report LBH . Congrats !

Alex

 I never have used a leader for rockfish in my life, i use #30 braid straight to a swivel. For big lings i hook on a 5 or 6 inch blue to a jig and run a treble hook through its tail,   then straight to a 2 speed albacore rod with #60 test to crank the big ones right off the bottom.  Not to exciting but i rarely loose a fish. If you let the ling go back in a hole they will break it off every time, thats why i dont mess with light gear for lings, i dont like the 25 pounders to hole up on me. ( ive never used the set up on a kayak but id image it wouldnt be fun to snag the bottom since it litterly stops a full size  boat.)  The 30 pound braid works great on a kayak for any fish under 20 pounds.   Sounds like you have either bad knots, or are letting them get back into their holes.

My line was breaking down closer to the jig and it seemed plenty strong when I would get a snag, but would break on fish. The knots are the same knots I use for almost everything else including sturgeon so I dont think thats the problem. Maybe it was bad line but it wouldnt explain the strength when I would get snagged

And the drag was set to allow a good hookset, but also to let the fish take a run

My line was breaking down closer to the jig and it seemed plenty strong when I would get a snag, but would break on fish. The knots are the same knots I use for almost everything else including sturgeon so I dont think thats the problem. Maybe it was bad line but it wouldnt explain the strength when I would get snagged

That's odd. Were you using a sliding knot on the top hook?  What kind of terminal knot do you use?  Any evidence of abrasion in the line?

Sounds to me like abrasions on your line. Gotta check after every time you hook a fish, every time you free up a snag... hell, just check it after every drop.

Breaking 25-lb mono is HARD from a kayak, and I guarantee your reel isn't set for 25 pounds of drag anyway.


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Breaking 25-lb mono is HARD from a kayak ...

This.

Does sound line faulty line. Old mono or rotting braid.
Going heavier than 25-30# braided line on rockfish is a waste. Given how often we snag the bottom you don't want to be stuck trying to break off a snag when a big roller comes through. Good way to snap a rod tip or lose your balance.

Does sound line faulty line. Old mono or rotting braid.
Going heavier than 25-30# braided line on rockfish is a waste. Given how often we snag the bottom you don't want to be stuck trying to break off a snag when a big roller comes through. Good way to snap a rod tip or lose your balance.

Maybe 30lb braid on spinning gear but not on a conventional reel...

Yeah so it must be abrasions. Ill have to find a better type of mono or flouro for resistance and also check my line more.

Also how do you guys store your fish on your kayak if you are going to be out all day? I was keeping mine on a d ring in the water while I fished and throwing them in the tankwell while I paddled