Using Rockfish to catch Lingcod?

 I was told catching a small Blue Rockfish was ok to re-hook it and use it for Lingcod. They said as long as you count it toward the daily limit?
I thought this was totally illegal but on YouTube I was told as long as you (counted toward the daily limit)....IDK cant find any reference in the book?

Yes, it's legal.

Legal and standard.  I prefer greenling to blues.  In addition to counting it against your bag limit, you also have to count against sub bag limits and adhere to size minimums.  So if you catch a baby canary and drop it back down for a lingcod, that's your one canary.  If you use a black rockfish it counts against your 3.  Greenling have to be 12" minimum.  etc.

Ain't that a hoot. well that is great news Thanks!

Someone showed me a trick to run a rubberband through the nostrils of the bait rock fish.  You can tell when it gets nervous.... 
 

Legal and standard.  I prefer greenling to blues.  In addition to counting it against your bag limit, you also have to count against sub bag limits and adhere to size minimums.  So if you catch a baby canary and drop it back down for a lingcod, that's your one canary.  If you use a black rockfish it counts against your 3.  Greenling have to be 12" minimum.  etc.

No 10" greenling for bait?

Legal and standard.  I prefer greenling to blues.  In addition to counting it against your bag limit, you also have to count against sub bag limits and adhere to size minimums.  So if you catch a baby canary and drop it back down for a lingcod, that's your one canary.  If you use a black rockfish it counts against your 3.  Greenling have to be 12" minimum.  etc.

No 10" greenling for bait?

Greenling have been 12" minimum in California for as long as I remember.  There used to be a sub baglimit of 3 but that went away a few years ago.

Oregon had a 10" minimum on greenling until a couple months ago.  There is no longer a size restriction on greenling there.

So no 10" greenling for bait, at least not in California.

Legal but unnecessary. I'll out fish you w 12" plastic worm or scampi any day for lings and cabbies.

Legal but unnecessary. I'll out fish you w 12" plastic worm or scampi any day for lings and cabbies.

No need to get moody there Mike... but I agree 100% you can't eat a jig but you can catch ling and cabbie all day on one.  why waist a meal to catch a meal. Just my $0.02 .... wait $0.04 inflation

Legal but unnecessary. I'll out fish you w 12" plastic worm or scampi any day for lings and cabbies.

I accept.  How much would you like to wager?  I get to pick the time and place.  Total number of inches of up to 2 lings and 3 cabbies for a total of 5 fish wins.

Legal but unnecessary. I'll out fish you w 12" plastic worm or scampi any day for lings and cabbies.

I accept.  How much would you like to wager?  I get to pick the time and place.  Total number of inches of up to 2 lings and 5 cabbies wins.

Well, "shucks" your going to have to catch your bait while the moody guy gets to fishing for the lings and cabbies from the gate

 

Legal but unnecessary. I'll out fish you w 12" plastic worm or scampi any day for lings and cabbies.

I accept.  How much would you like to wager?  I get to pick the time and place.  Total number of inches of up to 2 lings and 5 cabbies wins.

Well, "shucks" your going to have to catch your bait while the moody guy gets to fishing for the lings and cabbies from the gate

 

Yup.

Legal but unnecessary. I'll out fish you w 12" plastic worm or scampi any day for lings and cabbies.

I accept.  How much would you like to wager?  I get to pick the time and place.  Total number of inches of up to 2 lings and 5 cabbies wins.

I also believe they catch bigger fish. Although reeling them in as hitchhikers is generally a lot more boring than fighting them when hooked.  Essentially slowly reeling up a bag of water from 100' down at nice slow steady pace.  It's a challenge but not an exciting one.

Forget rockfish for bait. Use a sabiki to jig up some mackerel, sardines or jack smelt in that order. Send them down with a 6/0 hook through their nose and a stinger treble in the tail and hang on tight.

Lingcod go crazy for the above but especially the mackerel. You will catch a lot of quality fish and get way more bites than you do with rockfish. Don't get me wrong I love fishing swimbaits as much as the next guy but live bait is hard to beat.

-Eliot

I agree with a lot that was already said, but sometimes it takes too long to catch bait sometimes. I'm too impatient for that!...but there's always a time and a place where some Live will outfish the artificials