Top 5 Rockfish Lures?

Hi,

I'm new to rockfishing and was have been reading some articles and lurking on this board for tips.  My question is what does everyone think their top 5 rockfish lures are, what are the top 3 colors, and what weights? 

I could go crazy both buying lures and would need a bigger kayak if I were to carry all of them.

Thanks!

jrsyboy

Well I think you came to the right place.  I'll throw my 2 cents in nd let some other more experienced anglers add to my humble opinion.  I started off with just a couple of baits for rockfish and lings. very simple, lead heads either bullet shaped or shad head shaped painted or unpainted, I persdonally like red and blue heads ( but that's just me).  weight can be dependent on your combo set up depth of water fishing etc.  I will use any where from 1.5 to 5 ounce leadheads, my favorite bodies are the rootbeer and white scampi tails (twin tails), and anchovy or sardine colored and shaped single tail swim baits.  those are the majority of baits I use with what i think is pretty good success for rockfish/ lingcod. there are certainly many other baits/ colors to use, and as i said before I'll let others elaborate on their preffered baits. 

IMO: when fishing deep (50ft. or deeper) go with Irons (diamond jigs). For shallow waters (20 to 40 ft. of water) go with lead head jigs with swimbaits, scampis or curly tail plastics.

In desperate times, I'll use bait - frozen squid works well and it stays on the hook for a long time. Just tip your irons or jigs with strips of squid and your good to go.

IF you want "the sure thing" go with live bait  If nothing hits your live bait, there are no fish around...move to another spot and you'll find the big ones this way.

that's just how I roll 

Welcome to the board....and the "madness" 

ummm...what they said.

Weight is all dependent on how deep you need to go, how much current there is, and what type of line. I use spectra, which is smaller diameter than mono, so I can go lighter. Having said that I generally don't go lighter than 3 oz. I like to catch lings and going light means your lure stays in the "blues and blacks" zone longer then  a heavier weight. Tha tis just my preference on the blues and blacks, some days they are fun to catch so I go lighter.

This is the order I usually go in until I find what works. I pour my own swimbaits so I am partial to using them. I think iron catches more fish in general though.

1. 7" green sparkle swimbait - 3oz lead head
2. Custom made curly tail, rootbeer and gold flake, 3oz leadhead (ling and cab killer!!)
3. 7" swimbait in some other color
4. 5" swimbait
5. Iron

This year I would like to experiment a lot more but I find that is really hard to do when you are catching fish...

To name a few good RF lures. Swim baits 4-9"LG, Diamond Bars, Shrimpflys, & Scampis.

1. twin tail scampi on a leadhead (I use 5-7 inchers on 3-6oz leadheads. I prefer Kalins but there are many customs available.)
2. iron/metal spoon (megabait, krocadile, diamond bar, kastmaster, butterflys, etc)
3. curly tail grub on a leadhead (5-10 inches on 3-8oz leadheads. I like Kalins and Fatbait)
4. swimbait on a leadhead (4-9 inches on 3-6oz leadheads. I prefer Fish Traps and Hammers or customs)
5. bait (either jig up some fresh smelt/macs on a sabiki or use frozen squid/anchovies/sardines/herring or a small blue rockfish)

I don't use leadheads smaller than 3ozs because I want to avoid the blues and get to the bottom quickly. And that is where iron/metal spoons have an advantage on plastics; they get to the bottom quickly, which is important when fishing over a school of blues, or potholing, or fishing a fast drift.

The hardest part for me is deciding which lures to bring. Because I prefer to only bring a few select lures each trip (keeping in line with the minimalistic approach) in order to stay light…and I don't want to lose a bunch of lures due to a crash landing. So I often stay up into the wee hours, trying to decide which lures get stashed in my kayaking-designated plano box.

Good luck, and don't spend too much money on lures you haven't tried yet,
PK

Anything that catches fish and can get to the bottom will work.  Rockfish aren't picky.  A small crescent wrench would work just fine. 

1-8 oz chrome diamond Jig, big bronze treble hook. And if you're tipping it with squid you might as well be using bait  


Last season I threw big POE crankbaits in firetiger and had alot of fun with the school fish.  I ripped my tackle box apart looking for a zara spook but couldn't find one, it woulda killed.  

And if you're tipping it with squid you might as well be using bait   

...as Chris /cpyak once pointed out to me (during the last Elk derby)..."you can use the diamond jig as a DELVERY SYSTEM to get your bait down and save yourself the hassel of changing your set up 

IMO: Wise words from a wise man...who also happens to be an adult league hockey player super star          

I too have had much better success tipping the hooks on all of the above with a squid strip - I like to get it fresh from 99 ranch the night before I go, and cut each squid in half that night, take out the clear gristle, and keep it in a lidded margarine container on the water.  I usually go through .5 to 1lb per 3-6 hours fishing.

5-7" swimbait shallower, sometimes iron bars/jigs 4-6oz fishing deeper, shrimp flies on dropper loops a couple feet above the bottom lure, unless I am fishing deeper than 70' as shrimp flies tend to attract smaller fish that are hard to keep alive/releaseable coming up from deeper than 50' (unless they are schoolies or hit shallow on the drop).

Colors, what everyone else said - lighter colors shallow and in clearer water, darker colors (green, brown, red belly) in murky or deep water.  Lings go for profile more than color, is what I hear, so go for a good quality swimbait - nationwidetackle.com has decent Big Hammer prices, bag of 4 6" Big Hammer shad bodies for $5.59, + first class postage.   Pick up a couple or three 3-4oz jig heads in shad - I like the red color, want to get some of those.

As Mooch said, a live 8-10" black/blue schoolie hooked onto a 4oz diamond jig also works well for the lings.

Personally I like to swap out the treble hook on iron jigs with a single 5/0 Siwash hook to cut down on snags.

Try a few things and see what works well for you.

Personally I like to swap out the treble hook on iron jigs with a single 5/0 Siwash hook to cut down on snags.

I do the same 

I segregate rockfishing into two categories, lower water column and upper water column.

For the lower water column, I'm trying to get Lings, Cabezon, and the Sebastes that tend to hang out right on the bottom. If the drift isn't too bad, I'll start using them in this order:  Jig/Scampi ( rootbeer) or jig/ 7"Swimbait, heavy Megabait, Diamond Jig, Hexbar. If the drift is nasty, I might forget the plastics and go right to the metal lures. I will tip the lures with squid if I have it, and the bite is slow. On the plastics, I use at least 3 oz of weight, up to 6 oz so far, and will try out 8 oz this year. For metal I run from 4 oz to 8 oz, with the overall "go to" being 6 oz.

For the upper water column, I'm targeting blues, blacks if they are around, olives, and kelp rockfish. I'll use spinning gear if possible (not too close to the kelp), and toss 1/2 oz jig/plastic, 1/2 oz kastmasters, 1/2 oz megabaits. This is sooooo much more fun than vertical jigging with conventional gear. It is a method that the fish don't see every day and so is more productive, as well as being a great way to make "ling bait". Note that rockfish used as bait do count against your stringer.

So you might see me out there with two vertical presentation rods, and a spinning rod. I'll take two 3645 waterproof Plano boxes. These boxes do not keep the water out completely, but if you drop a closed box overboard, it will float for some time. Do that with a regular Plano box and kiss it goodbye in about 3 seconds.

Regards,
Scott

And if you're tipping it with squid you might as well be using bait   

...as Chris /cpyak once pointed out to me (during the last Elk derby)..."you can use the diamond jig as a DELVERY SYSTEM to get your bait down and save yourself the hassel of changing your set up 

IMO: Wise words from a wise man...who also happens to be an adult league hockey player super star          

Thats an EXPENSIVE delivery system to lose if you get hung up......not to mention you gotta buy/prepare/deal with a half pound of squid and whatever crap you scraped out of them.  If I'm gonna use bait I commit to it and go whole and big on its own rig. And to further go against the grain, I don't advocate the use of a siwash for "snag prevention." Sometimes (rarely) I switch it out to avoid small fish harassment but I'd rather stick the pig that swallows my bar than talk about the one that hit hard but didn't stick.  Thats how I roll 

Well, I just use a slice of squid on each drop, usually lasts for awhile and it's just like $1.50 worth for the day...  I believe it's always been worth the trouble and coin for me.

Maybe I misunderstood, but I think Mooch was referring to the idea I got from them, Chris and others, using the diamond jig to get a small blue or black down to the bottom.  Not only for another attractant but it also keeps it from swimming all the heck over the place instead of down to the bottom, I figure.

But sure, you could use a tri-swivel with leader and live bait hook and a 6 oz. ball to keep it down in ling territory, if you're worried about losing the diamond bar.

I can't say whether or not I lost fish due to using a single vs. treble hook, it's very possible, but I can say that after I switched to the siwash, I lost 0 diamond bars, versus 3 in 1 month (2 in one day at Elk) with the treble hook.  Plus saves me the PITA of trying to shake the snag, paddling all over the place in circles, and finally retying rigs after I lose the jig.

But maybe I was just unlucky there for 3 jigs - I suppose ya could try both and see what you prefer.

Point taken though - and if we all rolled the same way, we would learn a lot less I think.