Top 5 Rockfish Lures?

If the drift is bad a shrimp fly rig with a 6oz bank sinker is pretty good.  You can drag the bank sinker along the bottom and avoid much of the snags. 

Like Scott, I sometimes like to go light. Spinning rod with 10lbs. line and a 1/2oz. leadhead with a 3" big hammer swim bait.

The only draw back is that I go through a lot of swim baits.  Alan Tani told me once that you can melt them and put them back together again... haven't tried it yet but I might try it this year. 

About losing jigs on snags, use a split ring matched to your line set up. If you get really hung up you have a good chance of pulling the ring apart and saving the jig minus the hook. Just on the flip side I have seen the rings break on river salmon fishing with the drag too tight.

Btw my favorite for lings is megabait with a trailer swimbait. For plain rock fish I prefer the gibbs minnow in green and glow.

-Brian G

My go to bait is a 4 oz lead head with one of Bills 7" swimbaits in dark green with green and red flake.  I almost always tip my jigs with a little meat, usually strips of belly meat I save from prior catches. 

I like anchovie colored swim baits on bright days as well. 

If I want to go big, I'll use a 6 oz jig head with a 10 inch Kalin's Big-N grub in dark green or black.  Get lots of short strikes on that one though... haven't figured a good stinger hook for those big grubs yet.

I rarely use irons... I just enjoy using swim baits and grubs more. 

I use 30# spectra with a 40# fluoro or mono topshot and I can stay vertical enough down to over 100 feet with a 4 oz jig even in a fairly brisk drift.

I'm planning to keep some live bait harness with me this year that are designed to fit the smaller blacks and blues.

EK

Great tips so far, all will catch plenty of rf.Here are my personal top five...
1.Megabait irons with bronze trebles
2.5-7 inch swimbaits in sardine and anchovie patterns
3.live bait...baby octopus,sardine,sand dab,large anchovies
4.single curltail grubs (I use a 5-6" teaser on a dropper loop and/or a big 10" on a lead head)
5.shrimp flies tipped with squid strips (old school, but hey it works in a pinch)

Everyone,

Thanks for all the input.

I have been stocking up on stuff from e-bay and closeout sales so I think I am good as my stuff for the most part matches what you suggested.

I will be on the water (New Brighton Beach State Park) early June for the maiden voyage.  Will post pictures and give accounts.

Thanks again!

rob
jrsyboy

Hmmm depends on what the target rock fish are.  Shrimp flies work well for small rockies but swim baits have been my top producers for lings and cabs.  JTF did give me one of Bill's hand poured swim baits and it caught me lots of fish until it got chewed up really bad.

I've been using 4oz and 6 oz lead heads but the lead behind the head can break through the body of the 7" plastic swim baits I buy from the Outdoors Pro Shop.  So I've been removing/grinding the lead with a dremel down to the shank of the hook.

I've experimented with different stinger hook arrangements and the best one so far is threading line through the tail of the swim bait with a long sewing needle.  If you go to the local fabric and sewing store (JoAnn's) ask for doll needles which are about 3 inches long and they're thick enough to push through a swim bait.  I've been threading 20# test line from the base of the tail through the body up to near the main hook.  Then I've been tying on a 3/0 hook and anchoring it on the other end to the main hook.  If you do it right the tail still can move back and forth freely.  Since I've using this rig I have not pulled up a swim bait without a tail but I've caught a bunch of rockies this way.  No lings or cabs from the stingers, I think they like to bite the head of their food.  If you're having a hard time visualizing this I can attach a picture when I get home. 

Hard to ignore live bait once in a while.  If you can get some shiner perch or smelt the big rockies or halibut will slam through the water to chomp on them.

See you out there!

Gary

I would love to see a picture of that set up if it's not to much trouble

Pictures of the attaching a stinger:

Components: 6oz lead head, line, 3/0 gami hook, 3.5" doll needle, 7" swim bait

Shaved lead head - grinded away retaining hook and collar

Inserting and threading the needle through the swim bait

Stinger hook tied off using a Palomar knot, snugged up to tail

Tied anchor end of the line to the main hook

Finished product

Double duty: catch small rockies with stinger and big lings and cabs with the main hook.

Tight lines...

Btw my favorite for lings is megabait with a trailer swimbait.
-Brian G

What's a trailer swimbait?

I think that would be a swimbait hooked onto a jig's hook...  Maybe I am wrong.

Gary, that looks cool...  but I don't know what you tie the stinger hook to after you thread it through the swimbait.  Is the stinger line the tag end of the main anchor knot?  I am new to this.  Does the palomar cinch up to the eye on the jighead?  so it's just like 6" of stinger line tied off?  When you thread the needle through the swimbait, where does the needle come out of on the other side?

It looks nice, though, for sure.  I guess these would be the 2 hooks allowed for RF rigs?  e.g. there could be no shrimp fly above this?

cafecraig, he ties it off to the hook, right where the hook comes out of the lure.

If you look at the pic labeled "Finished Product", you can barely see the line coming out of the top of the swim bait about 1/2" behind the main hook.  I tie off this side to the hook so the stinger line is about 4" long.  The Palomar knot is how I tie the 3/0 stinger hook to the line on the tail of the swim bait.

Even though the swim bait has two hooks its only one lure so I could tie on another lure.  Big rapala's come with 3 treble hooks and we don't count it as having 3 hooks.

Actually I don't use shrimp flies or any other lure with this setup because I don't need it.  This bad boy will catch anything I'm interested in.

Gary

Sandman, thank you for the detailed pics!

I was just wondering what knot you use to attch the stinger mono line to the main hook on the lead head?

Cool,  thanks for the clarification Gary and Bill.  My monitor at work is much better than my laptop at home, so I can see it now.

Well if you can still use another lure, that stinger setup seems like a no brainer to me!  Great idea.