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greenling bait

14K views 23 replies 17 participants last post by  PIR8 Hook 
#1 ·
hey guys!just wondering what else i could use to catch kelp greenlings.that works as good as sand shrimp.
 
#2 ·
I have caught 100's on the kocaho (SP) anyway the lil plastic fish looking thing with a nobby tail
white body with either green or blue back and a small leadhead jig 1/2 oz to 2 oz

Cast it out and TROLL it back in

Tight lines
 
#6 ·
Bloodworms. Can you buy those anywhere here? Great surf/jetty bait.

Greenlings are pretty tough to spear compared to most bottomfish. They can be pretty wary. Not White Seabass wary but much more than rockfish or lingcod. I guess that comes with being oh-so-tasty.

I thought this was a thread on greenlings AS bait not bait FOR greenlings. Greenlings is lingcod candy. Don't think it's legal here tho.
 
#7 ·
good question is it legal to use green ling perch as bait for lings??? they are not considered a game fish are they? bull heads work very well to!:smash:
 
#8 ·
Greenling do hit small lures, especially the bigger ones, but I've found them hard to hook. I think they use some kind of a pounce and smother technique to get their prey because their snout overhangs their mouth. I can often tell it's a greenling I've hooked before I seee it, just because of the tendency to have multiple "bites" on jigs and slabs before it finally gets hooked. Often, with leadhead jigs they're hooked under the lower jaw, not in the mouth.
 
#9 ·
I believe it is legal to use greenling as bait...they're an "ocean food fish", not a sport fish....rules are different. However the minimum size limit probably comes into play....probably not legal to use an undersized (less than 10 inches) greenling for bait.
 
#13 ·
I don't usually fish with shrimp flies because I'm concentrating on Cabs and Ling, but if I want a live bait...I want a greenling. I therefor go with a jig with a shrimp fly tied on only about six to ten inches up from the jig. It is absolutely amazing how they tend to hit that fly fished close to the bottom. My go to color combo is exclusively a combination of red, green and yellow. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've fished alot of live greenling. My best day was 7 ling cod on the same bait before I lost it. After the second fish the bait was dead...after the fourth cod my bait looked like I had left it out on I-5 overnight, but hey, I was catching fish. On number seven the cod came up but the bait was gone. (I was sad....I missed my little buddy)

Good Luck,

Tuna Tom
 
#17 ·
From the 2007 Oregon Fishing Regulations....."Live fish may not be used or held for use as bait, except live nongame fish may be used in the ocean, bays and tidewaters when taken from the waterbody in which they will be used." Since there are now limits on everything in the ocean (except, interestingly enough...squid)..I don't think the local game officer was correct.....otherwise..herring are game fish and it's illegal to use a game fish for bait...alive or dead. Again...from the regulations...Game fish
are defined as follows:
Trout, salmon when taken by angling, steelhead, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, bluegill,

crappie​
, other sunfish, catfish, walleye, yellow perch, hybrid bass (white x striped cross), whitefish, sturgeon

and​
shad when taken by angling, mullet, grayling and striped bass.

 
#19 ·
I have whacked Greenling on Point Wilson Darts. We get lots of BIG greenling vertical jigging with darts on the outside of kelp beds. No bait required.

One trick is to replace the stock hook with one of the Gamakatsu 510 assist hooks attached to the top eye of the jig. You don't snag nearly as often, because the darts are spendy when you are losing a bunch of them.
 
#22 ·
pirk fan,

You need to read the fish synopsis more carefully. I says live "non-game fish" may be used for bait.......

Rule 3 on page 7, under use of fish for bait then says "Dead fish, preserved fish, or parts of fish, shellfish and fish eggs MAY BE USED AS BAIT. No where in rule 3 does it prohibit any type of fish, non-game or game fish from being used as bait. The old rule prohibited the use of game fish for bait, but not any longer. How else could we use Shad for bait, as so many do, for halibut?

Greenling are defined as "food fish", which is a sub category of non-game fish. (see page 9 of the synopsis). This sub category is there to define the hours and methods of taking these types of non-game fish. Again, there is no prohibition to using them as bait, live or dead, as long as the size and limit rules are followed. I do not know how the law looks at the prohibition against multilating marine fish, which greenling are, so the size and species cannot be determined. That may be a problem when the greenling is cut in half by a big ling.

I hope this helps to clarify this important subject.

Codfisher
 
#23 ·
You are correct codfisher, I can find no restriction on using dead game fish or parts thereof as bait. This is a significant change that I was unaware of, and opens up many questions in fresh water, such as using trout for sturgeon bait, kokanee for lake trout ...topics for a different forum. And although my recollection of greenling was also "ocean food fish", they are now classified as "nongame marine fish", while the title "food fish" is reserved for "herring, anchovy, sardines, and smelt" (synopsis, page 9). Who comes up with these descriptions...those fish are bait
 
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