BY CASEY JOHNSON
Special to Western Outdoor News
When I was growing up, I’d always hear my dad and the old-timers talk about giant lingcod being caught on oversized, heavy irons. My dad fished throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and those stories always stuck with me.
Not long ago I came across a bucket of those old-school irons—huge, bulky, and painted in bright oranges and yellows. I thought about bringing a few on my recent 3-day trip aboard the Shogun, but in the end I left them at home. They just seemed too big and cumbersome compared to today’s jigs.
Instead, I fished a modern bright yellow Daiwa SK Jig while we were making deep drops for rockfish on Tanner and Cortes Banks. I’ve always liked the brighter colors for bottom fishing. Most of the smaller rockfish down there are brightly colored themselves, and I figured a hungry lingcod might see one as an easy meal.
Sure enough, I hooked a small rockfish that pinned itself to the jig. Rather than immediately winding it up, I left it there and slowly started retrieving. My thinking was simple: either the rockfish would shake free, or something much bigger would decide to eat it.
That decision resulted in my personal-best lingcod and reminded me why the old-timers had so much confidence in those techniques.
Now that I’m back home, I think it’s time to dust off those old heavy irons and give them a chance. This fish definitely lit a spark. I’m already looking at putting together a few dedicated deepwater rockfish and lingcod trips aboard Reel Zen. There’s something addicting about dropping into deep water, never knowing if the next bite is going to be another quality cod or the fish of a lifetime.
