Saltwater rookie: Tackle and techniques for Lings?: Steelheader.net- Steelhead, Salmon and trout fishing

I'm back! Now for the report.

Part 1:
I arrived on Orcas at approx about 6:30 on Thurs evening. The place where I was staying had a 9ft Livingston style dinghy that is used for dropping crab pots. Given that the water was glassy calm that evening I broke out one of my downrigger rods, attached a 3oz silver and purple dart and headed out to do some jigging.

I was about 200ft from shore in 60ft of water. On my second drop down I felt a gentle tug of the line. With the rod tip high I reeled it in to see what was on the other end. It was a little rock fish, no more tahn 6 or 7 inches and it was hooked in the lip. I left him on there for bait :- )
I spent the next hour in eager anticipation waiting for a Ling to gobble up the rock fish. Alas, it was not to be. I even managed to release the rock fish and watch him swim away.

Part 2:
The fishing charter was left at 3pm from Deer harbor on Friday. It was sunny and warm but it was unfortunately quite windy. The guide warned us that conditions were not good for bottom fishing. He took us to teh lee side of the island but we still had to get very close to teh island to try to get protection from the wind.

Damm! those 7/0 hooks on a 6oz jig-head are big! Boy I have led a sheltered fishing life. All of his rods were 7-8ft ugly sticks. All but one had spider-wire, the other had 50lb monn test. They all had level-wind reels. He recommends spider-wire for its greater sensitivity in helping the angler feel the bottom. I can vouch for that having tried both the spider-wire and the mono.

It was tough, tough going. The wind was moving the boat so fast we were either blown too shallow or as soon as the lure would touch the bottom you would snag. I was amazed how many snags we were able to get free but we did lose at least a half dozen lures. On one attempt to un-snag, the guide broke an ugly stick (with spider-wire), which is how I ended up with the trying out the rod with mono.

Well you are all probably wondering did we catch anything? Depends on you definition of catch : -) The first thing we pulled out was a Sea Cucumber. The guide said it was a real delicacy, however, no of us had an apprtite for the slug-like creature. Next up was a lingcod that was must have been all of 12 inches. The guide said he had never seen a lingcod that small. : -) We left it on for bait. We pulled up two more that were not much bigger and one keeper rock fish. That was it. A real tough day on the water, but anyday on the water with a rod in your hand is better than a day in the office!

I'm off to buy some spider-wire.