How was Lingcod fishing on opening day of Puget Sound? May 1 Report

May 1st marks the annual opening of Lingcod fishing in Puget Sound, San Juan Islands and the Strait fo Juan de Fuca, and this year was a banger of an opener across the region. We were really excited to get out, and there was plenty of gear preparation to be had in the days that led up to Wednesday. I’ll share my report for the Seattle area on opening day, but wanted to let you all know that overall it was a great opener all over the Salish Sea.

San Juan Islands Lingcod Report

Every corner of the San Juan Island archipelago is brimming with reefs, kelp beds, rockpiles and ledges that make the area a haven for Lingcod. Spend one day fishing here and you’ll realize that there is an endless opportunity to find cool spots to fish for Lings.

Overall, there was a healthy number of Lingcod caught here on the opening day. Stocks must be pretty healthy, because aside from the trophy oversized Lingcod that we all love to catch and release, there were a lot of Lingcod caught that were in the 26″ to 36″ slot limit. Fishing was phenomenal around the far-flung areas on the northern end of the island chain, but still plenty of Lingcod caught out of Anacortes and Bellingham as well.

Central Puget Sound Lingcod Report

Possession Bar is the most well-known Lingcod fishing spot in Central Puget Sound and often the most busy spot you can find on opening day. The area is massive and holds a few really large and obvious areas that looks like good structure. The reason I like Possession is that although the west side has some really complex rocky structure, there are plenty of small ledges, rocks, divots that are inconspicuous enought that you don’t need to be clustered around the fleet to find success. I like to set up a long drift across the top of the Bar and mark the rocky spots we drift over as we go (we’ve caught alot of Lings doing this away from the crowds).

Opening day was really good for plenty of people that hit Possession, and the reports were that there were loads of keeper Lingcod caught and a few jumbos across the Bar. While many people are now targeting Lingcod with live bait, I heard a number of reports from guys that were jigging with soft plastics that did well.

We fished near Seattle – Marine Area 10 Report

We fished closer to Seattle at a couple reefs and breakwaters. We launched early and picked up a bucket full of live Sand Dabs (Flounder) near the Shilshole Marina and headed south. Lots of people were out fishing, but everywhere we went we saw Lings caught by the jigging crowd as well as those like us that were fishing with live bait.

We didn’t really have any bites in the first two hours of fishing, which was very different compared to last year’s opener. Eventually we got a hookup, Anthony’s rod absolutely buckled at the cork with a solid Lingcod. It taped out at around 29″ so we had one in the box!

Lingcod fishing in Puget Sound can be pretty good at times, but it’s still a fishery that takes a good blend of skill and luck. In my mind, if I can see a Lingcod on each trip that would be a success. Sometimes we get much luckier.

After a couple more long drifts, I had a solid grab and hooked up another nice Ling. It took a couple really strong runs back down to the bottom but we ended up getting the net under it. It was around 30″ so it went home with us. It was kind of cool that both mine and Anthony’s fish were blue.

We decided that we would only be fishing the morning and fished until 11:30am. Just before we pulled lines, Jason hooked up and got one that measured 27″ so we had three! It had the more typical brown color pattern to it.

We ran over to the Seattle side and snapped a quick photo in front of the skyline, it turned out to be my favorite fishing photo that we’ve captured in a while. All-in-all a great trip, really enjoyable. With how successful the fishing was on opening day, I’m guessing we will see really good action throughout the May 1st – June 15th season. The common misconception is that these prime areas get “fished-out” after the first week, but in the last two years, we experienced the best fishing later in the season… so stay motivated and make sure you plan a couple trips later in May and June!