How to catch Rockfish with small Swim Jigs
Here in the Pacific Northwest we have a variety of Rockfish species and for my local area they open up for retention May 1st, where we can bonk one Rockfish per day per license. It's not much, but it's something. I'm often targeting these guys alongside with Lingcod as the two live in similar habitats. However, if I want to focus strictly on Rockfish and avoid Lingcod, I do have some focused tactics and gear and that's what this article is about.
Rockfish tend to school up off bottom
If you find one rockfish, you're likely to find more. Rockfish tend to stay in schools. Often time I find them schooled up 10-30 feet off the bottom. Faster tides can move them closer to the bottom and into their holes but more often I get them above the bottom as mentioned. If you want to avoid Lingcod and focus on Rockfish, I'd recommend fishing the 10-30 feet above bottom water column, once you start bouncing on bottom you'll get additional species. Of course this isn't a hard rule but it's certainly more common than not in my experience.
Vertical Jigging or Shore Casting
I'm typically vertical jigging from a kayak or boat, which means I'm out on the water and trying to drop my jig straight down. That's the most effective way to catch them IMO. You can also troll for them with spoons and hoochies, but I don't typically run that gear for bottom fish, more for salmon.
You can target rockfish from shore by casting as far out as possible and letting your jig drop to the bottom and slowly jigging it back. If you're fishing from shore look for those steep drop offs close to shore as rockfish will sit along the ledges. See the 'Swim jigs' section below for more on gear.
See Rockfish Bite & Fight
Targeting them at different depths
I've found Rockfish at 40 feet and hundreds of feet down. Ideally, in the kayak I like to target them in 80-100 feet of water. Meaning, I'm looking for underwater structure and fish these depths around that structure. I also find there is less barotrauma (pressure change negatively impacting the fish) in this this depth when they come up. I always have a a few descenders on my kayak my favorite being the SeaQualizer connected to my downrigger ball.
Mandatory Descending Device for Rockfish
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How to fish Swim Jigs for Rockfish
When fishing these plastic swim jigs you want to put a jig head that can ensure the bait is getting to the bottom. If your jig head is too light and the current is ripping, you're essentially not fishing but allowing your bait to flounder in the current.
Open your bail of your reel to allow your jig to sink to the bottom, wait until the line stops coming off reel or you feel the jig head hit the bottom. At this point slowly start reeling back in and do some jigging actions with your rod to have the jig go up and fall back down. I often repeat the process of dropping my jig down to the bottom with a few jigging motions upward. Each drop, I'll hit bottom a handful of times.
Most times the fish will bite when the jig is falling, so get ready to set the hook! Also on the initial drop often times your bait won't hit the bottom because the fish will bite before it does! This happens all the time to me, so when I'm not feeling bottom and line is still going out I'll often set the hook as the fish can have it in its mouth and is swimming away with it.
Swim Jigs that always catch fish
My favorite swim jigs are paddle tails that have a durable plastic. And often color is white or white and silver combo. When I'm targeting Rockfish I always use a smaller jig usually in the 3" to 5" sizing. As you get bigger than 5" jigs you'll miss more of your hooksets as the lure can be too big.
If I had to choose one swim jig for the rest of my life it would be a 4" Pearl Z-Man swim jig on a 1oz-2oz Diezel Jig head. I don't know what Z-Man puts into their plastic but it holds incredibly well and lasts for a very long time. After dozens and dozens of lingcod and rockfish teeth and bites they continue to hold up.
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CanFish Underwater Camera I'm using
If you want to buy or find out more information on the underwater camera I use for this footage, check out this special link that gets 15% off: CanFish Cam X.
Video of me catching Rockfish
In this video my primary target is Lingcod, after I get my fish I go after Rockfish and get into Copper rockfish & Yellow Eye Rockfish. Go to the 11:45 mark of the video to see the Rockfishing portion.