I fish mostly in Haida Gwaii, and aside from a couple of hard-fished areas, the lings don't see much pressure. My go-to lure for years has been a 7-ounce Gibbs Minnow, but they don't seem to make them anymore. (LET ME KNOW if anyone knows a source!!!!) I prefer to fish reefs that come up as shallow as 30 feet from the surface, drifting across the top, then bouncing down the dropoff to 120 feet or so. For obvious reasons involving hooking Canada instead of a fish, drifting from deep to shallow is a bad idea. The fluttering action of the Minnow is far more effective than the more bullet-shaped jigs that have become popular lately. I'm not trying to reach great depths, so a fast drop isn't my aim. Swimbaits are my second choice.
A very effective form of "live bait" fishing is to jig a smallish black rockfish from the annoying schools near the surface, and let the weight of the jig send it spiraling toward the bottom. Pick it up a few feet every little while to keep it active, then drop it as the depth increases. Many of the biggest lingcod I've caught had large rockfish in their stomachs, so one in distress looks like lunch. (I don't see many sand-dabs in our rocky lingcod habitat.) It's rare to actually hook the lingcod on the rockfish, but a lingcod usually grabs a rockfish across the body, squeezes it to death, then turns it to swallow it headfirst so the spines are lying flat and not gagging the ling.
Because of that ingrained process, and because lingcod are not very bright, lings are reluctant to let go of a fish they've captured. You need to be ready to gaff them just as they come into reach, because they aren't hooked. It's not at all uncommon to have a larger or even similar-sized ling latch onto the tail of the ling that's latched onto the rockfish. Several times, we've gaffed two lings, neither of which was actually hooked, using this method. For the same reason, if a ling does let go, lowering the bait quickly will often get him or the bigger competition to take.
That brings up the matter of ling size. My ideal ling weighs 12-20 pounds, and I'm increasingly reluctant to gaff anything bigger. The larger lings are usually mature breeding females, and they tend to load up with parasites as they age. I see lodges advertising "Trophy Ling Cod", and I shake my head.
As to tackle, I fish from smallish boats, so I use a fairly stiff 7' fiberglass rod with a Penn reel loaded with about 200' of 80# mono, backed with enough 50# braid to fill the reel in case I encounter a halibut that wants to run. I hate handling braid, abrasions in heavy mono are obvious and less likely to be terminal, and the springiness of the mono can help with unsnagging. For the novice jigger, once you know you're snagged, applying power is a bad idea! It's best to run back up-drift until your line is at a fairy shallow angle from the snag, then drift back toward it, giving little pumping jerks to dislodge the jig. If all else fails, wrap the line around a club or gaff handle, and motor slowly in the direction you drifted from. That often dislodges what you're hooked on, or straightens the hooks. The mono also tends to break at at the knot, so there's no need for a leader.
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