Lingcod Fishing in Prince Rupert, BC

Lingcod live here year-round. They are resident groundfish holding rocky structure across Chatham Sound and the outer islands, so you have fish under you in any month you show up. The window that matters most runs February through July. Late winter into spring brings mature fish onto shallow rocky reefs to spawn, with males sitting hard on nests and refusing to leave them. Through summer, large females push onto shallower nearshore reefs to feed on incoming herring and salmon. Numbers ease off through late fall as post-spawn fish spread out to deeper structure, but they never drop to nothing.

We cover 25 spots that hold lingcod. Baron Island (North End), Bell Passage, Dundas Island, Edye Passage, Green Island and Holliday Island give you the reef and pinnacle structure these fish sit on, and the Digby Island Kelp Beds put you on shallower ground close to town.

Tide runs the day here. Fish the slack. Dead slack up to about 0.5 knots is your working window, and by roughly 2.5 knots the ground is unfishable because your gear will not stay where you drop it. Plan your run around the hour either side of high or low water. Jigging is the main game, working leadhead jigs with swimbaits, metal jigs and bucktail jigs down rocky edges in 60 to 200 feet.