Lingcod Fishing in Bellingham, WA

Lingcod hold on the rocky structure around Bellingham year-round, so there is no month you cannot go looking for them. The strongest stretch runs from November through February, when fish move shallower to spawn and males sit tight on nests, then again from March through June as post-spawn fish feed hard and herring and sand lance stack up on the reefs. Summer thins out as fish disperse onto deeper edges, and they build back as the water cools in fall.

Seven spots make up the core of the run here. Alden Bank, Hein Bank, Partridge Bank and Parker Reef give you open-water structure, while Belle Rock, Point Lawrence and Thatcher Pass put you on tighter rock and current seams. Jigging is the way most of these fish come aboard. Drop leadhead jigs with swimbaits, metal jigs or bucktail jigs onto pinnacles and rockpiles in 60 to 150 feet through the San Juans and Rosario Strait. When you want a bigger resident fish, drift live greenling, live herring or a whole dead herring near bottom over the same rock.

Plan around moving water. You want the current running at 0.1 knots or better, so fish the run of the ebb or the flood and treat dead slack as a break. A daily tide swing of 5 to 10 feet is the productive band, with wind wave and swell each under 5 feet.