A first: greenling attempts to eat greenling

I was out yesterday live-baiting a small greenling at 110 feet - the very end of my drift - when I got some thumps.  I knew it couldn't have been the bait because it was too small to make that kind of ruckus and also pretty lifeless at that point, so I set the hook.  Reeling up, I could tell there was a fish on, but not a big one.  To my surprise, it was a greenling...



Yes, he was snagged, BUT he was most definitely messing with my bait down there.  Two interesting things...one, that a greenling would attempt to eat another one (I suppose not so surprising given I've caught them on 8" grubs AND they are a cousin of the lingcod) and two, they hang out that deep.  Pretty fun!  I subsequently used HIM for bait.

Earlier I caught this 32" gem:



Brag time...There was a PB with some townies on it who were doing drift after drift catching only small rockfish and underlings, while I was against the rocks fishing for bait.  They saw me catching greenies and prolly assumed that since I was in a kayak I couldn't fish for the big dogs.  After accumulating some bait I came out to about 80-100 FOW, dropped in a greenie, and within 5 minutes hauled up this guy.  The looks on their faces!  hahaha.  They betrayed their ignorance when one guy goes, "is that a kelp cod?" 

Time to brush on on your fish ID bro!

Nice Ling!

I've heard that Greenlings are excellent bait for Lingcod, they don't have the gill plate spines of a sculpin or fin spines like on a rockfish etc.

The only trouble is I never seem to catch any Greenlings, only lingcod and rockfish heh...

Nice ling!

I wonder if the greenling you snagged had more amorous or territorial intent?

I have never done it, but in Japan there is a char that eats algae off the rocks so its hard to catch sport fishing.  The way they do it is to go to a hatchery, buy one or two of the farmed char.  They attach it to a harness and add a few treble hooks.  they drift it threw slots and behind rocks in rivers and since they are super territorial, a fish will come smack the invader and get hooked in the process.  Super evolved super expensive fisheries.  I hear the rods can be like 30 feet long but weight almost nothing but cost thousands of dollars.

It's hard to tell from this photo, but it looks like your bait (the smaller greenling, right?) was a female and the larger greenling was a male.   However, I'm pretty sure spawning happens in the fall.

It's hard to tell from this photo, but it looks like your bait (the smaller greenling, right?) was a female and the larger greenling was a male.   However, I'm pretty sure spawning happens in the fall.

Actually, the smaller one is male.  Both male.  The orangey-ness is from evening light.  Side note, I use whatever greenling I can get, but I've caught more lings on females.  I don't know if there's anything to that, just my observation.  Perhaps it's because they are more visible.  Or maybe they just smell better

Did you have the hook in the first greenling in the mouth?  Could the second greenling have been fighting for the "hook/food"?

I like the female greenling too.  There is a reason why I like a big swimbait in "creamsicle" colors.

-Allen

Did you have the hook in the first greenling in the mouth?  Could the second greenling have been fighting for the "hook/food"?

Two hooks - one in the mouth the other near the tail.  Second greenling was snagged on the tail hook and also got the line wrapped around it.  I don't know what was going on down there but the thumps were pretty big relative to the fish's size (about 16").