Cabezon fishing?

[mustardthetrout]

I have been bottom fishing for years and have never caught a Cabezon. I've fished deep and shallow water in Oregon, California, Washington (from both shore and boats) and fished just about every lure on the market. I've caught rockfish, sea bass, lingcod, flounder, perch, salmon, sculpins, crab, and greenlings but never cabezon. I've fished in situations where everyone around me is hauling cabezon up but I've never caught any. Does anyone know if there's anything specific that cabezon will prefer to strike or am I just having bad luck?

 

[GaryP1958]

They love fish guts!

 

[Gulfstream]

I have caught several on swimbaits,although I let them go cause they are a pain to clean!

 

[taconight2night]

I have spent most of my life fishing the Oregon coast and caught a lot of cabs. I would say that you really can't target cabezon because they are just about everywhere in small numbers mixed in with the shmorgus of bottom fish. That being said, if I had one method of choice and I HAD to try to catch one, I would fish around 30-60 feet of water, looking for a bottom that is mostly flat with a mixture of rock piles, and would bounce lead fish jigs (lead fish are a plain lead lure, shaped like an anchovies or herring, about the size of a butter knife blade) just off the bottom. I feel like I have caught more cabs at that depth, around that type of bottom, on lead fish more than anything else. Hope this helps, good luck! :thumb:

 

[mustardthetrout]

I have spent most of my life fishing the Oregon coast and caught a lot of cabs. I would say that you really can't target cabezon because they are just about everywhere in small numbers mixed in with the shmorgus of bottom fish. That being said, if I had one method of choice and I HAD to try to catch one, I would fish around 30-60 feet of water, looking for a bottom that is mostly flat with a mixture of rock piles, and would bounce lead fish jigs (lead fish are a plain lead lure, shaped like an anchovies or herring, about the size of a butter knife blade) just off the bottom. I feel like I have caught more cabs at that depth, around that type of bottom, on lead fish more than anything else. Hope this helps, good luck! :thumb:

Thanks, I'll give that a try! One of my go-to techniques in bottomfishing is similar to what you described. Hopefully I should eventually catch a cab.