Tackle To Take

To fish salmon, halibut, lingcod and rockfish on the B.C. coast with your own light gear, I'd suggest bringing the following: three rods/reels — spinning and/or levelwind as an angler prefers. I like to carry one with 6- or 8-pound braid, one with 10-pound and one with 15-pound, but any combination of 6- to 20-pound line should serve. Make sure all reels' spools are filled with at least 250 yards of line. Choose rods with a good backbone for dropping fairly heavy jigs and for contests versus some pretty big fish.
 
Other items to bring (besides pliers and the like):

• 20- to 30-pound fluoro or mono for top shots
• 80- or 100-pound mono for bottomfish leaders (most resorts provide snelled double-hook salmon leaders, typically on 15- or 20-pound mono)
• smaller trolling/bullet weights up to 1 ounce (for slow-trolling or motor mooching near surface with light braid), such as the "spin sinkers" made by Bullet Weights (www.bulletweights.com)
• metal jigs from 1 to 4 ounces for salmon
• metal and lead-head jigs from 1 to 6 ounces for bottomfish
• plastic tails and baits (generally 6 to 10 inches; it's almost impossible to use anything too large as long as it's not too heavy for the gear)
• some large but thin-wire circle hooks for squid, live mackerel or other large baits for halibut
• extra braid (the bottom can be grabby and the current swift!)
• (Most resorts provide terminal gear but generally their jigs and sinkers are far too heavy for light tackle, hence the suggestion for smaller gear as noted above.)

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