My HMB Jetty Lingcod Story (Just for you SlowRipRun)

5/12/10

Hey Crew,

Woke up at 5am sharp and headed over to the fishing grounds only to find the area lacking some serious water. I call up my fishing buddy, Teng, and give him the "where in the hell are you." He's still coming over the mountains and running a little late. So Teng shows up to find that we're fishing in a low (and I mean lowwwwwwwwwwwwww) tide and I'm waiting for him at the mudflat digging up a mess of clams to pass the time. I give him the tutorial and before I know it, Teng's got a larger pile of clams in 10 minutes than I had in 30. Well the tide started pouring in and we started the long hike to the spot. Teng starts doing his dropshot  and after a while, BAM! He reels in a very docile 27" ling. Then as soon as he puts that one on the stringer he catches and releases a shaker that fought harder than his keeper. I switch over from casting my heavy gear and swimbaits to a light dropshot worm on medium spinning tackle. As soon as he's releasing his shaker I reel in a very tough and feisty 17" rubberlip perch (my largest perch to date). Teng convinces me that this one obviously isn't pregnant and on the stringer it goes.

So we're fishing and a couple of slow hours pass by with no fish to show for it. We move out a little further and Teng starts reeling in shaker ling after shaker ling. At this point he's caught and released 4 shakers and kept one keeper. The action for me, not nearly as good and Teng keeps reminding me that I'm getting schooled. I switch out my lures to my secret ling weapon (7" Bone Hogy) and start working a jerk-jerk-pause-jerk-jerk-pause retrieve. The water starts to clear up to almost Carmel clarity and I start casting in and around some pretty heavy structure. Then BAM! MY REEL STARTS PULLING OUT LINE AND I GOT A VERY PISSED OFF FISH ON THE OTHER END. I work the fish to the surface and I almost had a heart attack at the size of this ling. The fish suddenly realizes what's going on and starts barrel rolling, head shaking, diving, and giving me all sorts of hell. I reel him in and he takes off w/ 15ft of line and we repeat this game for about 5 minutes. Now I realize since I traded Dan my lip gripper for 6 crab snares last winter that I have no way of landing this toothy monster. Well Teng has one and so I'm yelling TENG off the top of my lungs like a madman. Still no answer and I'm going to loose this fish of a lifetime b/c I notice that the fish is barely hooked in the roof of the mouth. Well, it's about time to nut up or shut up and I reach down bare handed and grab him right in the spiniest, sharpest, and now incredibly painful gill rakers ever made (this really pissed that fish off). 

Once I get the monster ling on shore and hold him over my head, I finally catch Teng's attention and he ran right over. I was shaking like a leaf with adrenaline after we subdued the beast. I attempted to patch up my torn up hands with an old sock, now bleeding as bad as the ling. Teng casts once more and catches another shaker before we decide to leave. This thing was a pain to load back to the car but it was worth every miserable second.

I once was reading a book at borders regarding shore fishing and saw this surf striper angler walking back with a huge striper slung over his shoulder. Ever since then I've wanted a picture where I caught a fish so big that I had to sling it over my shoulder to bring it back. I finally got my pic! Thanks for reading crew and good luck out there. Take care.

Sincerely,

SF08 (Eric)

Gear: 
Reel:  Revo Insore
Rod:  7'9" Clarus Xtra Heavy 3/4-6oz rating
Maine Line:  50lb Green Power Pro
Leader:  50lb Berkley Big Game
Snap:  70lb Berkley Snap in Black
Lure:  7" Hogy in Bone
Technique:  Walking the dog in between the rocks (deadly).

Holy Lingzilla.... TY for the report...

*runs off to pack up dive gear*

Damm nice fish dude !!!

Holy Lingzilla.... TY for the report...

*runs off to pack up dive gear*

Easy tiger! That was from almost 2 years ago!

Holy Lingzilla.... TY for the report...

*runs off to pack up dive gear*

Easy tiger! That was from almost 2 years ago!

doh... I should read slower!!!  I have to keep sneaking in peeks from work, so I read hella fast.

Congratulations on the Lingzilla from shore. Thanks for the report and fish porns Eric.

Wow man, thanks for the great report and pics....

Man, fish of a lifetime!!!

Nice report - excellent read!

Great ling!   

Thanks everybody! 

frigging awesome catch there! Looks bigger than this - caught by Brian at a HMB Kayak Fishing Tournament a while back....

awesome story!  Where were you digging up clams?

Sweet Ling! That is some sweet pron for sure.
thanks for the great read.
Jimbo