Big Lings

A former coworker of mine got the bug to go commercial fish Alaska.  Her friend bought a fishing boat and off they went:  An all chick fishing boat with pink trim.  The lings for them are by-catch. Here's a quote from her last email to me:

We did a couple trips off shore about 30 miles at a place called the Fair Weather Grounds. We caught big fish there! Big salmon, big halibut and the biggest ling cod I've ever seen and hope to never see again. They were impressive at first but after catching 40 giants and another 40 medium ling cod every day, it got old. We brought one of the big guys on board to weigh and take pics. It was 37 lbs and I know we caught lots of bigger ones. I think you would have been stoked.

They just shook these guys off cause they were too tired to lift them in the boat.

Look at the mouth on that thing...holy $%&*(

nice lookin legs too!!

  ...you can make a hat out of the head 

Dave ,theres a good reason not to poke your head into a hole in the reef!

Imagine what that thing could do to our typical rockfish tackle!
Too tight a drag while kayak fishing? Either let go of the rod or down you go!

the lip-gripper would be challenged for sure!

Nice fish! Is it just me or does that look like a poor way to hold a fish intended for release?

Nice fish! Is it just me or does that look like a poor way to hold a fish intended for release?

Large fish don't tolerate being held vertically for long.  Just luck at that ling's poor gut all smushed down towards it's anus.  However, I find lings to be pretty tolerant of abuse relative to other rockfish and my feeling is that one probably did okay upon release.

Fish like that, you try to gaff him from a yak he might take it away and beat you silly with it.

Seriously, where would you clip him?  He'd pull out any cleat on any yak I've seen, and probably flip your yak in the process.

Eric B, talk to Allen (Pole Pole) or ScottThornley.  I believe both have caught lings like that from a kayak.

Seriously, where would you clip him? 

I would love to find out. Lets go get 'em .

Sure wish we got them like that at Bean. Except, then the great whites might become the bait...

Nice fish! Is it just me or does that look like a poor way to hold a fish intended for release?

She was probably just doing her best to stay away from those teeth.  Can you imagine, they were catching 40 of these a day on salmon spreaders? I told her they'd make more money taking yak fishers out there.

Here's Wendy with a nice halibut. Notice the pink girl trim on the transom.

In the Elk/Greenwood museum they had a photo of a stack of lings taken many decades ago from that area, and they looked at least as big as that one.

An all-women crew. That's refreshing. Pescadore, has your friend said if they've encountered any attitude from other operations?