Picking up hitchhikers ocean style

Finally got out up here on the Oregon coast (Damn 6 months of WIND). Port Orford was great with little wind hardly any wave action and the fish they chomping at the bit to be caught. Right of the bat fish on, it tugged, it went that way and this way and all of a sudden it went nuts right into the kelp and got tangled up . Great now I've lost the fish plus going to lost my fly to say the least. Get over to where the is kelp and start hand hand lining my flyline to try and save it but feel the tug of the fish so I every gently  back off giving it some slack so the fish work himself free. No more than 30 seconds later the fly line is moving out of the kelp and I haul back and stick him one more time and the fight was on once again. Within 12 feet of me looking down there is this large mottled bluish form hoovering next to my fish no wait, it has my fish. All that was going through my mind was I need a bigger net, next thing I now was my fishing partner was coming over with his net (must have said it out loud) so while he was coming over he also had a fish on and and was dragging it along the rockfish made a daring escape only to have the ling pounce on it again. If that wasn't enough the rockfish made one more attempt and broke free and dove down only to find the ling had dove below it and came up at it at this time the rockfish was head first 3/4 of the way in the lings mouth and the ling was not going to let go at no cost. My fishing partner got me his net  and netted a 34" 24lb. lingcod. Needless to say the rest of the day was icing on the cake(stop counting at 18 for the blacks). 3 hours later the bite started to die off finished our limits and headed back in.

Wow that's pretty exciting! I'm amazed you landed that beast after all of that.

awesome story, what kind of rod are you using for a 34" ling flyfishing! that's pretty cool.

Monster on the fly!! (Sort of  )

Great report. Years and years and years ago I lived in Langlois and I perked up when I saw where you were reporting from! I haven’t been back since like ‘92 maybe? I wonder if I would recognize anything. I did a lot of shore fishing back then, but no kayak fishing.

John, it's Langlois the only real change is the Langlois market now you need to stand in line to get one of their famous hot dogs and the little restaurant just down the street is now a sushi restaurant.

awesome story, what kind of rod are you using for a 34" ling flyfishing! that's pretty cool.

It was a Beulah 9/10 wt. surf rod  and I almost forgot my leader was 12lb. test.

34" and 24#??  That's wild!  That is wayyy heavier than your average 34 incher.  Nice fish!

That's awesome. What kind of line are you running? Full sink?

34" and 24#??  That's wild!  That is wayyy heavier than your average 34 incher.  Nice fish!

It's possible. Lings seem to vary a lot in weight vs length.
I've been carrying a digital scale for a while to try and make some sense of the guesstimates. I've recorded 32" at 9.16lbs and 38" at 23.6 lbs. Sometimes they are thin and snake-y, sometimes they are thick.

34" and 24#??  That's wild!  That is wayyy heavier than your average 34 incher.  Nice fish!

It's possible. Lings seem to vary a lot in weight vs length.
I've been carrying a digital scale for a while to try and make some sense of the guesstimates. I've recorded 32" at 9.16lbs and 38" at 23.6 lbs. Sometimes they are thin and snake-y, sometimes they are thick.

I've been doing the same thing and awhile back I caught a 28" at 17.75lbs, without   a full stomach. That's almost twice the weight of your 28". Got some thick fillets off of that one.

That's awesome. What kind of line are you running? Full sink?

I was using a intermediate running line with 15 ft. of T-20 and 4ft. of straight 12lb. test.

Dang that's a great story!  I've had them hitch a ride,  but never got one in the net or gaff.  Sounds like a ton of fun!

...Bait fisher...
nice job!

I just passed through Port Orford on my way back to California and though it was windy, it sure looked like a beautiful place to be on the water. Any quick tips on where to fish close in? Tempted to bring a little SOT kayak on my next trip up that way in a couple months, and if so would be fish-finder-less.

I just passed through Port Orford on my way back to California and though it was windy, it sure looked like a beautiful place to be on the water. Any quick tips on where to fish close in? Tempted to bring a little SOT kayak on my next trip up that way in a couple months, and if so would be fish-finder-less.

"Though it was windy" that is the norm for this year and it looks like that one trip was it. Hell's Gate out on the Headlands and the coves around there is the best choice for structure(pretty much everything else is a Marine reserve or sand bottom) but you really need  super calm day and keep an eye on the weather for it can change in a instant and trust me you don't want to be out there when it changes that south wind will shuts everything down.