Another excellent report, Sean.  NIce work, and it's typical at this point that you spent much of your time being not only a guide but a yakking divemaster-equivalent!  "Yak-Master"?...  WTG. 

Jmairey--you're right on regarding the long period swell phenomenon--I'm preaching that to my mates all the time, and we definitely noticed it up here over the past several days.  The south and west swells with the long period act differently than the usual north swell pattern and have the potential to really surprise you in a familiar and usually waveless channel when a big set comes in every 5-10 minutes.

Another thing, Sean:  I saw how the forecast for Cape Mendo to Pt. Arena held at 5 knots and low swell all the way to Saturday night then mentioned 5-7' picking up iin the afternoon.  Then on Sunday, as I thought I'd be sitting home hating the fact that the ocean was epic again, I noted that it picked up on all buoys to around 7' and blowing more than predicted.  As you said earlier in another thread, the north coast winds and weather are much much more volatile than elsewhere...  WTG again on getting some fish.

Sounds good--not just because it's good for me! --thanks for the response on that.  That's how it should be.

I posted on the fishing reports board that I will put photos on tomorrow of the scale comparison, so there should be no question about it.  There are a few responses on that board that indicate that it's not clear enough, and I only want credit if those people are happy with the photos of the comparison.

I did some comparison work with a digital Berkeley scale and it showed that my old spring scale is consistently a pound or so light, so I claim 24#!  That should make it clean for Brian, but I am certainly not claiming to be beyond any questioning.  I hope the look and length of the fish speaks for itself. 

Did anyone ever answer the question that surfaced a few weeks ago:  can someone catch, weigh, photo, and release a ling all the way up 'til 12/31 and be included in the pool?

23.5"er, 40" long

40" - check this by finding an '02 Silverado tailgate!

I promise to buy a good scale with the money!  8>}

I am having a hell of a time figuring out this picture thing...  I hope something shows up with this post.

Petrolia is an hour and a half from here on winding roads with logging trucks!  And I'm already 5+ hours north of the Golden Gate.  Top that with the fact that it's usually blowing hard and big swell over there...  it has to be just right.  As for bigger lings and lots of rockfish in general, I've worked several years to score a few lings over 20 pounds.  I've been very impressed with the reports of Big Sur, Elk, and other Sonoma and Mendocino spots that Scwafish and others have introduced to the board.  That said, if anyone wants to come up I'm into corresponding and getting together.  The main factors by far are the wind and swell.  I was using 6 oz. lead-head jigs with split tails in white, red, blue...  Most of the time I didn't use my usual shrimp fly above it as I wanted to only target lings.  At the end of the fishing yesterday I went into a heavy kelp bed and jigged with a 3 oz. fish-looking jig with a treble hook, thinking, "oh well, if I get snagged in the kelp it's gone..."  I go on to catch the underling, 4 blacks, 2 sea trout (greenlings), and the blue in about 10 minutes!  I admit that I use some basic and archaic gear(!), but the fishing's good enough to get away with it most of the time.  There have been about a half dozen days in the last 2+ months that you could fish out there.