First legal Ling off the Kayak

Snuck out in the dark and fog through some big swells (for Capitola) for a few hours of fishing in the kayak..got a few decent RockFish at the first kelp bed in front of the pier, and then head over to Adam's Reef area...After a few more small rockfish, BAAAMMM my line takes off screaming away from the kelp...

After a nice battle a beautiful 24 inch (just legal!!) LingCod comes up and makes its way safely onto my stringer!!!
 


Not a giant monster like the ones a lot of you guys catch, but a very nice nice fish for me!!!
 

Decide that the swell may be getting bigger rather than smaller and head home early...

Was using a white scampi tipped with squid with a shrimp fly teaser a foot or so above with a chunk of frozen sardine.

My wife helped me clean the Ling and we are marinating it along with one of the RockFish for a Ceviche!!!

Good times!!

Sincerely,

Jim

Back at the house...

Way to go ! Wish I had gotten otw this wknd . Next wknd for sure .

Nice catch, Jim. You have some nice meals to look forward to

Nice work.

S.

Thanks guys...

Hey, when I was cleaning the Ling there were these two weird looking little white buggy things in its gills...the only picture I have that shows them is this one of the head, but you can see the little white buggy thing to the left of its eyeball...had a bunch of squiggly legs and was overall pretty gross...

Anybody know what these things are????

Congratulations on the "Catch".  This will be the start of many more.  As to the White Bug Things, "No Idea" but make sure you cook them well before eating.

congrats on your first legal ling.
the little buggy creatures are called "sea-lice".  yes, they are quite gross!!

Jim,

Kudos on that fine ling. Now you're hooked for good with no hope of recovery from this addiction.

SRJ

Thanks for the kudos and for the info on the sealice...

I have seen little sealice squirming on the skin of fish before, but never these big fat white bugs in the gills...

I found this on the dfg site, and it definitely is what they were:
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/parasites.asp#isopods

These guys were at least an inch long and were literally crawling around on my filet table...

NASTY!!   

I didn't show the wife or she would have gotten all weirded out about eating the fish!!
 

Sincerely,

Jim

Cudos on the ling and the isopod research.
Always learning something on NCKA...always.

nice ling man, i find those lil gill bugs in perch all the time also.[ried em for bait but no luck.

nice haul.  You will find a bunch of sea lice in sanddabs as well.  Dont seem to be in the meat