A pig at Ft Ross!!!

I took a beginner to the sport of kayak fishing up to Ft Ross area yesterday afternoon and put him on one of my favorite spots. We started at about 3pm (quite late but one of my favorite times to for for rockfish). The weather looked good coming up but of course about the time we were launching the wind was really starting to pick up. Bummer! Not to get discouraged to easily I was determined to so him the fine art of fishing from a kayak in spite of the weather. We basically had to anchor up to kelp becasue the wind got to much to fish well. I anchored him up to some kelp and let him fish. I marked a nice ledge with the FF and turned him loose. Then...Bam!! He nailed about a 12lb ling. I helped him land it and then tried to get down myself but as I was fighting the wind and swell I broke my paddle. While I was trying to fix the paddle he pulled up a nice red. He then dropped down again and then yelled at me for help as I was still drifting off trying to fix my paddle. I canoe paddled over to help him and could not believe the size of the head I saw emerging to the surface. I thought to myself, "That fish isn't going to fit in the net" Well, we got it in and ended up bending my net quite nicely. All I can say that we can be glad he wasn't entered into the BIG FISH (Lingcod) pool because he would definately have the lead. Turned out to be a 28lb 41" LINGASAURUS!!! I have never caught one that big but it was increadible to witness this event. I think I was more excited that he was. I was hooping and cheering. Yee Ha!   After that fish the weather kind of got out of control so I jumped in and got a limit of abs and we headed home. Talk about beginners luck. I was proud of myself because of my genuine good will and rejoicing in seeing him catching such a beauty even though he was in my yak and using my rod and in my favorite spot.Ouch! Just kidding! Very fun day! Here it is if I did the picture right for this post.
See you all at Elk next Saturday!
Brent

Sorry, I am not sure how to size that down so follow this link for a better picture.
Brent
http://www.commercemarketplace.com/home/fishing/Josh_and_his_Lingasaurus.jpg

Wow nice ingzilla there! The first timers/newbies have been killing them this year, can I start over?  

DANG!!!! Great Job... at least that's one more newbie that won't be a newbie for Elk... That's a heck of a nice fish.  I saw a guy spear a ling that was 28# up there last year... that's one nice fish.  Congratulations.

Erik

Beautiful ling. Anyone notice how last year when the limit was 30", no one could land a legal one, but now that it's 24", everyone's getting toads?!

Congrats!  NICE fish.  This is the year of the toad!!!

as my dad would say, "that's a HAAWG"

HUGE FISH!!!!!
Thats totally true last year I didnt see any keepers now all over the place people are nailing them!

Yes, I caught no legal ling last year but have caught several over 30" this year

They all grew after last year.  

Lingcod is one of the few fisheries that's actually getting better out here.  The population is supposed to grow to the point it's not 'overfished' within a couple years.  With 80% of lingcod territory closed for the forseeable future, we can expect the fish to keep getting bigger and more common.

Great news for us yak fisherman!

My goal when I was fishing from a cattle-boat was to catch a ling...No such luck.

Now, I catch 2 or 3 every time I go out on my yak!  I'm still waiting for a monster.