no elk for me...

Elk looked fantastic. wished I could have gone. thanks for the photos!

We tried the following (hairbrained?) plan: catch kingfish in capitola, put them in baitbuckets. Then paddle west and drift back east down the kelp west of the pier in the hopes of landing a legal ling with the kingfish as bait. and maybe a halibut would hit a smaller 6" kingfish, who knows.

We caught the kingfish as planned, about 9 of them. but the lingcod part didn't work out too well. Most kingfish were lost somehow. I got one lingcod to the surface but it spat out the kingfish before being landed, and it looked a bit below the 24" mark anyways.

I'd really like to catch a legal ling somewhere between SF and Moss Landing this season...

Keep trying, you'll get on them.  While you have a better chance catch legal lings up North or down South, legals are caught out of the SC harbor and Davenport (fish the kelp near Scott Creek or South near the Cement plant).  Stillwater Cove (Carmel) is another option locally.

There are several other locations that produce, but I just listed the easier launches.  Good luck.