Capitola 8/8

Persistence paid off---I finally got a keeper-sized ling. Other than that, all I caught was a small rockfish and a pelican...

I launched from New Brighton at about 8:30am. It was like a lake out there, but so foggy, that I couldn't see the shore, or Spongebob. I was dragging a dead squid around, and small mackerel were jumping everywhere. So, I put a sabiki on my other line (never tried that before), and caught a few of them just for fun. I probably could've gotten 100 mackerel.

Anyways, I ditched the sabiki and tied on a swimbait, and on the first cast, the line got tangled on a pelican in flight. That bird pealed off a huge amount of line before I figured out what had happened. Fortunately, it came untangled with no harm done. I continued to slow troll the squid, but no takers.

About 60 to 90 minutes after starting, it was still thick with fog, and I was surprised to get a glimpse of the Capitola Wharf in the distance. At that point, I deduced that I was probably directly out from the Capitola beach, while fishing in maybe 30 feet of water. That's where I caught the ling and then the small rockfish a couple minutes later. Ordinarily, I would've thrown the small guy back, but I thought it might make the ling look bigger in the pictures. I don't think it worked, since the ling was way, way bigger in person than it appears to be in the picture...

I continued to fish until about 11:30, but I didn't get any more. I only saw one other boat out there (a skiff), and they said they'd caught a bunch of mackerel and jacksmelt.

nice ling,it looks big in the pic.i still havnt caught a keeper ling yet

Nice ling!!! Why didn't you try using the mackerel for bait? Live bait is the best.

kick down with the measurements on that sucker!

Congrats on a well earned catch!

WTG on your keeper ling bro.

Jedmo

Congrats

Nice ling!!! Why didn't you try using the mackerel for bait? Live bait is the best.

+1

Congrats

Nice ling!!! Why didn't you try using the mackerel for bait? Live bait is the best.

+1

Capt. Sandab^^

Congrats on The Nice ling and fun-safe day out there! 

Sweet. So happy for you. Perseverance is what it is all about.

WTG good job!!

Congrats

Nice ling!!! Why didn't you try using the mackerel for bait? Live bait is the best.

+1

Yeah, I thought about it. In fact, I built a bait tube from a 4" drain pipe, but forgot to bring it along. Next time I'll definitely give that a try.

As for the size of the ling, I didn't weigh it. I didn't think to carefully measure it either---just a quick check to be sure that it exceeded my 22" measuring stick. Based on that, I'd say it was at least 26".

Congrats - way to stay after it and score!   

Congrats on the keeper ling, Dr. Boob!  You did good for 3 hours of fishing

Congrats on the keeper ling, Dr. Boob!  You did good for 3 hours of fishing

Thanks, although it's actually more like 30 hours if you add it all up. But then, who's counting (other than my wife, that is...)?

Nice..........Congrats on your keeper ling...looks chunky...and that bait would've been tasty!!!

You should've kept the Mac and put it on the stringer, that will make your Ling looks much bigger (j/k)  Thanks for the report and pictures JHB.