Lingday Pt. Arena South 7-21-07

 I had a family (wife's side) camping trip this weekend at the Manchester KOA. Pretty decent facility, we opted to stay in a cabin with bathroom and kitchen(wife's idea). So after last weeks successful outing with Sean and Jelly,I was eager to go. Sean was on WAF duty but Joe (Bluefin17) read my mind and we agreed to meet up on Sat. morning.

 The wind was light and the swell was small. After an uneventful launch the plan was to drag apexes for salmon until we reached a place to rockfish. Last week there were some  30-40lb. salmon caught up there. Well I snagged right away and there was no bait or bird action, so on to plan B. Then I saw a big gray fin cutting through the water, then there was the sound of spouting whale, phew.





We paddled aways over sterile looking bottom then finally picked up some good looking marks. I made a drop and hooked a gopher Joe drops and he hooks a ling.




 Well I set up for another drift on this high spot and hook up! It fights hard, pulls a little drag, head shakes then comes right up. It's a very dark China, almost all black with very light yellow spots. Then Joe who's drifting nearby hooks up again. Nice vermillion 


 I'm not feeling the love with the copper RF jig so I switched to a 7" swimbait. I make a couple drops and get into the groove then whammo, feels like the right kind! Head shakes and a couple runs, then up to color, nice ling. Okay it's on now. We're picking up fish pretty steady now on the same drift, then I snag bigtime. Wind is picking up but I paddle upwind to try and free my swimbait. I try once no go, try paddling up and to the side and it comes free. I pick up the rod from under my leg and make two cranks , WTF theres a fish on! I reel it up to the surface and see it's a big ling, who proceeds to peel line off my reel all the way to the bottom. He comes back up reluctantly and kisses my gaff. After lights out, I go to unhook my bait, where is it? He hid that 4.5 oz-7" bait no problemo.


 
Joe and I limited on lings and kept a few nice vermillions. We start back and all of a sudden some big swells start pushing through. They didn't last long but it made for some enthusiastic paddling. Joe remarked later "you were so high above me when I looked up".The landing was a breeze, here's a couple more pics.




 A Great day on the water!

Sounds like you had a great competition going on. Great job! Newbie looking forward to it     Alex (bulldog)

CARNAGE!!!!

I hereby crown you LINGSLAYER!!! Another job well done.

Dude!!....your on a Zilla-KILL!!  I remember something about "everybody's gettin them around me,except ME?!
CHA-CHING **Pay Off Rewards gettin cashed in....SWEEET!  (i'm gettin a bit jealous to be honest) 

Great report.  I like the dorsal shot - had me going!

Eric

 Eric, Believe me it was a relief when I saw them spout. I think they were Risso's Dolphins.http://www.oceanlight.com/html/rissos_dolphin.html



 When just the dorsal fins were visible it was creepy for a second. But it was obvious when they blew, and there was a pod of 4 or 5 . Then I paddled toward them to try and get pics, I used burst mode and got a couple.

Dude!!....your on a Zilla-KILL!!  I remember something about "everybody's gettin them around me,except ME?!
CHA-CHING **Pay Off Rewards gettin cashed in....SWEEET!  (i'm gettin a bit jealous to be honest) 

Don't worry Adam we'll "Hook You Up" at Elk ! Weather permitting that is. Did you get some Scopace?

You guys Rock......fish! Nice, very,very nice.

I haven't been able to post my pics because of the server problems but I'll post them later when its fixed.

Short follow up report:

I checked with my wife (a marine mammal biologist) and she confirmed that those were Risso's dolphins.  She was saying that they are very common in the world's coastal ocean areas (usually within 7 miles of the coast) except for the pole areas.  They are around 10-13 feet long and weigh at least 800-1200 lbs., glad they didn't come closer.

Fishing:  Started a little slow with a couple a medium 14-16" blacks.  Then I picked up a 33" ling (pictured in Mark's post), then a my first red (also pictured above).  After that I picked 3 big rockfish, 2 - 24" vermilions that were 6.5 and 6.9 lbs and an ~26-27" canary which was barely hooked and got off as I was getting my camera ready.  Its swim bladder did not inflate and it swam back down just fine.  I though it was a big ling so I was bringing it up slowly from about 70 feet.  It fought very hard.  That canary must have been at least 8 or 9 lbs. (and ~75-80 years old according to the rockfish book "Rockfishes of the Northeast Pacific" by Milton Love et al.) I'm still glad it went down OK.  As we were thinking of leaving, I caught another legal ling at 30", it seemed very small after watching Mark catch that one at 18 lb.  Fun paddle back in navigating boiler rocks.

Wow, those are some big fish!

J

Ooooon fire!

Z