Cape Mendocino - 9/27

Hooked up with a buddy from work, Art, and loaned him my Scrambler XT and some gear for a trip to the Cape early today to close out rockfish season.  We could see bumps on the water in the light of the full moon from way up on Bear River Ridge, so I thought the forecast of 5-10 NW and 4' swell might not materialize.  It was still dark when we came down the hill at the Cape, so we parked and scanned it while the sun rose and the moon set.  As it got light enough to see I confirmed that the best launch spot looked good enough to go for it.  Art's first time on a SOT went really well; he's a seasoned fisherman and diver who's been in a SIK in the ocean.  We cleared the nearshore wash rocks and excitedly paddled out to the reef.  There was almost no wind at all today - rare!  The swell was light, and the drift was too but it was adequate for moving you around and finding some fish.  I ran a 4 oz. lavendar Megabait with one bare hook above it and got 7 blacks and 2 blues including 3 double hookups in the first 20-30 minutes and mostly all at one WFO spell.  I switched that rig out for a 10 oz. leadhead with the 4-tailed white scampi.  I fished that hard and had a few hits and a kamikaze little black that of course got to ride for free through both lips for awhile, and, to my surprise, I didn't get any fish on that for like 30 minutes.  I switched to a huge trout-looking Storm swim-bait that's like 4 oz.+ and has two hooks, and I quickly hooked up a 30" ling and brought it on board.  Art was having fun hooking up a variety of China's/black and yellows, blacks, greenling...etc. and had a legal ling early too.  I cruised outside to scout reef and hooked up with a beautiful 37" hitchhiker that went ever-so-gently into the giant net before doing some acrobatics as it held onto the 2.5 pound black that it had ridden to the surface with - the black had hit the big Storm trout!  Having the big ling in the net at the side of my boat and being able to photo it, pick it up and measure it against the numbers on my rail, and arrange my tackle while I decide what to do with it is really a big advantage.  Getting excellent documentation and then releasing is really fun - then you feel better about taking a smaller ling home to eat, or just enjoying C&R.  Of course, I was in it for meat today, since the season's closing - DFG's emergency closure forced me to kill a big spawning female for meat!   

We got no reds today which seemed odd.  I ended the day with 15 blacks - kept 8, 4 lings - kept 2 (21 pounds 11 ounces / 37", 10 pounds 5 ounces / 30"), 4 blues - released, 3 greenling - released, and a china/b&y - released. 

Check out the 30" ling and the 37"er side by side.

Wholly smokes... that's a beast. Nice job on the hitch hiker... I love those.

Freddie

DUDE! Eric, you're an animal bro!
Very nice way to end the season. Wow! Love how you casually forgot to mention the lingzilla until the end. Like, Oh Yea, I also got a 21lber...ho hum. Lucky SOB.
Nice fish!

Thanks for the report+pics!
PK

Amazing!!! Way to end the season with a bang. That ling is a lunker for sure and you killed it on the blacks. Made me hungry just looking at those lings

FF

What FF said!! As usual, great report and pics Abbie. Way to knock 'em dead. Crazy that a black hit that monster of a swimbait. And what a way to end the RF season. Should pack the freezer nice and tight for a while to come.

BTW a trick I learned from a friend in Japan who ran a restaurant. This recipe is not for the light of heart but very tasty. Take the head off and clean out blood, gills, and other parts. Soak it whole in soy sauce, cover it lightly in tempura batter and roll it around in hot oil for a deep fry. Not so easy w/ that huge ling head. Then scout it out for the cheeks, peel back the skin (or eat it also), & enjoy... It'll stay super juicy and tasty this way. IMO it's the most tasty part of the fish.

Z

Love how you casually forgot to mention the lingzilla until the end. Like, Oh Yea, I also got a 21lber...ho hum. Lucky SOB.
Nice fish!

Yea.....Way to GO OUT WITH a BANG! Abking!  that's a SWEET "bendo shot" to go with the other nice ones you always post.
You got it nice up there with BigLings still living in the area.......how far of a drive is that from Arena? looks well worth the investment(next season of coarse)  

Keep up the spirits during these tough upcomming times and will be waiting for reports from the opener like a "addicted addict"

Great report & cool pics. thanks.

Take the head off and clean out blood, gills, and other parts. Soak it whole in soy sauce, cover it lightly in tempura batter and roll it around in hot oil for a deep fry. Not so easy w/ that huge ling head. Then scout it out for the cheeks, peel back the skin (or eat it also), & enjoy... It'll stay super juicy and tasty this way. IMO it's the most tasty part of the fish.

Z

Bryce - I was thinking of you when I cleaned that ling!  I started looking at the collars and other meat of the head and felt bad that I don't use all that.  I promise to try it out next year, but you're right about the head on this thing - we'd need one of those turkey deep-fry setups, or bigger!   

I got about 15-20 pounds of boneless ling fillets and around 10-12 pounds of boneless black rockfish fillets.  The big ling had lots of meat, but it's veiny and grainy - I like being able to just keep a nice 28-30" male once in a while - clean meat!  If only the damn season would stay open!   

With the closure I'll be doing a few ab/cab combo trips from the rocks at some of my Lost Coast hike-in spots and maybe a little river fishing.  Get in touch and come on up (or down, Bryce!) any time - fun is not far when you're in Humboldt and you're ready to go adventuring!   

  (speechless)

DUUUDE! SWEEEEET!   

Nice. Sometimes it's not about the big reds eh.  My buddy had some shots of him with 5  Largemouth 7-10Lbs. that he caught with one of those big Storm baits. That exact one you had. I almost used that thing yesterday too...oops. That bendo shot is sweet. thanks

Nice Eric ! I hope we can close the season with some quality down here.

Monster hail mary fish. Great stringer.

Excellent fishes... Great pictures... Awesome! 

Eric....Nice...I miss you! Coming to BAM III? Nice report......again!

CHEERS!