32" Ling off the Rocks (C&R) 2/28

We headed out to a local spot up in Mendocino County.  We were really expecting cabs and greenlings, maybe a perch or a blue thrown in.  That is what you get there.  I had pretty small hooks - 1/0 - and small pieces of squid to get these smaller fish.  Found a nice looking spot by climbing out on some rocks.  FIRST CAST I drop it into a deeper channel in front of a large rock.  Sure enough, I get the tap tap tap of a greenling.  I slam the hook and find the surf rod doing a huger bendo than greenlings generally give you!  Then he takes me for a nice little run, burning drag.  After a bit more fighting this nice ling breaks the surface thrashing around.  Couldn't believe it; we never saw anything bigger than a few pounds here.  My buddy had his hands full landing it with his LMB net!  I was hoping it was a huge cabbie but there you go, I caught my best-ever shore ling and it's one month early.  After the photo session, and reviving him in the shallow water carefully for several minutes, he swam away.  I felt grateful to have had a chance to battle him, and I almost appreciated our F&G for requiring me to let this warrior go (until April!). 

That had me buzzing all day.  My buddy caught a keeper greenling (typical 15 incher) and we fished for another couple of hours without a fish.  That's fishing.   But what a blast, on the first toss.  And yes, he did hit that postage-stamp-sized piece of squid!  No sign of hitchhiking.

Probably a 8-10 lb fish?  Would have been tasty.  I literally had visions of stacks of tacos swimming away.  That is my favorite size ling, with chunky fillets but not so big that it gets wormy.  I know where I am going with my speargun April 1... 
 

Yeah!!  WTG, peteb!  Catching lingcod from the rocks isn't easy.  Thanks for sharing, and nice pics!   

Yeah that is a nice lingzilla good gooing !

Ha, that's cool! Great little report! 

Very nice ling there peteb. Too bad it was not the season for it. Congrats on the
personal best on shore anyhow.

Jedmo

Damn that's a nice ling Pete! Go back to that same spot in 30 days!

Sweet Ling!  Yeah, they're all in shallow spawning right now.  Perhaps when the season opens up, a few will stick around.  Can't wait to hit up the HMB spots, heck, even casting swimbaits off the HMB jetties has gotten me a few nice lings. 

 Very nice!  The pictures look great, that ling had some nice colors.  Matt

Great catch.

Peteb, that is a beautiful fish. You say you are going there for ab opener? Or the first weekend. I would like to join you if the waether cooperates. Were you above the town of Mendocino? The water looks real flat there so you must have been in a protected bay. What a big surprise that must have been!

Surf Fisher, that HMB jetty has been very good to me.   There are a ton of fish there, and you can get there without 1) hiking under a sketchy crumbling 300' cliff or 2) climbing out on some wash rock that gets nasty sleeper waves.  (both of which we did yesterday).  It is accessible and there are plenty of rockies there.

Never poke poled there but they are in there.  In fact, it would probably be a great place for a poke pole tournament simply because it is all good structure.  

Never poke poled there but they are in there.  In fact, it would probably be a great place for a poke pole tournament simply because it is all good structure.  

That's a great idea!

Nice work pete! That's beaut of a ling.

Z

Nice fish, I bet you were thinking that is one huge Greenling till it broke the surface.  BTW what is a pole poke?

Poke poling is a method of catching rock dwelling intertidal species such as monkey face eels, greenling, cabezon, rockfish, perch, and lingcod.  You have a long pole/rod (I use bamboo) with a stiff wire extending from the end.  Then you use short (3") leaders and poke around rocky holes & structures with bait.  When you get a hit, you rip back, set the hook, and horse the fish in.  It's very productive.