WFO on lings Abkings ling almost beaten "pictures added"

Freddie and I headed to the salt point area before dawn on Thankgiving morning, and headed to his "secret spot". The launch was perfect and the water flat. Headed out for a quick limit on Average Abs, and headed out to fish. We tried deeper water for nothing, and headed to a kelp bed in 60' of water. we fished just outside of it, and the carnage started. We started catching lings like crazy. My first big one came unbuttoned fairly quickly, but I followed it up with a 12lber or so. Freddied hooked up with a couple keepers (released). I caught a legal sized black and yelled to freddie if he thought it was to big to send back down, he said to give it a try. I sent it back down without even adjusting it on the iron I had caught him on. He barely got to the bottom and bendo, I had on a monster. My med. action rod was at its limit and the line sailed for a short period of time. When I looked into the water when he was coming up, the black was engulfed and he was hooked on the iron that was in the blacks mouth. I yelled to fred, its freaking huge, I got it up to the yak and it was thrashing as I tried to get "most" of it in the net, Freddie yelled at me, quit F'ing with that thing and get it in the net. We agreed it was close to the pool fish, but kept fishing. It wasn't 10 minutes later, freddie's rod went serious bendo, and he had a heavy action rod, another lingzilla, he fought it for a while and it made a run for the kelp, he could feel his spectra cutting into the kelp, then snap, it was over. We figured it could of gone over 30 lbs with the amount of bend and fight on his heavy action rod. The action was constant with many lings, reds and an assortment of RF. We went into land around 1:45 to unlandable conditions at our launch. We chose to make a crash landing into the rocks just south of our landing. That was just the begining of our troubles, We ended up having to go back to the truck for rope, and pull our kayaks and gear up the cliff, with the help from a couple of kayaking spear fisherman we managed to get them to the top of the cliff. After 3 hours of gathering gear and humping it to the truck we headed home excited, but very tired. This was a trip straight from the books of "Freddie the Savage". BTW the ling I landed, we weighed with 3 different scales 1) 22lbs. 2) 21bs 3) 23.5lbs. .  we conceeded with a 22lb weight. The luck is with you ABking.
 

Joe,

Yesterday I bummed that you and Fred, "left without me"!  I was seriously depressed, ask my wife.  I kept moping around the house, wondering how good it was going to be at the "secret spot".  About 5:30 pm, after my turkey dinner, the phone finally rings and its you guys calling me from Petaluma.  WTF, did you guys forget your watch??  What happened to being home early for dinner???

I was sooo, bummed, UNTIL I heard about the 3 hr hump out!!  Must have made Elk look like a walk in the park.  Seriously, using 200ft of rope to pull your yaks up a cliff is completely nuts.  Facing the wrath of your wife, after missing the Thanksgiving dinner, even more insane.

Good to hear you both made it out alive.  Next time, I'll be there to join in the carnage.

BTW, you left out some fish count details, like 14 legal lings landed by Joe and 6 or 7 legals landed by the Savage.  UNBELEIVABLE counts.  Of course I missed out on the nutty action.

till next year,
Stuart

Stuart

What a gobble day, guys.............
Sorry to read about the rough ending but good that you had the savage power.........
Pat

The best ending was \"there was no wrath\". I went because she wanted more fish in the freezer, and we were out of ab\'s. She was almost as excited as Freddie and I. We didn\'thave any family in town, and really didn\'t plan a dinner. Made for a great day to go fishing. I am blessed to have a wife that loves fish and ab\'s as much as I love to go after them. 

P.S. The following was typed under durress, for the sole purpose of earning more WAF

Wow...what an epic Thanksgiving adventure!
I sure missed out on some good excitement. 

Joe.. Freddie

Awesome report although the haul out sounds pretty sketchy.  I know from fishing Linda Mar, when you come in and the waves are big,  Its that O .... Feeling in your stomach.  Glad you guys made it out safe!

Let's go get um soon.

JDyak

Joe, Freddie... you SAVAGES!!!
I just looked at the photos added.  That's a monsterous ling!

Well guys, I hope that you like to read...

What can I say... this was a Thanksgiving for the books. It sure beat the last Thanksgiving I went out on. Let's just say, the best part of that day started with a couple of divers offering me a shot of Wild Turkey to ease my pain. OUCH!!! This one was way awesome. I could hardly wait while we were driving up 1 to get to our spot. The ocean for flat, the winds were calm... this was our day. The viz was good. A little cloudy but you could still see good about 10-12 ft in all directions. Abs littered the rocks. No problems. Joe jumped in and before I could get my mask on... he popped one. As I jumped in... he came up with another one. We wasted little effort to get our limits of abs. All of them were pretty average though. My main goal was to make a last run at a Jackpot fish. So, we headed out...

We went out deep... nothing. We dinked around in the shallower areas... nothing. We paddled around from one area to another looking for some structure. We split up for a short while. I hooked up a legal ling and yelled for Joe to come on over. I let this one go to grow for the next go around. Shortly after that, Joe hooks up. It puts up a good fight too. After fighting it for a bit, Joe lands it. It's a nice ling. Joe starts to go off. His "fish jig" was the ticket. He proceeds to hook ling after ling. After about landing 8 or 10 of them... he starts wishing that every hook up was a big red or a cabby... anything other than a ling. With arms pumped and hands cut up... the mighty Skyboy tires. But he fishs on... and on and on. He catches a black and asks if it's too big to send down. I could tell that he was tiring and just wanted to sit and rest for a while. Little did we know that his rest would be short... real short. I swear, as soon as he sent that black down... WAMMO!... Joe hooks up and the fight is on. Joe's rod is bent in half. He's not gaining on the beast. The ling in stripping line off his reel like a warm knife through butter. Joe gains on the fish and he screams out.... "It's HUGE!!!" I look over and his eyes are bugging out of his head and he's grinning from ear to ear. It's not until I get a look at the girth of that thing that I start to get excited... real excited. Joe's messing around with the net and trying to scoop the fish in... I start to panic because what I was seeing... was potential bad things happening. Half of the fish in... half out... Joe reaching... it could've gone ugly. I yelled at Joe to stop messing around and get that thing in. The fish cooperates finally. Joe's pretty happy and I'm excited. Joe's guessing on the weight. All I could say is that it's going to be close... real close. We proceed to catch fish... Some reds, some cabbies and other assorted rockies... and of course, more lings. I should've kept some of the ones I let go but, like I said before... it was my last chance at a jackpot catch. I knew that there were some bigs out there to be had. With conditions being the way they were... we had lots of time to fish. Then, BAM!!!... my rod folds over. I start fighting a BEAST. I gain, I lose... this fish was big. My rod stays bent over the whole time... finally, it takes me for a ride... straight for the reef and kelp beds... yikes... I do my best to pull this thing out but, it's no use. It's swimming for home and line is screaming off of my reel. Once I hit the kelp, I do what I could to save it... I start to feel the line cutting into the kelp, reef everything... finally, nothing... My heart sinks into the abyss and leaves me to ponder... That was the jackpot fish... I'm pretty upset at this point but, there's still more fishing to be done. After about 2 1/2 hours of WFO fishing... it starts to slow down. Between Joe and I, I think that we caught everything on the reef. It was truely insane. So, we paddle around, searching for more fish... We still managed to catch some here and there but, the bite didn't turn back on for us. So, we decided to head in.

As we get to our launch area... we start to s**t. The seas picked up a lot. We decide to put all valuables below deck. The north was pounding, so was the south... We finally see a lull in the surf and head for shore... or should I say... rocks. We commits ourselves and head for it. Just in time... As we crashed up on the rocks and mussel beds and big set comes in. We scurring up the rocks and do our best to pull our yaks up with us... but, we were loaded... We land as safely as we could and begin to figure out the hell we were going to get out. Then, thanks to Stu for wanting to clean out his garage, he threw some crab floats and rope in my truck the night before. We pack what we  could carry and head for the truck. We climb up this cliff and another adventure begins. Long story short...   we slowly get our stuff to the base of the cliff. With the help of a couple other spear fishermen... we all pull our yaks up the cliff. Our yaks look like they've been through a war with the battle scars we put on them yesterday. The hump out basically sucked... especially since we had to do it like 3 times. With a hike out like that... only the strong and stubborn could get out there. But, it was still fun in a sick sort of way. We fished, we braved the dangers and now, we have a crazy story to tell you all. And like true insane people, Joe and I forgot to bring out any water or food with us... We hit the water just before 8AM and crash landed at about 1PM. By the time we got everything packed, it was 4PM. Luckily a gas station was open in Jenner... we got some ice, drinks and cheese and crackers... That was at about 5PM. Yikes... it's a good thing that I have some body fat to spare. I was done and so was Joe...

It was a great day on the water and off the water. I think that this day wouldn't have been so epic if it weren't for the hardships. I wouldn't want every outing to be like this but, I'll take it any way I can get it. Thanks Joe for being able to get out with me... otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to share the blood, sweat and tears with...

Good job to you Jackpot winners. I can't wait to do it again next year,

Freddie

  

You guys are nuts!  Awesome stringers.

Wow guys great work! Pretty amazing story. Sorry you came up a little short. Next year is going to be even more fun I think. I have a feeling we are going to get a lot more entries.

I have yet to make it up to the north coast besides Elk. I hope I can do it more next year.

  Way to go boyz!  Epic fish and I nice survival story...NICE!

way to go fellas! Nothing better than catching big fish in big conditions - and living to tell about it. Congrats!

I forgot ot mention, the ling was 42 1/2"  long. 

great report and pics!

My idea on emergency landing in big surf
(nor cal surf, not that so cal "big" (ha) surf that sammons
teaches people to handle  ) is to get off the boat, turn the boat so
the bow points to sea, take ahold of the handle at the bow, then let the
waves drag you right to shore, timing when you get washed on shore,
then pull that baby out and up the beach.

your own body will act as a sea anchor as you head in,
keeping it straight as well as stopping it from cartwheeling
and the boat between you and shore. You need to take
some care to not put your face too close to the bow. the tricky
part would be turning the boat 180 degrees once it hits sand and pulling it
out without capsizing. I have done some emergency landing testing in lighter seas, seems to work.
obviously all gear would have to be stowed. If you let go, say good bye to fish
finders and other stuff mounted on the deck.

obviously this is for swimming capable guys, but you guys don't look like
wall flower type of guys.

The inspiration for this is the trick of holding onto the "railsaver" portion of
the surf leash, the wide webbed part right where it attaches to the board,
pointing the nose of the board to shore, and taking the big whitewater
that way. only required if you have a longboard in rougher water than
one might typically surf a longboard. which does happen on occasion.

p.s. skyboy, you might be taking rookie of the year, but my halibut was
35 inches and a 34 inch halibut is listed as being 23lbs, 10oz, and a 37
inch halibut at 31lbs, putting my fish well clear of your fish,
so maybe you don't win after all?  . congrats again on your ling
and on your day in general.

-j

Excellent reporting, guys!  

42.5"!!!!  I'm glad we're not going to length until next year~

Can't wait for next year.  I'm getting geared-up to be able to weigh, measure, photo and release whenever possible, but it'll be a learning experience...  

Sounds like Salt Pt. area and other Central Coast spots are likely as hot as Humboldt...