Top 3 Catches of 2015

Been a fantastic year of fun fishing, hard to pick my top three catches.
Number One: Halibut from Berkeley flats, new species for the kayak as well as a first time fishing the bay.
Number Two: Eagle Lake Strain Rainbow from Butt Reservoir this fall. Thanks Chris and Josh for letting me join you during an AOTY mission.
Number Three: a series of Brown trout from Almanor each a new PB. Two Winter browns from a trip this December, one from this June during the hex hatch

Winter Brown #2 and June Brown

#1 my first and only halibut
#2 my personal best lingcod
#3 would have to be the Butt Lake Brown I caught with Clayman. 

no record fish  for me ,but ,had a great year ,as others have said
had many days with varied stringers and for me this was the year of the 'Vermilion'

I also added a start picture of the best catch of my Life-Married my best Friend this year!!

Good year except for the 0 for 5 on my sturgeon trips, #1 on my list of fish to catch in 2016
#1 Richmond halibut from my buddy's boat
#2 One and only salmon of the year at Dux after 3 skunks
#3 Cabbie that put me in 4th at the T2B tourney

Monster day to start the season

My PB cabby at 16lbs (crappy photo)

Monster day to end the season with a 21" Verm

I love seeing everyone's best/favorite/top 3 catches!

My number one would have to be my halibut I caught in April on an Annie-customized A-rig. It was 37inches and 23 pounds. I was just about to give up halibut fishing because it's hard and I wasn't getting any, but this fish showed me that if I work hard enough I can do anything! 

My second favorite/PB was my 36 inch lingcod weighing in at 18.65 lbs (milk it for what it's worth right?)! Not only did I catch the fish I was after all season, but it was by far my most memorable day of fishing! It was my first time out with the SCSS and I was just smiling and laughing the whole time! Catching the fish was an experience in itself and I can't help but laugh every time I think of it!! Best day ever! 

My third favorite was tough to choose, but I picked my last abalone of the season. I think my biggest accomplishment this year is how far I've come with freediving in a short amount of time. This dive was the first time going out since taking the FII freediving class.   I was able to comfortably dive 30 feet and my dives were averaging at 50 seconds with my longest dive of the day being 1 min 13 seconds with no contractions! I was super proud of myself! 

wow, ya'll caught some really nice fish this year. congrats to all!

I had a lot of memorable trips, but did not make it to my goal of 30 fishing days. I came close with 27 days kayak fishing.

top 3 moments:
1. seeing a lit up GWS as it swam beneath me in 30ft vis. fish looked like it was wrapped in foil.
2. catching a 40ft humpback whale off of Big Sur, in the middle of a fish-a-drop bite
3. pulling in my PB 25# kayak caught halibut.

My addition to the NorCal fish porn wer'nt outstanding but a couple PB's
A PB 21" capazone
A PB 19.5 " Olive caught on light tackle
And a 33" ling
All were Fort Ross fish
The most  memorable was the Olive on light tackle!
 Scotty

Here's the ling and cab

I've had an interesting 2nd year kayak fishing with a few new species caught including Cali Halibut, both male and female kelp greenling and thresher shark.

I was fortunate to limit on halibut once and limited twice on thresher shark (once in a PB, and the next weekend on the AI).

1. PB ling
2. Halibut - thanks Capt. Sloppywood for the intel.
3. A pair of thresher sharks - thanks Lost Anchovie for the pointers.

Well, since I've been on a boat more often than a kayak the last several years...

I was dropper loop fishing for bruiser yellowtail, grouper, white sea bass, black sea bass but never expected to get a 40 pound halibut.

nice Howard, you da man!