Went out for a boat ride this morning with the girlfriend and brought the old trusty Sage 9wt along just incase we ran across some fishy looking water on our outing. And wouldn't you know it I found a couple new places to make a cast or two. Ended up with one ling around five or six pounds and five rock fish between 1 and 3 pounds. All in all it was a great day on Puget Sound with the girlfriend. The weather was amazing and we even caught a few fish. Sorry for the quality of a few of the ling pictures.
Sounds like a great day. Much better than the 12 hours I spent at the yard. This ling cod business looks like an awful good time.
Very good, but I don't seen any #$%^&*@# wind in those photos. Where's the wind? I'll have to get up earlier to find conditions like that! Looks like fun. I've been out here on the coast huckin' 1.5 oz jigheads into some nasty gusts. Good news is that the Lings are in shallow enough right now to go for 'em with flies. Bad news is that a couple of the ones I hooked would have just laughed at my measly 8 wt. . Got 'em part way up, and back down they'd go, with authority! One just decided to let go, and the other holed up and broke me off. Did land and keep a frisky 22.5" and a 24.75" with my spinning rod and 12# test. One had several 2" juvenile surf perch in its gullet. Looking for a light wind day and a low tide change. Maybe later this week.
Yeah ling cod do love perch. 12# test is some pretty light line for lings, you definitely need to use some heavy gear to land the big lings in my experience. Hope you get some days with light wind soon so you can get out there and put it to them.
Broke out a fly an old friend from the harbor tied, Gary's Lingceiver, and some friends and I picked up several in the southerly part area 13 on the low Saturday. A great start to the long weekend was had by all, except some guy fishing from a kayak whose kayak got rolled by a wake while he was messing with his line. He had a pfd and didn't lose his rod, but if you're going to fish out of those things remember to zip your gear bags, leash your paddle and learn how to get back in after rolling. What a cluster.
Nice I have yet to explore Area 13 for lings. The state started a hatchery lingcod program a few years ago and they do all there releases down there in area 13 so that should help the fishing. Glad you got into some fish. As for the kayaks out there. You wont find me in one in open water or on the weekends especially a holiday weekend when the yacht traffic is heavy.
Ahh, I wasn't aware of that program. Interesting to hear about that. I had just assumed that the slot-limit was working to bring back the Ling population in the Sound. It sounds to me like there's some decent Ling Cod fishing to be had in the S Sound, if you know where to go find 'em. Better than I'd thought. The action also has been great out here on the coast, ever since the season opened. I avoided the small cluster of power boats out along the outer end of the jetty on Sunday, and chose to fish in closer, where I could fish alone. I found a spot where there were no anglers fishing from the rocks a hundred yards to either side of me, and worked that thoroughly, resulting in 5 Ling hookups, 3 landed, and several missed strikes in less than 2 hours. That was in only 15 to 20 feet depths. Funny thing was that I didn't connect with any black rockfish. Perhaps my jigs were too large, since I was targeting Lings. I spoke to other anglers who also had good luck, and another yak angler was coming in with two keepers when I launched, one over 36" (no slot limit here on the coast). He said he mooched that one with a herring, out deeper. Lots of newbies in the yak angling crowd, and some just aren't yet aware of how much vigilance you have to keep when you're out there. One of my rules is to always check to see that my drain plug is screwed in tight before I launch. Also, I never leave dry bags, containers, pockets, or hatches open after I've dug out what I wanted, and to try to keep my gear to the minimum. Sketchy situations arise when you least expect 'em. Most of my stuff is leashed, except I unleash a spinning or fly rod when I'm using it, so the leash doesn't restrict or whip me. I've been keeping my level wind leashed when jigging vertically. In yak angling, its good to be a minimalist. After each trip, I look at stuff I didn't use and ask myself if I really needed to take that along. CG required safety gear is a must. I still need to get a day-glo safety flag
The slot limit is working unfortunately this year they got rid of the minimum size for spear fisherman so now they can harvest any ling up to 36". Still not sure how you measure a lingcod underwater before you shoot it but im sure the state has it figured out and it must not be a problem. As for the ling hatchery program I dont think it should be a priority here in the south sound, there are far bigger issues that need to be addressed, whether that was extra federal or state funding im not sure but it could be better utilized in my opinion.
