Grumpy Sea Lions and Ling-Zilla

July 5th, I had been trolling for salmon for over an hour when fog rolled over me, swapped GoPro for white light, brought up charting and confirmed I was about 3/4 mile from Simpson Reef, turned to troll that way and after the first powerboat passed by at speed, I pulled up the herring and beat feet for the safety of the reef...

The north side of the reef, about halfway between shore and the west end, there is a nice 'bay' that I have pulled keeper lings out of, depth only about 20' and stable, sometimes there are young sea lions playing nearby and I always give them space (especially when larger sea lions make it clear they are uncomfortable, Simpson reef is their home and I try to be a polite visitor, these are not the sea lions hanging at a fish ladder or stealing nooks from peoples lines.  These sea lions are usually chill, pop up near me now and then, never tried to steal a fish, until this day).  So I'm drifting my squid at the bottom when a pair of them pop up rather close (20 or 30 feet) and they give me the stink eye, I ask how their fishing is going and quickly decide to turn and give them space. 

You guessed it, 20' of water, a pair of grumpy adult sea lions about the same distance away, rod is in the holder and bends down, grab it and pull up, not a rockfish, both sea lions dive and things happen real fast because I can land this fish!  Shimano lever drag reel really helps, in one motion I slam the drag to full and reel the lingcod in as fast as I can, seconds later it is coming along side and with about 5' of visibility, the first sea lion comes into view chasing it, the lings gill plates are flared out, so I just reach down with my left hand, slide my fingers into the gills and lift the lingcod out of the water in one quick motion, sea lion turns hard maybe 2' away and just misses the rear of the boat.  Second sea lions passes under the boat fast and I am sitting there holding a 25" 5 pound ling. 

On the stringer, clip the gills, toss it up front, sit down and that is when I see the first sea lion coming at me from the rear quarter at speed, he rolls and turns away maybe 3' from the side of the kayak, showing me his lighter colored belly.  By now I am taunting them like crazy, while also leaving the area.  They are continuing to charge me, I did not get any of that on video but I did get some of my reaction to not losing that fish to them.



Then I spotted a gray whale closer to shore and decided to just go over hand hang out with that dude for a while.  Good company but not real chatty, he had sea lions harassing him also, perhaps because grays churn up the bottom when they feed.  Half an hour of relaxing and I decide it's time to get my second ling, so I head all the way out to the west end of the reef, and meet another gray whale out there, also with a couple sea lions bugging him.  I find my spot, 40' of water, drifting a squid again, I could tell it was a big fish and got the GoPro going fast, best part is when I put this monster in the net, happy about that he was not.



and that's about it, rather fun day out on calm ocean, my largest ling to date had been about a 10 pounder, so this blows that away.

good read/ good video, great job pissing off the sea lions. lol!! nice feesh!

Excellent tale, Mr. Dodger and Wow! what a great fish!

I knew I should have arrived earlier and followed you around!  Not.  I'd never be able to keep up with you.

Really great story.  Thanks!

Why did you transition to your knees?  Never seen anyone do this from a yak.

Nice video & fish!

Dave

great question.  in early 2016, I started running my Oasis solo and was also figuring out how to fish from my new i11s.  As it had been on the PA12, I had found that pulling up crab pots on the Oasis is something you do from a kneeling position. My thighs are right against the drive pedals (I run my drive on setting 6) and I am basically dead center in the kayak, good balance and very stable.  About the same time, I was figuring out the i11s, standing, sitting on the edge, and quickly decided that fighting/landing fish from a kneeling position was great, it felt better than sitting in the Vantage seat which limits you to just upper body movements.  Kneeling, I can twist and turn, easy to keep an eye on everything all around me and if needed, move the fight from one side to the other by swinging the line around the front of the boat.  So when I am in a location where I am not going to need to use the drive to maneuver, I pretty much always go to the kneeling position for big fish.  cheers, roger   

I was back out at Simpson Reef on July 9, another smooth calm day, and the whales were gone, the sea lions were friendly again, lots of family groups out with several small ones and their parents splashing around.

several pairs of black porpoises were out and about, I was around them off and on all over the area:



fishing was slower than last week, lots of fishing pressure over the weekend.  The schools of rockfish were back to their expected locations but only interested in bait, took home a pair of deuces and a 3# kicker.  released 2 undersized lings and pulled up 6 good sized pre-molt crabs, would have had 7 but this happened:

Another good-looking day.  Fishing has been hit-or-miss for a few weeks, but you did nicely again.  And black porpoises, too!  I've been cornered inside a pod of whales, but I've yet to see a porpoise of any sort.  Neat!

That was the oddest wave "Bye-bye" to the jailbreak crab that I've seen in quite a while.