Depoe 7/6/2020 report

Quick report from yesterday. Got out about 6:30 from Depoe. The water was beautiful! Nicest weather day I've had yet. I started trolling for salmon but I haven't figured out the downrigger yet so it was a constant hassel. After I hooked my only Brad's cut plug on the back of the boat I gave up (not before cursing a bunch and struggling to grab the thing). I said screw it and headed out to deeper water off the government point reef to try and catch some new species of rockfish. I'm on a bit of a PNW fish quest, trying to catch all the gamefish species. Fishing was slow in deeper water (80-130ft). I did manage to catch a yellowtail rockfish which was a new species checked off the list, but it was tiny. The water was dirty, and looked red in places (red tide?). I caught a few rockfish and smaller cabezon then started to work my way back. On the way back I stopped to fish a nice looking rock and had a whale come up close to me. A whale boat was nearby and I could hear the guy giving his spiel, when I hooked a small fish. As I was reeling it up maybe 10ft from the boat it just stopped like I'd hooked the bottom... I figured maybe I hooked some kelp and kept cranking it in, when it got up it was about a 16" lingcod with a huge damn lingcod hitchhiker. I gave a little slack and fumbled around trying to put together my telescoping net, sure the thing was going to let go.. but it didn't! I netted the thing and it exploded! Like a damn wave crashing on my boat. I was screaming curse words and laughing, when it finally got tired I clubbed it like a maniac, tossing my litte billy club off into the water in the process. After leaning back and letting fly a few celebratory f yes!!-es I looked over to see the whale boat folks looking at me.... Anyway, it was a nice ending to a lovely day. 36" inch PB ling.

I saw a few others out there. Anyone do any good on salmon? The ODFW fish person said she had seen a bunch.

I also went today but was only out for about 30 mins before the girlfriend got sick. We didn't even get on the water until about 12 and it was pretty choppy.

Awesome fish and great story!

what a beast!  way to go.

Awesome fish and great story!

what a beast!  way to go.

Thanks! It was a fun day.

Anyone know if I can I enter this fish in AOTY? I never technically hooked it, it was just hanging on to the smaller ling. I know the regs say hook and line only. The line part was there, just no hook.

Anyone know if I can I enter this fish in AOTY?

Enter it and find out. 

Wow, nice ling! I tried it on Tuesday, but it was fairly rough. Got nothing but a couple undersized lings. Did better the next day, but no lingzilla.