6/17 PC Report

Another great day out of Pacific City.  Launched a little before six.  Met another yak fisherman, on the beach, he's visited NWKA but not sure if he's a member (I'm not overly chatty early in the morning ), if not please join and say hi.  The rock fish were on fire again and using a double shrimp fly with a jig on the bottom I had several doubles and a triple (a first in a long time).  Once I had my 6 blacks ( I always save room for a big cab etc)  I went prospecting for lings.  My new personal limit is 27" and I cycled though quite a few fish to take two nice ones home (one was a blue ling).  Tons of 22-24 inchers to be had.  Released several cabs,  even though they are tasty, I only plan on taking a really nice one home from now on.  Picked up a bonus Quillback? rock fish and called it a day.  Think I will give Oceanside a shot tomorrow.

Nice catch...looks like good eating...you guys sure do have some funny lookin ling down there

Nice haul!
I love that place!

Nice pic of the rock by the way! Looks like the conditions were great.

That place is putting out some nice fish.  I almost has a cult status feeling to it ... that and Sunset.  Nice job as always PP.

-Allen

Nice Catch!!

Once I had my 6 blacks ( I always save room for a big cab etc)  I went prospecting for lings.  

Were you using larger bait for Lings, or are the lings further out?

Nice job as usual P.P.!  Gotta love that oily glass!

Were you using larger bait for Lings, or are the lings further out?

Yes..   Lings like two basic things..  Structure and big baits.  Look for pinnacles, drop offs, erratic bottom features and then fish big jigs tight to that structure.  Most of the lings I get are in the neighborhood of 90-100 feet

I make  jigs I call "ling bombs"  When I get back into town I will post how I put them together.

Nice work pelagic! 

My new personal limit is 27"

Kudos for you on this.  I'll do something similar ... but let's make it a bit more challenging, shall we?

From wikipedia:

Females and males mature at age 3-5 years (61-75 cm) and age 2 years (45 cm), respectively.

This translates to ~24-29.5 inches for a female and ~18 inches for a male.  So by the time it gets to be keeper size, a  male lingcod has already had the opportunity to spawn.  Not necessarily true for female.  So let's up the minimum to 30 inches for females.  

How do you tell the difference between male and female?  Again, from  wikipedia:

Adult males can be distinguished externally from females by the presence of a small, conical papilla behind the anal vent.

And what are your thoughts on blacks?  Seem like there have been a lot of blacks pulled out of here recently.  Conservation measures???

-Allen

Your great day fishing was way better than my bad day at work.  Nicely done.

My new personal limit is 27"

Kudos for you on this.  I'll do something similar ... but let's make it a bit more challenging, shall we?

From wikipedia:

Females and males mature at age 3-5 years (61-75 cm) and age 2 years (45 cm), respectively.

This translates to ~24-29.5 inches for a female and ~18 inches for a male.  So by the time it gets to be keeper size, a  male lingcod has already had the opportunity to spawn.  Not necessarily true for female.  So let's up the minimum to 30 inches for females.  

How do you tell the difference between male and female?  Again, from  wikipedia:

Adult males can be distinguished externally from females by the presence of a small, conical papilla behind the anal vent.

And what are your thoughts on blacks?  Seem like there have been a lot of blacks pulled out of here recently.  Conservation measures???

-Allen

I don't think we've been having much of a measurable impact on the black population. As I've talked to dory captains, they've all said that they've been limiting the boat every trip. They are out there daily, if not multiple trips each day, bringing in lots of fish.

Jay

Its a bumper year for blacks, best I've seen in a few years.  They are the reason the limit is bumped up to 7 as opposed to 5 from a few years ago. In a way that might be good, people quickly and easily fill their limit on blacks and the other rock fish get a break.  Every dory out is most likely limiting on blacks. Honestly it would be hard not to.. They were so thick early this morning on the surface, large areas looked like feeding time at the trout farm.  Also heard chatter on the VHF of some big lings 15 and 25 lber's being picked up farther offshore.  Cabs seem to be doing well too, I released 5 today biggest about 20 inches, they eat great, but the meat to size of fish ratio is fairly low (ever look at a cab after you fillet it? there's a lot of  "fish" left, and I think they are kind of cute in a ugly way (wife and I have 2 pugs so that's probably where that comes from )

Pole I like your idea, it would be nice to give them a chance to spawn, even just once.  I would think it would really help the pops.  I also don't want people to feel guilty about whacking that 22incher and taking it home to eat.  Nothing wrong with that. No big brother fish morality police from me.. Everyone needs to make choices based on what they feel is right.. I just chose to up my minimum because I fish a lot and if I am going to harvest a fish I want there to be enough size to it (decent sized fillets for eating ) to justify killing it.  

As I've begun to fish the salt more this year, I have fish in the freezer! This is a new experience for me. When I was out this weekend, I got tired of casting to and catching blacks on every cast while they were feeding on the surface. I actually threw back 3 or 4 limits since I was really out there looking for lingzilla.

The other thing I've been learning while cleaning these fish is that, for me, the size of the filets is correlated to how many fish I've cleaned that day. This first ones aren't cleaned all that well and by the time I've done 2 or 3, I'm getting much better. Again, practice makes perfect. Cleaning a salmon or steelhead seems much easier to me than these salty fish, but I'm improving every trip.

Jay

Planning on hitting PC soon for some bottomfishing. I've surfed there countless times but have never noticed a cleaning station.  Are you guys just trucking your fish home and taking care of them there or what are you doing with them?  There is nothing I hate more than disposing of fish carcasses at home -_-.

Planning on hitting PC soon for some bottomfishing. I've surfed there countless times but have never noticed a cleaning station.  Are you guys just trucking your fish home and taking care of them there or what are you doing with them?  There is nothing I hate more than disposing of fish carcasses at home -_-.

Across the street at the county park (Webb?).

-Allen