rogerdodger
pedaled out of Sunset Bay during a narrow window Friday morning to get in my first rock/ling fishing trip.
Let's face it, these fish can be stupid easy to catch but getting out and doing it can be a real blast.
fairly smooth going out, 3' swells from the south, got to fishing near Baltimore Rock, an hour in I hooked a fish and just as I started reeling it up, it suddenly got much bigger and took out line like a big coho would, so I'm thinking a big ling that is hitch-hiking on the rock fish, made two nice runs but after another minute or 2, it was gone...so the hook must have pulled out of the rockfish and the ling just carried on eating it...I put a black rock in the boat soon after and then the wind came up out of the south, adding wind waves on top of the swell...
quickly got too rough for me to effectively fish so I started heading back to fish closer to shore but I remembered hearing you can sometimes pick-up 'top water blacks', so I left my line out about 50' behind while I was totally focused on making progress into the swells/wind...and sure enough, about half-way in I see the rod bouncing in the holder. Steering, reeling, pedaling, and holding on, so by the time I get the fish along side, I am in the trough and and taking the swells broadside. No worries, grabbed my 'one-handed' net and put both nice blacks in it first try (yep, it was a double), laid the net in the front (fish still in it) and shoved the rod back in the holder and got back to priority one- not going swimming....I'll get my first big ling next time!
here is a 2 minute summary of my trip, near the middle, where I am fishing and you can see me pass over a big rock on the sonar, it wasn't too bad but no fun soon after that...cheers, roger
621080[/ATTACH]"]
Let's face it, these fish can be stupid easy to catch but getting out and doing it can be a real blast.
fairly smooth going out, 3' swells from the south, got to fishing near Baltimore Rock, an hour in I hooked a fish and just as I started reeling it up, it suddenly got much bigger and took out line like a big coho would, so I'm thinking a big ling that is hitch-hiking on the rock fish, made two nice runs but after another minute or 2, it was gone...so the hook must have pulled out of the rockfish and the ling just carried on eating it...I put a black rock in the boat soon after and then the wind came up out of the south, adding wind waves on top of the swell...
quickly got too rough for me to effectively fish so I started heading back to fish closer to shore but I remembered hearing you can sometimes pick-up 'top water blacks', so I left my line out about 50' behind while I was totally focused on making progress into the swells/wind...and sure enough, about half-way in I see the rod bouncing in the holder. Steering, reeling, pedaling, and holding on, so by the time I get the fish along side, I am in the trough and and taking the swells broadside. No worries, grabbed my 'one-handed' net and put both nice blacks in it first try (yep, it was a double), laid the net in the front (fish still in it) and shoved the rod back in the holder and got back to priority one- not going swimming....I'll get my first big ling next time!
here is a 2 minute summary of my trip, near the middle, where I am fishing and you can see me pass over a big rock on the sonar, it wasn't too bad but no fun soon after that...cheers, roger
621080[/ATTACH]"]
